TN: 2000 Gary Farrell Pinot

I opened a bottle of the 2000 Gary Farrell Pinot Noir Olivet Lane Vineyard last night and was really taken aback by it. Gary Farrell/Williams Seylem/Rocciolli all pretty much share the same turf and same styles. The bottle that I opened last night was certainly not typical of the Russian River offerings of the last 20 years. This is an in your face big wine with plenty of tannins and lots of fruit. Mostly cherries on the nose but the taste was more of a bramble berry/black berry front end. If I had the other 11 bottles that were in the case with it, I would age them another 5 or 6 years. I drank Gary Farrell's wines when he was the wine maker at Rodney Strong and Windsor and Rocciolli but this is his best to date. Bill