Clos du Val Pinot Noir 2014

First of all, I would like to say that this wine is amazing! It might be the best Pinot Noir I've ever had for under $30.

Clos du Val is a winery in Napa Valley. In French, the name means "small vineyard estate of a small valley." Clos du Val was founded in 1972 by two French-born winemakers, John Goelet and Bernard Portet, who sought to produce Bordeaux-style wines in California. I personally haven't had many Napa Pinot Noir wines - in fact, they are rarer to find than Napa Cabs. One of the main reasons is Napa's hot climate, which makes it more difficult to grow delicate and fickle Pinot Noir grapes than the lower maintenance Cabernet grapes. Pinot Noir grows primarily in Napa's coolest microclimate of Carneros, where this bottle of Clos du Val Pinot Noir is from. (There are other factors besides the climate that drive Napa winemakers to embrace Cabernet as the king, such as higher yield and higher prices of Cabs, but that's a topic for another day.)

My tasting notes on the Clos du Val Pinot Noir 2014 ($22):

• See: The wine has a garnet color. It's a bit inky for a Pinot Noir.

• Sniff: It's fragrant and elegant on the nose with notes of ripe cherries, strawberries, and blackberries with oak, vanilla, cloves, and nutmeg. It also has notes of cinnamon and coffee. It's complex and refined on the nose.

• Sip & Savor: The wine is equally complex on the palate. It has a medium body and a lush texture with red fruit flavors and high acidity on the mid-palate. While it has bold fruit flavors initially, earth notes and spices come forward with notes of vanilla and cloves on the back-palate and silky, round tannins that linger on. It's a very well-structured and classy Pinot Noir. I enjoyed this wine even more after 30 minutes of decanting as aerating helped weave together the many layers of flavors. While I am a big fan of fruit-forward expressions of Pinot Noir, I fell in love with the earthiness and spiciness of this wine - a must-try for Napa wine lovers!