The 2018 Pinot Noir The North Slope has a medium ruby-purple color with deep aromas of cranberries, blackberries and rhubarb accented by blood orange, pipe tobacco and forest floor. The palate is medium-bodied, both powerful and elegant, with concentrated, detailed flavors, a silky, fresh frame and long, lifted finish. 1,087 cases produced.

The 2017 Pinot Noir The North Slope has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and scents of Bing cherry, blackberries, tart cranberry, dried citrus peel, tobacco leaf and tree bark with dried rose petals. It's medium-bodied, silky and intense with nuanced fruits, grainy tannins and juicy freshness, finishing very long and savory. 1,070 cases produced.

The 2016 Pinot Noir The North Slope is medium ruby-purple in color and scented of crushed red plums, mulberries and black cherries with touches of baking spices, violets and underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, it offers bags of rich berry flavors in the mouth with a sexy, plush texture and scintillating freshness, finishing long. 1,120 cases produced.

The 2015 Pinot Noir North Slope, 100% from Dijon clone 115, also performed spectacularly, no doubt because of the extremely tiny yields. This wine has a dense purple color, a gorgeously compelling nose of forest floor, spring flowers, blue, red and black fruits, followed by a full-bodied, layered and concentrated Pinot Noir that is as light as a ballerina on the palate, but at the same time, intense and rich. The finish just goes on and on. Drink it over the next decade or more. The 2015 Pinot Noirs are still in barrel, hence these notes are all barrel samples. This was the earliest harvest for Stephen Hansel in more than a generation and the yields were frightfully low, averaging 40% off their average production that is never that high to begin with. All of these Pinot Noirs enjoy a 5-6 day cold soak and tend to see 50%-60% new oak and the rest one-year-old oak. They are set to be bottled unfined and unfiltered in November 2016.

The 2014 Pinot Noir North Slope is fabulous, has a huge upside to it and probably will benefit from several years of bottle age. All of these were scheduled to be bottled in 2015. This is 100% clone 115 and Stephen Hansel says it’s the most fruit-forward of the wines. It is certainly seductive, hedonistic, with a dense ruby/purple color, beautiful black raspberry and black cherry fruit, a big medium to full-bodied mouthfeel, loads of glycerin and hedonism. It should turn out to be exceptional, but I do think it needs some time after it’s bottled to start its full potential.