Named for winemaker Ross Cobb's late mother, who more than 20 years ago planted the Coastlands Vineyards' dry-farmed vines—some of the oldest in the region—this exquisitely distinctive wine celebrates all that is extreme and remarkable about the marriage of site, style and variety. Offering bay laurel in abundance, it has plenty of body to remain vibrant and complex, marked entirely in forest floor and heady allspice, with a nuance of cherry and white pepper on the finish.

Ross Cobb’s mother, Diane, planted this block at the top of the estate in 1989, mostly to figure out what would work on the property. It’s a complex mix of genetic material—over 20 pinot noir selections grown on their own roots. It was meant to serve as a nursery block, but turned out to make fascinating wine in its own right. This 2012 feels herbal and salty at first, its stemmy scents muting the fruit expression (40 percent was fermented as whole bunches). But everything engages as the wine takes on air, its heady aromas—cardamom, manzanita bark, green tea and apple skin—filling every nook and cranny of the structure with coastal complexity, the fruit rich, supple and tangy at the same time, with an exhilarating length. (225 cases)