Press Room

N°22 Pinot Noir Reviews

Score: 93 | February 1, 2023 | Wine & Spirits

Jean-Charles Boisset uses his JCB label as an emotional outlet, working with his team to present lots that trigger a response—like 22, which he selects for “intensity and charm.” In fact, No. 22 pushes more buttons than most. We’ve tasted seven vintages of the wine, and five have earned exceptional ratings. This is one of the best: tight and complex, with notes of tarragon and smoke at the edges and clean fruit at its core. It’s a gentle, elegant, savory pinot, expanding from herbal and crunchy hints of rose-hip greenness to fragrant, fresh cherry flavors that last. 

Score: 93 | October 5, 2022 | James Suckling

Perfumed aromas of sliced strawberries, violets, raspberries and moss. Medium-bodied with gentle tannins. There is an openness on the palate, which allows for lovely expressions of fresh berries with a refreshing finish. Charming and delicious. Drink or hold.

Score: 93 | October 7, 2022 | James Suckling

Perfumed aromas of sliced strawberries, violets, raspberries and moss. Medium-bodied with gentle tannins. There is an openness on the palate, which allows for lovely expressions of fresh berries with a refreshing finish. Charming and delicious. Drink or hold.

Score: 95 | October 27, 2022 | The Wine Independent

Medium to deep ruby-purple in color, the 2019 Pinot Noir No 22 needs a lot of shaking to wake up vibrant notes of black raspberries, chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries, and fragrant earth with hints of cinnamon stick, dried roses, and cumin seed. The medium to full-bodied palate is plush and playful with a serious backbone of ripe grainy tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and savory.

Score: 91 | November 1, 2018 | Wine Enthusiast

This coastal wine has a feral element of exotic fruit, rhubarb and blood orange mostly, with touches of rose petal around its edges. Silky smooth and unabashedly ripe and full bodied, it has an underlying freshness of lively acidity and integration.  

Score: 93 | April 27, 2018 | Wine Advocate

The 2015 Pinot Noir No. 22 is medium ruby-purple colored and scented of menthol, dried sage and potpourri with a core of wild blueberries, raspberry pie and baking spices plus a waft of underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, it features fragrant earth notions in the mouth with a firm frame of grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing on a mineral note. 

Score: 92 | April 18, 2018 | Wine & Spirits

Young and intense, this wine takes some time to evolve past its initial reduction, turning from black and smoky toward cool, brisk red fruit and elegant scents of roses. The tannins are still bristly after three days of air, suggesting the wine needs patient cellaring to show itself completely.

Score: 92 | May 24, 2017 | JamesSuckling.com

Aromas of plum and orange. Tea leaf. Medium to full body, firm and silky tannins and a hints of smoke. Drink now or hold.

Score: 95+ | March 1, 2017 | Wine Advocate

Pale ruby colored with a hint of purple, the 2014 Pinot Noir No. 22 offers a gorgeous perfume of red roses and violets over a core of wild strawberries, raspberries and Provence herbs with a touch of underbrush. The medium-bodied palate delivers a wonderful intensity of perfumed red berry flavors framed by very fine tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing with great depth and persistence.

Score: 93 | February 15, 2017 | Pinot File

Moderately dark reddish purple color in the glass. Gorgeous, nose-filling aromas of dark stone fruits, pie spice, vanilla and subtle toast. Delicious flavors of cherry, raspberry, pie spices and vanilla with a subtle savory note in the background. Bright and seamless, with a sturdy finish of welcome length. A real charmer. 

Score: 95 | March 4, 2016 | Wine Advocate

The 2013 Pinot Noir No. 22 is a dead ringer for a grand cru Burgundy from the Côte de Nuits. Notes of forest floor, autumnal vegetation, spice box, blackcurrants and black cherries all drift up from the complex aromatics of this Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. Believe it or not, there is something almost DRC-like in the aromatics of this wine, which makes me wonder what the clonal material was that Boisset was using, and what the source was for this wine. This is a stunner.

Score: 90 | October 1, 2015 | Wine Enthusiast

Smooth and seductively intense, this wine offers rich layers of black cherry and blackberry that lengthen on the palate, buoyed by soft tannins. An earthy sublayer keeps it complex and compelling. —V.B.