96pts James Suckling

Very structured, almost thick in tannins, with deep black cherries and violets on the nose, then white stones, iron, iodine and earthy accents on the palate. While substantial in texture and more medium than light in body, it's not at all heavy, and will no doubt age well for many years. Drink now or hold.

95pts Wine Advocate

Despite its dark and brooding reticence on the nose, the 2023 Pinot Noir Memorious is shaping up to be a beautiful combination of polished, weightless, herbal and saline. The texture is beautifully lacy and dexterous, with a long, layered, gently structured finish highlighting salinity and elegantly tenacious tannic grip. Tasted a few weeks before its August bottling.

94pts Wine Spectator

This has a distinct density -- showing intensity without heaviness -- as its core of red and black cherry fruit bristles with grilled savory and flint notes. A very racy underpinning through the finish leaves echos of kirsch and wet slate. Very distinctive. Best from 2026 through 2036. 452 cases made. 

Winemaker Notes

As ever a welcoming and engaging wine from the moment the cork is drawn, gregarious Memorious throws off a homey, inviting scent of warm, ripe berries, tea, tobacco, and cedar. This Memorious is texturally more tightly wound than some of its predecessors, awash in youthful energy that will settle down over its first year or two in bottle. As it finds its form, though, you will experience a delicious and generous wine whose concentration and force are deceptively subtle. 

Vineyard Notes

Perched above the Santa Ynez River, Memorious is immediately downslope from Bloom’s Field. The vineyard bends gently to the southwest, opening its face to the Pacific Ocean and its winds. It rests upon a bedrock of Monterey Shale covered by alluvial deposits; its soils are the heaviest of the Domaine— deep brown in color, composed primarily of clay.

Memorious is host to—and consequently, named for—our one acre of Pinot Noir seedlings, planted in 2007. With these seedlings, which are in effect the “memories” of Pinot Noir, we have set out to identify and, over many years to come, cultivate our own genetic selection of one of the world’s greatest grape varieties.

Organic