DuMOL Trivia Facts: the Du and Mol in DuMOL come from the names Duncan and Molly, the children of Max Gasciewicz, longtime winemaker at Deloach and Fisher, and the founder of DuMOL. Max started the project with the help of two investors, one of whom was Michael Verlander, founder and then-owner of PRIMA. While the first vintages of DuMOL’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were percolating away in barrel, though, Max became ill and, a year later, passed away, leaving the partners scrambling to find someone to finish the wines and get them to market. It was, finally, Max’s Deloach neighbor Merry Edwards who stepped in brought those first couple of vintages to life (and great acclaim) before the partners hired Paul Hobbs to look after the wines at the Laird Family Winery in Napa. That’s where Hobbs protégé Andy Smith entered the picture. Bringing his European winemaking background to the project, Andy’s influence gave DuMOL a level of distinction even they had not previously enjoyed and, eventually, in 2000, he was named DuMOL’s fulltime winemaker. Fast forward nearly twenty five years and DuMOL, now under new ownership (including Andy), a smart beautiful winery in Windsor and an enviable track record of success, finds itself at the very top of its game. The wines are as sleek and stylish as ever, and while the single vineyard cuvees have gradually abandoned being named after children no longer associated with DuMOL, they’ve really grown to take on the unique characters of their impeccable sources. The largest jump in quality, though, has been in the Russian River blends, now called Wester Reach, to better-identify their cool-climate Green Valley and western Sonoma County roots. Sourced and astutely blended from a bevy of top-level sites throughout the region, these wines have a sense of Burgundian flair to them, as well as the requisite richness and volume one has always associated with DuMOL.

• The 2022 Wester Reach Pinot Noir comes from the DuMOL O’Connell Estate Vineyard, the Dutton Ranch, Occidental Road Vineyard, Flax and several other small sites.

This gorgeous, ebullient Pinot boasts a complexity of clones that bring black raspberry and cherry fruit flavors and a mélange of blood orange, pomegranate and savory spice to a mid- to full palate that goes on and on. This might be the best-ever blended Pinot Noir we’ve ever tasted from DuMOL, an absolute smoker that will probably cellar as well as it drinks now!