Amor Fati / Tooth & Nail house spotlight
Wine Hotels walks the Tooth & Nail estate in Paso Robles, the house that bottles Amor Fati Pinot Noir from Murmur Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley.
The market on this bottle
Look up this bottle on Wine-Searcher for live market prices.
2021 Amor Fati Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley, USA
Murmur Vineyard Pinot from Santa Maria Valley, tea-leaf savor and coastal tension, a 96-point 2021 you can open at twenty-four dollars.
The 2021 Amor Fati is Pinot Noir from Murmur Vineyard: boysenberry, blueberry, Earl Grey, forest floor, and dusty tannin after puncheon ferment and modest new oak, now $24.
Coastal Pinot with nerve, not a jammy Central Coast souvenir
Amor Fati is Tooth & Nail's high-tension imprint, and Murmur Vineyard is the site. Erin Brooks at Wine Advocate gave the 2021 96 points for earthy fruit, dusty tannin, and bright acidity. Wine Enthusiast 94 heard wild berry, pepper, fennel pollen, and toasted chaparral. This is the bottle that argues Santa Maria Pinot can be savory and still generous, at a number that lets you buy six.
The house
Amor Fati is Tooth & Nail's most elevated label. Jeremy Leffert makes the wines. The name means love of fate. The glass is more disciplined than the castle.
The wine
Pinot Noir from Murmur. Puncheon ferment, about 14 months in oak with roughly 10% new French. 14.4% ABV. 225 cases.
The scores
Wine Advocate 96, Erin Brooks. Wine Enthusiast 94. Drink 2023 to 2033 on the Advocate window.
The drinker
Serve 58 to 62 F. Ten to 15 minutes of air. Foie gras with citrus, mushroom veloute, duck, or roast poultry.
Dark berry, then tea, forest floor, and chaparral
Advocate led with boysenberry, blueberry, Earl Grey, dried herbs, and forest floor. Enthusiast added pepper dust, fennel pollen, lavender, strawberry paste, and toasted chaparral. The wine stays crunchy instead of soft.
A focused coastal year. Marine sand, clay, and loam, plus the wind on Murmur's northwestern flank, kept Pinot in the savory lane. Harvest late September into early October.
Boysenberry, blueberry, wild berry, strawberry lift, Earl Grey, dried herbs, fennel pollen, lavender.
Medium-bodied, 14.4% ABV, dusty tannin, energetic acidity, oak as spice not weight.
Forest floor, pepper, toasted chaparral. Serve 58 to 62 F. 10 to 15 minutes of air.
Puncheons for perfume, then a little new oak
Erin Brooks notes puncheon fermentation and about 14 months in barrel, only 10 percent new. The Tooth & Nail sheet adds clones 667 and 828 from Murmur's marine-sand soils. That is how Santa Maria stays tea-leaf and forest floor instead of turning into a tropical Pinot bomb.
225 cases. 14.4% alcohol. Bottled unfined and unfiltered on the house sheet.
Serve 58 to 62 F. A short splash pour is enough. Keep the citrus and tea in front of the velvet.
A theatrical house, a disciplined vineyard wine
Tooth & Nail built a castle in Paso Robles. Amor Fati is the quieter argument: Murmur Vineyard Pinot with tension.
Amor Fati is one of four projects under the Tooth & Nail umbrella. Vinous notes the imprint is focused on Murmur, a 213-acre Santa Maria Valley site planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Grenache, and Syrah.
Jeremy Leffert's 2018s and 2019s already showed an Old World, chiseled register. The 2021 Pinot continues that nerve: dark fruit, spice, earth, and a clean coastal line.
Twenty-four dollars against a $65 typical retail is the offer. The vineyard still has to do the rest.
Give it fat, earth, herbs, and a little patience
This Pinot wants savory food. Acidity cuts richness. Forest-floor tones echo mushrooms, duck, foie, and herbs.
Two plates. One pan-seared foie gras with citrus. One two-mushroom veloute. Both can take tea-leaf Pinot.
Serve 58 to 62 F. Ten to 15 minutes of air. No long decant.
Pan-Seared Foie Gras with Citrus
The wine's acidity and tea-spice cut foie richness while the dark berry core keeps the pairing luxurious.
Why it works: Citrus echoes strawberry lift. Fat meets dusty tannin. Tea leaf keeps the plate from turning heavy.
View Recipe for pan-seared foie gras with citrus (opens in a new tab)
Two-Mushroom Veloute
Mushroom depth mirrors the forest-floor side of the Pinot, while the cream lets acidity clean the finish.
Why it works: Earth echoes tea and chaparral. The veloute's silk meets the wine's dusty tannin without burying it.
View Recipe for two-mushroom veloute (opens in a new tab)Put Murmur Vineyard Pinot in the cart
Wine Advocate 96. Murmur Vineyard. Two hundred twenty-five cases. Twenty-four dollars.
Put six in the cart. This is the Amor Fati bottle for a table that wants coastal Pinot with nerve, not a souvenir.
