Benovia Pinot Noir La Pommeraie Russian River Valley 2023

The Green Valley AVA is a tiny, pristine, cooler pocket within the larger Russian River Valley, and here grows this “bright and spicy” 2023 Benovia Pinot Noir in the Zio Tony Ranch vineyard, farmed by the famed Martinelli family. It runs a fair $75 tab in most places online… but you can get yours for just $31 on 2 or more bottles here at First Bottle!

“La Pommeraie” is French for “the apple orchard,” a reference to the vineyard which was formerly an apple orchard belonging to Lee Martinelli Sr.’s uncle, Tony Bondi, and was later planted with grapes in 1990. Benovia has purchased fruit from Zio Tony Ranch since 2006, and the land sits along the Laguna Ridge at the edge of the Green Valley AVA receiving strong coastal influences: foggy mornings, salty sea breezes, cool evenings, and sunny days. The site is planted at high density to Dijon clones 777 and 828… all of this lending a very Burgundian personality to this Sonoma-grown Pinot.

Benovia came to be in 2005 led by wife-husband team Mary Dewane and Joe Anderson, and named respectively after their fathers, Ben and Novian. They purchased the historic Cohn Vineyard in Westside Road in 2003 and began by selling fruit to other producers before launching their own label two years later. In 2005 they also bought Hartman Road Vineyards in the Russian River Valley from Cecil DeLoach, expanding their small but mighty Pinot and Chardonnay-focused empire.

With a focus on sustainable farming, Mike Sullivan was the winemaker for this bottling (the founding winemaker who actually stepped down in January of this year, passing the title on to former associate winemaker of 8 years, Adolfo Hernandez). Right in line with the perfection of the 2023 vintage across northern California, this is supremely delicious stuff with immeasurable depth and elegance. It brings a cacophony of dark blue and black fruits – inky cherries, black raspberries, some ripe plum – and glorious, tangy spices alongside redwood bark, rose petals, and shaved orange peel.

Evident but not overpowering acidity and immaculate vibrancy make this an ageable Pinot Noir – but only if you have ironclad patience. It’s so, so good now. Please get some… for just $31 a bottle on 2 or more (aka, less than a typical 1-bottle purchase anywhere else), why wouldn’t you!?

FOOD PAIRINGS: Roasted chicken with crispy mushrooms is a transcendent pairing to go with this richly spiced Pinot.