2018 Brewer-Clifton Machado Pinot Noir

2018 Brewer-Clifton Machado Pinot Noir

The 2018 Pinot Noir Machado is pure class, showing beautiful purity of fruit as well as classic Sta. Rita Hills complexity and spice. Lots of raspberry, strawberry, spring flowers, forest floor, spice, and just a touch of seaside-like iodine all emerge from the glass. It’s a wonderfully complete, balanced, seamless 2018 that does everything right. 97pts JD

Greg Brewer and Steve Clifton make up one of the most dynamic team of winemakers for California Pinot Noir. The Brewer Clifton label is a partnership of two outstanding winemakers. Clifton developed a passion for wine while working in the hospitality industry in the 1980s. Following that passion, he eventually became winemaker at Beckmen Vineyards. Clifton met Greg Brewer, current winemaker at Melville Vineyards and Winery (whose wines were featured in the 2015 Top 100 from WS). Brewer-Clifton opened its doors in 1995 with the primary focus on single-vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay; at a time when nobody else in California was doing so. Thanks to their meticulous attention in the vineyards and in the winery. Their wines are some of the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made in California. They arguably make the finest Pinot Noir in the Central Coast of California. They are considered the masters of Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir. Their single vineyard wines get huge press. Parker comments that these wines are a hedonistic version of Grand Cru Burgundy. 

Their 2018 Brewer-Clifton Machado Pinot Noir has hit it out of the park getting a monster 97pts JD. JD, Jeb Dunnuck worked and rated wines for Parker for over ten years. Many of those Parker scores we have followed were from Jeb. The wine drinks like Grand Cru Red Burgundy, that amount of weight and richness, reminds me of great wines from Vosne Romanee . Jeb commented on this wine, “This incredible Pinot Noir stopped me in my tracks and might be the finest I’ve tasted from Brewer.”

The single “Machado Vineyard” is a fifteen acre parcel that’s owned by the Machado family located adjacent to Clos Pepe and immediately behind the Kessler-Haak Vineyard. The site is marked by a gorgeous rolling terrain with sandy loam soils. A remarkable effort by this great team!