Wine Advisor
Lingua Franca, Mimi's Mind Pinot Noir 2019
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Erin Brooks
The 2019 Pinot Noir Mimi's Mind has pure scents of bitter orange, raspberries, cracked pepper and dried lavender with wafts of fragrant earth and dark tea leaves. The medium-bodied palate is powerful and expressive with layered, earthy fruit, a pleasing astringency to the texture and a long, floral finish.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Vivid ruby-red. Highly perfumed aromas of ripe red and dark fruits, incense and potpourri, along with an exotic spice nuance and a hint of smoky minerality. Palate-staining black raspberry, cherry and fruitcake flavors show sharp definition and deepen steadily as the wine stretches out. Deftly plays richness off elegance and finishes impressively long and chewy, with repeating cherry and floral character and building tannins adding final grip. 8% whole clusters and 26% new French oak.
About the Producer
From the beginning, Lingua Franca Estate has been farmed on low-impact, Organic and Biodynamic principles, practices that were later improved with the advice and guidance of Mimi Casteel. Today, Lingua Franca is training its own dedicated vineyard team in specialized farming and pruning methods led by Vineyard Manager Brandon Hasart. The first harvest began very early, in late August 2015. We made our wine at a custom crush facility, as we had no winery yet. Though the summer was hot, it cooled in time for harvest , and picking went very easily. The team was small and dedicated, composed of Thomas Savre, Junichi Fujita, Josh Wludyka, Siri Stone, David Honig, Nancy Stone-Nilsen and Larry. The wines were outstanding, but we realized that as we grew our own fruit, we would need a facility capable of handling the grapes with more precision. There was no option but to build a facility from the ground up.
