Etude Grace Benoist Ranch Carneros Pinot Noir Red Wine

Etude got its start in the Carneros region of California, where the winery says its founding winemaker, Tony Soter, established it in 1982. That year marks the company's beginning rather than anything about this particular bottle, and it comes from Etude recounting its own history. The wine itself is a Pinot Noir.

Here is what the grape brings, by the account of the guides we keep on grape varieties: Pinot Noir has relatively thin skins, and those guides describe red cherry, berry and plum, with a lighter color and softer tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon. They add that site and ripeness can move it from delicate and bright toward fuller and darker, so the name points to a family of styles rather than one settled taste. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine, so the grape's general profile, as those guides set it out, is the closest read on offer.

Etude's product page for the current 2023 vintage lists 14.4 percent alcohol and a 92-point score from Wine Spectator's James Molesworth, whose tasting note cites “boysenberry and black cherry compote notes” with “black tea and savory” character and a “gently toasted finish”, and recommends drinking it “now through 2029”.

The fruit comes from Etude's own Grace Benoist Ranch, an estate vineyard in Carneros near the Petaluma Gap, a wind corridor that pulls cool ocean air and fog inland and keeps daytime temperatures down, conditions the winery says favor Pinot Noir. The ranch carries volcanic ground uncommon for Carneros among its soil types, and the winery farms it to Certified California Sustainable, Napa Green and Fish Friendly Farming standards. Etude credits senior winemaker Jon Priest, who joined the winery in 2005 after earlier stops at Wild Horse, Adelaida Cellars and Taz, with a house philosophy that winemaking begins in the vineyard, aiming for wine that is grown, not made, the winemaker's words.

If you want a red in that lighter register the guides describe, rather than a Cabernet, this is the grape to reach for, and in our September 2026 checks across two stores its price landed between $49.99 and $56.49.

Our call: buy it if the estate story sells you; Grace Benoist Ranch is Etude's own vineyard, farmed to sustainability certifications the winery names outright, and the current vintage carries a 92-point outside score alongside the lighter, red-fruited style the grape guides describe for Pinot Noir. Pass if you want a crowd behind that score too; no shopper rating has reached our record, and this is real money to spend on Etude's word and one outside critic alone.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.