Loring Wine 2020 Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills

The Loring Wine 2020 Pinot Noir from Sta. Rita Hills draws you in with aromatic clarity. Baked raspberry and tart pomegranate peel rise first, followed by sagebrush underbrush and the gentle heat of mace and cinnamon. It feels alive—not lush, but confident in its direction.

On the palate, it sharpens and deepens. Bright acidity strikes first, carrying cherry essence into a backbone of focused tannins. Nutmeg dusts the close with warmth, while citrus peel zest flickers like a last breath. The wine is layered but never overfed—lean where it matters.

The wine’s form is grounded in place. Sta. Rita Hills is a corridor for coastal influence, cut east–west so Pacific fog and wind push inland over rocky, calcium-rich soils. That clarity of site—cold nights, sandy loam, and a silent direction—shows in the wine’s shape: purposeful, salty, and bright.

Brian Loring’s intention remains clear: fruit-first, site-focused Pinot with expression over extraction. He’s been in Sta. Rita since the early 2000s, collaborating with growers, sorting early in the field, and letting native ferments and subtle oak speak to vineyard, not winemaker ego.

This 2020 feels composed more than it announces itself. It’s Pinot with a note of tension—bright enough to sip solo, but complex enough to hold its ground alongside a flan’s spice or herbed duck. Loring 2020—wine that aligns heart and hillside, quietly resonant.