Hahn Family Wines produces a separate label of high-end, single vineyard pinot noirs, all produced from estate fruit grown in the Santa Lucia Highlands. (They also grow chardonnay here, but we did not receive this wine for review.)

Here’s a look at the 2016 vintage of Lucienne.

2016 Lucienne Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Smith Vineyard – A restrained wine with significant elegance, this bottling offers gentle cherry and mixed berry notes, melding pleasantly with notes of rosemary, graphite, and some thyme. The herbs linger through to the toasty but approachable finish, heavy with blackberry and a hint of chocolate. Let this one open up in the glass — or even consider decanting. A-

2016 Lucienne Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Doctor’s Vineyard – A much meatier style of wine, particularly on the nose. This pinot offers a sweeter blackcurrant approach, with notes of chocolate sauce and a lengthy, lingering finish that recalls truffle and bacon fat. Not entirely balanced, but it does have some charms, particularly as a companion to food. B

2016 Lucienne Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Lone Oak Vineyard – Loaded with mixed berries and featuring a significant currant character in the mix, it’s arguably the most approachable wine in the lineup — heavy with fruit but tempered by a lick of toasted barrel, some light herbal notes, and a lingering cinnamon spice on the back end. This is an exuberant wine and the closest to the essence of Santa Lucia as I’ve come to know it. A

each $50 / hahnwines.com

2016 Lucienne Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Smith Vineyard

$50

9

Rating

9.0/10