Crawford Pinot at Berserkerfest8.0 - what the hell man? These are AWESOME

Mark worked at Babcock forever then started Kenneth Crawford and now the Crawford Family project. The guy is a magician with SRH pinot. Fantastic wines.

• 2012 Crawford Family Wines Pinot Noir - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (11/24/2014)
  What what what!!! Stop the bus. Dark maroon color like you’d expect in a SRH pinot. The aromas on this wine are amazing, black tea and spice are very prevalent, just awesome. There is a hint of tea in the palate with fine tannins and a cedar note as it finishes. Excellent balance and compexity Still a baby as there’s a touch of dryness afterwards. Damn good wine, I purchased. (95 pts.)
• 2012 Crawford Family Wines Chardonnay Tin Shack - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (11/24/2014)
  Beautiful floral nose. Color is light yellow and very clean. Big blast of acid, super clean fruit with strong lemon mid palate. Very crisp finish. Interestingly, this wine has a medium plus weight to it yet terrific acid. Excellent. (93 pts.)
• 2012 Crawford Family Wines Pinot Noir Babcock Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (11/24/2014)
  Nose shows a bit of molasses but not overt as there’s some red fruit too. Palate is raspberry and sage with very fine tannins and medium acidity. Long finish. This needs some cellar time. (93 pts.)
• 2012 Crawford Family Wines Pinot Noir Bentrock - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (11/24/2014)
  Super dark purple, syrah looking actually. Raspberry aroma. Fruit flavor is raspberry and tea followed by a dark cherry note. Very soft tannins, quite approachable at this point. Medium plus length, nice. (92 pts.)
• 2012 Crawford Family Wines Pinot Noir Walk Slow - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (11/24/2014)
  Extremely dark maroon color. Ripe cherry and tart raspberry. Fine tannins and medium acidity. Med+ finish (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Those are big scores from your very experienced pinot palate, Brig. I will cross my fingers that FMIII can convince them to partake in FallTacular, would love to try the wines on the strength of these notes…

Mike

Already had the conversation with Mark @ Crawford, he’s in.

Also mentioned a little thing called berserkerday too!

Marshall Gelb will probably jump in here, he bought a case of pinot after tasting.

The Kenneth-Crawford wines were always very, very good and under-appreciated.

Nice notes Brig! I also bought the 3 pinots after we won the bottling challenge Great people too!

#rightthewrong

You do beautiful work!!! I have pictures, nice corking job.

Next time I see you, I have a present for you. #rightthewrong

What I see in that bottle array are inconsistent fill levels

#winnersgonnawin
#losersgonnawhine

I think the slow walk is a blend Babcock and radiant vineyards. Maybe… 50/50.

Mark is watching this thread so he’ll need to figure out how to post on WB if he needs to correct any of my goofs, like the one I had to fix earlier.

Mark, jump in here or have Wendy show you how! LOL

Brig, I couldn’t agree more. Mark’s wines are beautiful. He is of the “cluster inclusion” crowd, of which I am a fan, so the wines balance the amazing fruit with some savory, earthy notes.

If you like Mark’s wines, I would also recommend Wenzlau Estate, and would love to see them at Falltacular as well. I can assist in making that happen if Frank would like me to. Wenzlau only makes estate Chardonny, Estate Pinot Noir, and a small amount of Mr. Carmel PN, as the vineyard encroaches on the Wenzlau property and they are permitted to make wine from those vines.

Here I am…Jumping in with both feet. Loved the wines and did buy a mixed case including some chardonnay. The wines were extremely well made and combined rich fruit with an unexpected elegance. Definitely not your over the top fruit bombs! I think they will age well and are certainly food friendly. Mark’s production is quite small so I don’t want to get people too excited…

Cheers!
Marshall

What’s the price range on these?

The only Crawford Family Wines I’ve ever had were the sauvignon blanc by Kim.

yeah, retail on the chard was maybe 42, appellation pinot was 45 ish. vineyard stuff was 55. That’s off the top of my head after a long weekend. There were 3+ bottle discounts.

Their website is literally under construction but you can call or email Mark or Wendy to get the specifics. Great people and true berserkers.

contact information is here

This indeed was the hidden gem of the day, but I liked the Bentrock better than the Walk Slow and Babcock. Good stuff and really good people too.

Follow-up: just show how fried was my memory, I see I bought Babcock and Walk Slow and not Bentrock. I know i liked it too though.

Hey Brig, thanks for the great notes on the wines. We had a lot of fun meeting you and Chris and all of the Berserkers we had a chance to talk with over the weekend. In answer to some of the questions I saw in the posts…The “Walk Slow” is 50% Babcock (clone 115) and 50% Bentrock (clone 828). On average the Pinots see about 1/3 whole cluster fermentation. The wines range from $38 to $55. We’re looking forward to being more involved with the Berserkers in the future and your amazing tasting events!

Cheers,

Mark

BerserkerDay is coming up on Jan 27…I think a Crawford Family offer should be included!

(Special discounts on bottles that Brian Bohr labeled)