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The wine once known as Lucia Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir has come of age,  shedding, after many years, its once modest moniker for an Estate designation with the vaunted Pisoni name right on the label.  The secret, of course, is vine maturity as this wine was once the destination for the property’s younger vines.  That’s no longer the case as its component pieces- sourced entirely from the Pisoni, Soberanes and Garys’ have now reached the age where they can produce wine of a quality that rivals anything else in the Pisoni cellar. The just-released 2022 is unabashedly Pisoni with its ebullience, personality and sheer fun!  These three vineyards (52% Pisoni, 18% Garys' and 30% Soberanes), while all managed by the Pisoni family, run the length of the north-to-south running highlands and it shows in the sheer breadth and complexity of the wine.  Dark for a Pinot (but not dark for a Lucia wine), the aromatics are a mélange of plum sauce, roasting green tea, black cherry, orange peel and cinnamon notes that give way to a full, mouth-filling palate of cool red fruit and spice before a crescendo that invokes the Santa Lucia Highland’s exuberant natural acidity and minerality.  You expect ‘big,’ and you get big, but not so big as it comes at the expense of freshness, balance or finesse.  Easily the best wine under the Lucia label we’ve tried to date, this is so much fun to drink right now and it will be a lovely partner to lamb chops off the grill, big, charcoal-y steaks, earthy dishes based on wild mushrooms or even, as Anne and I proved the other evening, all by its lonesome.  Unfortunately our bottle was gone even before we had the chance to make any of that stuff above!  Bravo to empresario Gary, the irrepressible leader of the Pisoni pack,  and his two sons Mark (who farms) and Jeff (who makes) for reminding us just how much fun high quality Pinot Noir can be to drink!