Tongue Dancer Wines: A Re-Introduction
Sonoma County, 12 examples -- mainly pinot noir + two chardonnays
I reviewed the chardonnays and pinot noirs from Tongue Dancer Wines on BTYH from 2016 to 2020, then — Nothing. Well, O.K., starting in 2020, things got pretty rough. Many wineries and importers stopped sending sample bottles around that time and never started back. (Yoo-hoo, you can start again.)
Anyway, I pondered this situation, especially in the light of James MacPhail being a great maker of pinot noirs. So, I contacted Kerry MacPhail a few months ago — she is listed on labels as “Knowledgeable One” — and said, “So, what’s up? I haven’t heard from you guys in six years or so.”
She apologized, graciously, and said that she didn’t know if I was still writing or not, she lost my address and so on. Most important, she agreed to send me a passel of the winery's recent releases.
James MacPhail is, I’ll just say it, a brilliant maker of pinot noir wines, drawing on vineyards in Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma Coast and West Sonoma Coast. (He and Kerry McPhail launched Tongue Dancer in 2012.) The chardonnays I have been ambivalent about but check out one of the reviews below for a chardonnay rated Exceptional. The pinot noirs tend to display seductive, almost addictive bouquets, while on the palate, the wines offer exquisite balance along fruit and acid, tannin and wood and take daredevil risks with juxtaposing power and energy with elegance and grace. They are, in a few words, among the very best pinot noir wines made in California.
I was deeply gratified to be re-introduced to Tongue Dancer.
These wines were samples for review.
_____________________________________
Tongue Dancer Rosé de Ville 2025, Russian River Valley. 13.9% alc. 100% pinot noir from Fox Den Vineyard, fermented and aged in stainless steel. Light copper-coral color; rates a “wow!” for its penetrating aromas of pink grapefruit, peach, strawberry and hibiscus flower, with undertones of blood orange and violets; a scarf-like texture buoyed by bright acidity serves as foundation for a filigree of orange Pekoe tea, rhubarb and damp flint; the finish is surprisingly substantial for a rosé. A superior example of rosé-making. Now through 2027. Production was 73 cases. Closed with a screwcap for when you go on a picnic and forget the corkscrew. Excellent. About $29.
____________________________________
Tongue Dancer “The Sly One” Chardonnay 2024, Dry Creek Valley. 13.9% alc. Aged 11 months in two neutral French oak barrels = 44 cases. Light straw-gold hue; notes of ripe pineapple and grapefruit with mango undertones; hints of cloves and crushed cumin, apple skin and hazelnuts; lovely presence on the palate, sleek and silky but with a slightly sanded quality for a bit of almost tannic-like resistance; very dry but juicy with citrus and stone-fruit flavors; a few moments in the glass elicit touches of smoke, quince and ginger and a light roasted quality; the finish is a mélange of graphite and damp flint and limestone, so chiseled in feeling as to be almost transparent. Wow, a terrific, close to transcendent chardonnay, now through 2032 to ‘34. Exceptional. About $59.
_______________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Chardonnay 2023, Russian River Valley. 14.4% alc. This wine derives mostly from Pratt Irwin’s Lane vineyard with contributions from Bacigalupi and Vine Hill vineyards; French oak, 20 percent new barrels. Medium straw-gold color; grapefruit, preserved lemon and lemon balm, graham cracker; hints of loam, lots of baking spice, just a touch of mango; dense, intense, with tremendous presence on the palate; brings in notes of nectarine, white pepper, new leather; a lanolin-like element, bee’s-wax, almost honeyed, yet totally dry; spice cookie and chamomile tea; a lot going on here, and the wine just manages to keep its balance. Production was 100 cases. Now through 2029 to ‘31. Very Good+. About $55.
___________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Vineyard 11 Pinot Noir 2024, Russian River Valley. 14.5% alc. 11 months French oak, 33% new barrels. Totally transparent medium cherry hue; notes of sandalwood, sassafras and cola; spiced and macerated red cherries and currants, with hints of gingerbread and some incredibly lovely exotic blossom that goes beyond the typical rose petals and violets; warm, ripe and spice-laden on the palate, sleek and satiny with lips-smacking acidity that plows a furrow; flavors lean toward cherries and plums, with a chastening touch of cherry pit and a serious turn to dusty, velvety tannins on the finish. Delicious, intriguing. Drink through 2030 to ‘32. Production was 164 cases. Excellent. About $69.
Tongue Dancer labels tend to take a wraparound form, so I’m including both sides or ends of this label to give you an idea of what they’re like.
______________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Pinot Noir 2024, Sonoma Coast. 14.2% alc. Primarily derived from the Pratt Vineyard and Sexton Road Vineyard in Sonoma Coast AVA and an unnamed vineyard “out west.” Aged 14 months in French oak, 20% new barrels. Wholly transparent medium ruby-cherry hue; provocative aromas of rhubarb and red cherries, crushed violets and lavender, dust and graphite, petrichor, sandalwood, white pepper and vetiver, all somehow ground together into some kind of Platonic incense; silky smooth on the palate but with a lot of texture, a bit of resistance, and then a descent into foresty darkness of briers, brambles, cedar and tobacco, yet it never relinquishes its obligation to be elegant and ethereal, lively and alluring. Pretty damned perfect. Now through 3032 to ‘34. Production was 278 cases. Excellent. About $55.
