2021 Cobb Vineyards Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Anderson Valley 750 ml

Ross Cobb’s 2021 Wendling Vineyard Pinot Noir is one of the best California Pinot Noirs we’ve had—and based on their 97-point reviews, both Vinous and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate are similarly enamored. The bottle topped both publications’ Anderson Valley charts for the standout vintage, with Vinous’s Antonio Galloni declaring it “Phenomenal… What a wine.”

To get a sense of Ross Cobb’s status on the Sonoma Coast, just look at the wineries that have recruited him: Burt Williams and Bob Cabral of Williams-Selyem nabbed him in 1998. Flowers hired him away in 2000. Then David Hirsch called, asking to do the same, in 2009. 

Ross launched Cobb Wines in 2001, and part of his business plan—like luminaries Littorai and Peay—was to focus primarily on restaurants. It’s paid off. Cobb wines are in the greatest restaurants in Northern California. Case in point: His wines currently have SIX slots on the list at the MICHELIN three-star SingleThread. But finding them at retail is rare.

Wendling debuted in the Cobb lineup in 2017 and quickly became one of the winery’s signature bottlings. Located at the northwesternmost tip of Anderson Valley in what’s known as the “deep end,” Wendling Vineyard is just a few miles from the Pacific, and the brilliance of the site has attracted the attention of some of the heaviest hitters in the Pinot Noir world.

In the 2021 vintage—one of the greatest Pinot years Northern California has ever seen—the result is pure magic. Ross used about half whole-clusters in the fermentation, adding a black-tea savoriness to the mesmeric mélange of red fruit, spice, and minerality. There’s not very much to go around, so enjoy this one!