100% Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir and Orin Swift Cellars have had a unique relationship over the years. This vintage is only the fourth release of Slander, but Orin Swift's experimentation and trials with Pinot Noir go back many years prior. Their signature style of finding the highest quality grapes, picking without hesitation and being gentle with the fruit during fermentation is of utmost importance. Requiring a gentler approach with punchdowns rather than pumpovers, Pinot Noir expresses itself when it is least manipulated. What results is a final blend of fruit sourced from the Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley and Sta. Rita Hills AVAs.

Ageing for 10 months in French Oak, 30% new.

Top Tip: Decant an hour before serving.

About the Label

The creative (if slightly disturbing gothic and grunge) style of Orin Swift labels encourage you to rethink wine through a different lens. Each label is an evocative expression of art that leaves a heart-skipping impression.

Having troubled and toiled for a decade to make a Pinot Noir worth bottling, Phinney finally got his recipe right in 2015 after learning the importance of picking the finicky grape at exactly the right moment of ripeness before it ends up tasting like strawberry jam.

The label is one of the simplest in the Orin Swift range, and is meant to look like a piece of duct tape wrapped around the bottle in a nod to labelling barrel and tank samples when he first started out.

“Two things you always have in a winery are duct tape and marker pens… and cold beer,” Phinney jokes. “Slander is the only wine I make that my wife will drink and she has a much better palate than me.”