Laird Family 2016 Pinot Noir Phantom Ranch Carneros

The Laird Family 2016 Pinot Estate story begins nearly sixty-four years ago outside of South Boston Virginia as twelve-year-old Ken Laird drove his mule wagon through tight rows of sticky, fit-to-be-harvested tobacco leaves. As the gooey bundles were thrown up onto the wagon, little Ken led his mule team to the curing barn.

It was there, with his grandmother, great uncles and cousins, they would stoke smoky curing fires for their prized tobacco. Ken would be the third generation Laird to carry on the farming tradition.

This Laird Family 2016 Pinot Noir has an enticing garnet hue and aromatics of fresh raspberries, toasty oak, Bing cherries and baking spices. The palate is medium-bodied, balanced, and smooth, offering distinct layers of wild strawberry, vanilla, and sweet cherry compote. Pair this versatile wine with a variety of dishes, such as pasta puttanesca, cedar-plank salmon or paella.

With its alluring ruby color, you can’t help but fall in love with this wine at first sight. Aromas of sweet boysenberry, rhubarb, and toast introduce a medium bodied palate that is balanced by delicate acidity, subdued tannins, and flavors of pomegranate, raspberry and tealeaf. Drink now through 2028.

Simple and earthy, this ranch-designate shows a wealth of brick color and flavors of cherry cola, raspberry and bay, its full-bodied ripeness offset moderately by acidity.

While growing up to be a big-city mechanical engineer in New York City, Ken held on to family tradition by buying his first Napa Valley parcel in 1970. This neglected piece of land, adjacent to Tubbs Lane in Calistoga, held 70 acres of worn-down prune trees. With Prohibition forty years gone and Napa Valley positioned to re-emerge as viticulturally significant, Ken decided to develop the orchard into a grape vineyard.