Out-Take Wine Company - Mendocino County Pinot Noir 2024

With an incredible knack for discovering and sourcing wines from prestigious estates across California, Out-Take offers exceptional, one-of-a-kind drinking experience at an unbelievable everyday price. Thanks to several unique factors — three consecutive large harvests, a steep drop in tourism from San Francisco to Napa to Sonoma, and softening demand for $80 Pinot Noir and $100 Cabernet Sauvignon — many premier winemakers and wineries are burdened with costly grape contracts and production expenses they cannot pass along to customers. This is where Out-Take comes in… going directly to the wineries with cash in hand, swooping in to buy the same wines (at a fifth of the price) that the estates are selling in their tasting rooms. Out-Take is a label born from opportunity, bringing phenomenal single-vineyard, world-class wines to market at everyday prices and delivering the some of the best quality-to-price U.S. wines we carry at the Princeton Corkscrew.

The 2024 Out-Take Pinot Noir Mendocino comes from a tiny five-acre vineyard near Comptche in a remote, elevated corner of Mendocino County, about eight miles southeast of Mendocino and roughly 950–1,000 feet above sea level. Planted to a layered mix of Pommard, Swan and Dijon clones 115, 777 and 828, the site sits at or above the fog line, where cold nights and warm days stretch the season and build the tension between dark-fruited richness and coastal acidity that makes this wine so compelling.

In 2024, Mendocino growers reported a warmer growing season shaped by early rain, careful farming decisions, and a focus on preserving freshness, resulting in wines with bold fruit, deep concentration, and strong balance. That profile fits this wine beautifully: the nose is seductive and juicy, packed with brambly blackberry, boysenberry, dark cherry, and intense raspberry, with sandalwood, forest floor, and a touch of savory herb spice adding lift and complexity.

On the palate, it delivers plenty of presence without ever turning heavy, combining plush black cherry and blackberry fruit with flashes of cranberry, wet stone and spice. The texture is lush and velvety, but there is real energy underneath, with polished tannins, bright acidity and a long mineral finish that keeps all that ripe fruit honest.

Think New World generosity meets coastal structure: a Pinot with real body, real depth, and the kind of site signature rarely found anywhere near this price. This is an absolute steal at $20 — wildly overdelivering for the money — do not miss this opportunity to stock up today! Fantastically versatile on the dinner table, the Out-Take Pinot Noir can be enjoyed with a range of dishes: wild mushroom risotto, grilled salmon, pan-seared duck breasts with a blackberry-thyme glaze or classic roast chicken.