Illahe’s winemaker Brad Ford is a former English and poetry teacher—tasting his wines it’s impossible to ignore the prose in them. Pinot Noir used in the 1899 is delivered to the winery by a team of horses, and it’s racked by way of a bicycle pump, in short it’s a wine made entirely without electricity. Every aspect of it requires hand labor. In the glass a novella of underbrush and brambly fruit, decaying rose petals and crushed stone. Subtle minerality ripples through a red-fruited core, and lingers at the close. Sample
9.2 Points