97pts Tasting Panel

An impressive vintage bolsters this wine's already stellar reputation. Following scents of nutmeg, cardamom, and watermelon rind, the earthy liquid spreads across the palate, anchored by animale, plum, heather, wet soil, and gingerbread. Cinnamon takes shape on the mid-palate with candied yam, iron, and rhubarb. Exotic and profound.

95pts Wine Spectator

Editors' Choice

95pts James Suckling

A dried-floral nose with notes of coffee, ripe strawberry and sage. Medium-to full-bodied with a cool profile of redcurrants and ripe raspberries. Silky tannins. A pleasant lavender note, too. Really well layered and complex with balance and precision. Drink or hold.

92pts Connoisseurs' Guide

A bit richer and a slightly fuller, more densely filled wine than its maker’s Ten Degrees bottling of the same year, the Gowan Creek Pinot moves ever so slightly to the head of the 2019 Golden eye class. It is fully fruited and rife with juicy, optimally ripened black cherries, and, even though a fairly big wine, it is nicely balanced and never close to being heavy-footed. It, too, is firmed by very fine, near-velvety tannins that are never too pushy or tough, but, of the two wines, it is the one whose structure should carry it forward for a few extra years of positive development should one not be understandably tempted to drink it up in the shorter term.

Winemaker Notes

Once again, Gowan Creek has produced a robust and energetic expression of Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, with lovely aromas of glace´ cherry, blueberry pie and fresh rosemary. The voluptuous blueberry layers are echoed on the lush, mouthcoating palate, where they are framed by sleek acidity, with hints of pennyroyal and moist earth emerging during a long, resonant finish.