MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir Winemaker's Block Selection Russian River Valley 2009

Showing the brisk acidity of this cool coastal appellation, MacMurray's '05 Pinot is bright in red and black cherry, raspberry, cola, licorice, vanilla and smoky oak flavors. The wine isn't an ager, but it's a rich, fairly complex wine to drink now. Easy to find, with 25,000 cases produced.

The 2004 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast shows some toasty oak intermixed with plum, cherry, and underbrush. It is medium-bodied, soft, and ideal for drinking over the next 2-3 years.

Currently hard and tart in acids and tannins, but loaded with sweet, ripe fruit, this Pinot is silky enough to drink now, which most consumers probably will. But if you give it until sometime in 2010, the cherries, cola, sandalwood and spices will mesh and improve.

Slightly more structured, darker-colored, richer, and muscular is the 2007 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. It reveals floral notes along with sweet, autumnal vegetation, black cherry, and spice characteristics in its well-made, medium-bodied style.

Kind of unripe and thin, with tobacco, beet and herb flavors, although a touch of black cherry helps. The texture is smooth, but the finish is a little watery.

The other Pinots include the tart, sweet and sour cherry, pomegranate, mossy, austere 2008 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. Prices are very fair, and these Pinots should be drunk in their first 3-4 years of life.

From the former ranch of Hollywood star Fred MacMurray comes this lovely Pinot Noir, showing terrific intensity with plush, mouthcoating red-berry fruit ripeness. A very good value in California Pinot Noir.