________________________________
Tongue Dancer “The Sly One” Pinot Noir 2024, Russian River Valley. 14.5% alc. Aged 11 months in French oak, one new barrel, 2 neutral barrels = 49 cases produced. Totally transparent cherry-magenta hue, with an ethereal rim; the point here is grace and elegance married to real power; is it “sly,” or it is “shy”? perhaps a bit of both; reticent at first but unfurls spiced and macerated cherries and plums, with hints of dried orange zest, rhubarb, sandalwood and beetroot; that touch of rootiness (or rootedness) deepens on the palate, as the wine gains considerable weight and presence; to the cherry and plum flavors comes a note of slightly austere black currant; the finish brings in an evanescent network of struck flint, wild blueberry and tannins lightly tinged with graphite. Seductive and beguiling. Now through 2031 to ‘34. Excellent. About $65.
_________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Fox Trot Pinot Noir 2024, Russian River Valley. 14.2% alc. This vintage was the fifth and last from the Castro Vineyard, which was subsequently ripped out. Twenty percent new French oak, 118 cases produced. Totally transparent and entrancing medium cerise-magenta color, ethereal at the rim; just a freaking beautiful pinot noir — spiced and macerated red cherries and currants, candied rose petals and violets, hints of mulberries and rhubarb; this pinot noir gradually opens foresty elements like briers and brambles, riven by bright, ascendant acidity, then adding touches of plums, woodsmoke, all these qualities poised in exquisite balance and harmony. Now through 3030 to ‘32. Excellent. About $49.
__________________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Fox Trot Pinot Noir 2023, Russian River Valley. 14.2% alc. Wholly transparent medium ruby color, with shades of garnet; a whole basket of cherries and raspberries, wrapped in allspice, crushed cumin seed, sandalwood, all the warm spices; a compote of brandied fruit and berries; sleek and satiny on the palate, almost sultry in its spicy-floral nature; pulls up acres of underbrush and meadowy elements; a soft finish, cushioned by dusty, velvety tannins. Now through 2030 to ‘32. Production was 145 cases. Very Good+. About $49.
___________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Rambling Fox Pinot Noir 2023, Anderson Valley, Mendocino County. 14.5% alc. “Rambling” on up to Mendocino. 10 months in French oak, 1 new barrel, 2 neutral = 71 cases produced. Beautifully transparent medium ruby-mulberry hue; seductive and beguiling wreathing of incense, wood-smoke, potpourri and meadow flowers, unfurling notes of dusty cherries and plums, rhubarb and just a hint of blueberry; rolls across the palate in a dense, almost chewy wave, emboldened by bright acidity; quite dry, flavorful but not quite juicy, leaning more toward spareness and elegance; a fair amount of graphite-tinged tannins completes the finish. Did I say beautiful? This is really beautiful. Now through 2030 to ‘33. Excellent. About $49.
________________________________________________
Tongue Dancer 10th Anniversary Edition “Pinot de Ville” Pinot Noir 2023, Sonoma Coast. 14.5% alc. 16 months, 20% new French oak. Transparent dark shading to medium ruby-magenta color, with an ethereal rim; a dark-tined and deeply spiced pinot noir; full-blown elements of ripe red and black cherries and currants that unfold notes of sandalwood and cola, oolong tea and tapenade, crushed violets and rose petals; a few moments in the glass bring up hints of fennel seed, cedar and tobacco; firm, dense, weighty, lively, yet perfectly balanced and poised, with juicy and elusive red fruit flavors in the foreground (is that a touch of melon, a bit of apple skin?); the finish is a mélange of plum dust, graphite, petrichor and velvet-like tannins. A masterpiece. Drink through 2033 to ‘35. Production was 139 cases. Exceptional. About $69.
_______________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Putnam Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023, West Sonoma Coast. 14.7% alc. This was the last Tongue Dancer bottling from this site. 16 months in French oak, 20% new barrels. Totally transparent reddish-cherry hue; spiced and macerated red cherries and plums, lavender and violets, sandalwood and crushed cumin, cedar and tobacco; a welter of potpourri, incense and the whole spice box; dry, dusty, almost dense with graphite, but lithe and supple on the palate, with lip-smacking acidity that blows through it like a fresh breeze; the tannin and wood structure feels almost lacy and limpid, so perfectly poised. Now through 2031 to ‘33. Production was 137 cases. Excellent. About $75.
_______________________________________________________
Tongue Dancer Pinot Noir 2023, Green Valley of the Russian River Valley. 14.3% alc. 17 months in French oak, 33% new barrels. Enchanting, transparent medium cherry-magenta color; another darkly-inflected pinot noir — black cherries and raspberries in a complex layering of baking spices, dried flowers and briery-brambly elements; this is the most tannic of these nine Tongue Dancer pinot noirs, and the one in which you feel the oak influence a bit more; zinging acidity, however, cuts a swath for enticement and energy. Through 2031 to ‘35. Production was 70 cases. Excellent. About $70.
