If you are anything like us and the rest of the wine lovers and critics, you bemoan the fact that the pinot noirs of today are nowhere near the fabulous French Burgundies (pinot noir) of the early ‘60’s. Well, Pali wines are trying to remedy that. Pali selects grapes from the best vineyards in an area famous for pinot noir grapes, vinifies them and bottles them under individual area designated labels and then names the wines for specific neighborhoods in the city of Pacific Palisades, California.

The Pali winemakers have chosen a very tough variety to work with. Pinot noir are tricky to vinifie, ages with great difficulty, usually in a series of leaps, with some of the leaps being backwards. Working with the pinot noir grape has always been a major crap shoot, but when everything clicks the resultant wines can be ambrosial.

But it doesn’t stop there. The Pali winemakers have taken the option to use screw tops to seal their wines. Screw tops have long been associated with inexpensive wines so the using of these closures on Pali wines raises them a notch. This action should finally put to rest the question of the effect of screw top on the quality of the wine after a few years; that is if you can keep your hands off the wine for that long.

Pali “Bluffs” 2009 Russian River Pinot Noir Blend ($19). Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley is probably the finest growing region in California for the pinot noir grape. The cool microclimate of the valley allows the grapes to develop slowly. It is the slow ripening that allows the grape to develop deeper and more concentrated flavors. Couple the favor development on the vine with careful selection of the fruit from top vineyards, slow fermentation and aging for 10 months in French oak barrels and you have Pali “Bluffs” Russian River Pinot Noir Blend. This glorious wine exhibits a broad spectrum of flavors, with cherries and berries being the most prominent. There are also many other flavors lying in the background with oak and an earthy mushroom flavor being the most obvious. This very well made, medium bodied wine is drinkable now or can be laid down for as long as five years, to gain additional complexity and depth.

Pali “Alphabets” 2009 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Blend ($19). The grapes for this wine come from the hand tended vines of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, an area that has consistently produced award winning pinot noir grapes. The first clue that there is something special in the bottle is the deep ruby color, not very common in pinot noir wines. The aroma is a harmonious blend of wild berries with a whole series of aromas in the background from mushrooms to oak. In the mouth, the wine is still a little closed in and could benefit from a few years of bottle aging to allow for greater flavor development but there is still plenty there for present drinking. The dark color and 14.2 percent alcohol content assures that the wine will probably last for at least a decade. It is excellent now and has a great and promising future.

Pali “Riviera” 2009 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Blend ($19). This is a pinot noir that has been hand crafted by the winemakers from grapes drawn from some of the top vineyards in the cool Sonoma Coast grape growing district. The grapes from each vineyard add their particular nuance to the final blend and result in a medium bodied, delicately scented and brightly flavored wine. Cherries, both the fruit and the blossoms completely dominate the aroma along with blackberry and oak. These aromas carry over to the flavor where they mingle with the flavor of espresso and just a hint of oak. This is a wine that should not be taken for granted. It is a grand example of what a pinot noir should be like and also what the Pali winemakers can do with great grapes