The 2013 Pinot Noir Treehouse is rich, bold and super-expressive, with a vibrant, red-fruit character and lifted aromatics that add freshness. Sweet red cherry, pomegranate, lavender and spice notes make a strong first impression. An accent of blood orange on the finish gives the wine just enough brightness to balance things out. In this tasting, the Treehouse is a bit more precise and nuanced than the Bootlegger´s Hill.

Score: 94 Antonio Galloni (AG), Vinous Media (VM), August 2016

The larger production cuvee (1,748 cases) is the 2013 Pinot Noir Treehouse Vineyard, which comes from a higher elevation site that´s above the fog line, roughly eight miles from the Pacific Ocean. Its deep ruby color is followed by to-die-for notes of black raspberries, crushed violets, cassis, spice and toasted bread. Utterly perfect on the palate, with medium to full-bodied richness, an ethereal, seamless, multi-dimensional texture, fine tannin and crazy length, hats off to the team at CIRQ for this singular beauty. Give bottles a few years (if you can resist) and enjoy over the following decade or more.

Run by Michael Browne and focusing on Russian River Valley vineyards, CIRQ was created in 2011 when they released a single Pinot Noir from the Treehouse Vineyard. This higher elevation site is located roughly eight miles from the Pacific, above the fog line, and has unique volcanic and iron-rich soils. This site has been planted to clones 23, Swan, Pommard, Calera and 37. They made their first vintage from the Bootlegger’s Hill Vineyard in 2013. This site sits at a similar elevation to the Treehouse Vineyard, above the fog line, but in a slightly cooler region. The soils are the more classic Goldridge sandy loam soils found throughout the Russian River Valley. This vineyard was planted with clones 115, 667, Pommard, 37, Calera and Elite. The Bootlegger’s Hills release is slightly more perfumed and elegant, whereas the Treehouse Vineyard release is an ever so slightly deeper, richer wine. As I hope the reviews show, these two efforts are at the pinnacle of California Pinot Noir. Readers looking for the next cult winery need to jump on this estate’s mailing list as soon as possible (it might already be too late).

Score: 97 Jeb Dunnuck (JD), JebDunnuck.com (JD), September 2016