WOW I like this wine! Such as classic pinot nose (my style of pinot, anyway) with a spicy, cola and fruit aroma surrounded by a pleasant toasted oak that is very sweet - not sweet like cedar, but definitely toasted oak that has been soaked in wonderful sweet fruit forever. I'm not an oak fan on the nose, typically, but the balance on this one just hit be straight away, and I gave the glass to my wife to take a sniff as well.

If it ended there, I'd be happy, as a good nose can take a lot of shortcomings in the flavor profile for me. It didn't end there...

Immediately on hitting your palate, you get a wonderful silky blast of sweet fruits - stewed apple, fresh strawberries, sweet plum, white chocolate, and the classic, slightly spicy cherry cola that many of us love in our CA pinots. It has that spicy sweetness that I love in the best of the Santa Barbara County pinots, and if this is what Sleepy Hollow is all about, I will look for more. No oak at all on the flavor profile, just on the finish, and it's not that significant - nowhere near as much as on the nose, even though the oak on the nose is really enjoyable. For a 2006, the flavors are really well integrated, although the tannins still seem a bit separate from the sweetness, it's so close that I'm enjoying the layers.

The finish is not terribly long, but the cola and strawberries and stewed apples come out, and that light toasted oak. The silkiness of the body goes away at the finish and it gains a slightly sharp edge, but some might just consider that acidity and many love acidity in their pinots - I'm indifferent.

There is NO question I will be buying more of this pinot noir - way to go Mark!! I wonder what it will be like in a year or two when everything is fully integrated. Without question one of my top 10 pinots...