100pts Jeb Dunnuck

From a vineyard fifteen minutes further inland, the 2023 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard comes from the only site Steve Kistler planted in 1998. Notes of kirschy cherry cordial, fresh lavender, wildflowers, and fresh sage all emerge, and the wine is medium-bodied, floating on the palate with exceptional detail, elegant saltiness, refinement, and a “wow” factor throughout. It benefited from the long, cool growing season. Drink over the coming decades. Drink 2026-2046.

98pts Wine Advocate

The 2023 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard is complex, refined and singular within the Occidental portfolio this vintage. Medium ruby-purple in color, it has arresting scents of strawberry, raspberry, blood orange, rose petals, red licorice and mushroom—each return to the glass offers a new facet of aromatic nuance, and I simply can’t put down the glass. The medium-bodied palate offers a weightless structure yet is brimming with expressive flavors that range from vivid fruit to bitters and earth. It has a luxurious and silky texture, vibrant acidity that structures its intense flavors and an epically long finish.

97pts Vinous

The 2023 Pinot Noir Occidental Station is sourced from a site that is further inland than the Occidental estate. It offers a captivating mix of intense dark fruit and equally imposing tannins. The Occidental Station is often the most immediate of the wines in this range, but not in 2023. Readers will have to be patient here, as the dense 2023 is currently defined by its raw, unbridled energy.

About the Winery

Occidental is Steve Kistler’s pinot noir project with a singular focus – to make world-class pinot noir from unique sites on the headlands in the Freestone-Occidental area. Since the early 1990s, Steve Kistler has believed that the climate and soils on the uplifted marine terraces and ridges around the town of Bodega would be ideal for growing distinctive and Burgundian-style pinot noir. Steve founded Occidental as a small, family brand in 2011, and built a state-of-the-art winery just east of the town of Bodega overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He now works alongside his eldest daughter, Catherine.

The Occidental vineyards represent the western edge of where pinot noir can be successfully grown in California. Steve and his team at Occidental now farm 85 acres of pinot noir vineyards in the Freestone-Occidental area with great skill and commitment.

The Occidental pinot noirs are crystalline wines with vivid aromatics and intense red-fruit flavors. They have a wonderfully chiseled quality, layered with savory and mineral character.