Cool red cherry, bright high notes of eucalyptus, ginger, nutmeg, cranberry and brown sugar.

The Gap’s Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast is a dark, full-bodied expression of the varietal: rich, balanced and chocolaty. There’s depth to the nose of red cherry, eucalyptus, allspice and ginger and hints of tea, salumi and brown sugar. This is a focused, fine-grained, balanced wine with flavors of black cherries, dried cranberries, plum and orange rind. Definitely needs to be decanted for at least one hour.

Bryan Harrington makes Pinot Noir wines from five distinct California appellations. He is a student of the history of wine and likes to quote the great Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, who wrote extensively on the subject. This wine is sourced from a hillside vineyard on the cool, southeastern edge of the Petaluma Gap, close to the town of Penngrove. The wind and fog funnel in from the Pacific, keeping the grapes high in acidity and allowing slow, even development of complex, dark fruit flavors. The soil at this site is extremely rocky, naturally de-vigorizing the vines and imparting additional minerality. Indeed, this vineyard is so rocky that certain blocks of the site were described by the initial consulting geologists as a “rock quarry.”

This intriguing Pinor Noir has fascinating red-fruit aromas. Couple this with delightful spice notes and our recipe for Soy Glazed Cedar Planked Salmon with Mustard Mashed Potatoes comes to mind. The sweetness from the maple syrup, the richness from the ginger and the smoky attributes from the grill will work into a miraculous pairing.

“Let each person, therefore, constitute himself his own judge as to which kind of wine it is that occupies pre-eminence.”   —Pliny the Elder