Another fine Arcadian last night. Splitting hairs, but I give a slight edge to the 2001 Sleepy Hollow over this one for best current consumption. That is, unless your holding some '97 Pisoni.
Thanks, Joe D! Great wines.
2000 Arcadian Pinot Noir Francesca’s Cuvée- USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands (1/16/2015)
Powerful nose shows dark fruit, pine spice, iron. There’s a light touch to the raspberry fruit and a tart, puckering acid. The wine is edgy, and lively in the mouth with fine grained tannins. It mellows with some air time and coasts across the palate revealing waves of spice, fruit, acid. Terrific wine that is holding in a very good spot.
Fine note. I agree, this is showing really well right now. Nice to have this and the 01 Sleepy Hollow (which, coincidentally, we sampled again last night) around to duke it out!
Coincidentally, I opened an '05 Pisoni and '03 Francesca’s last night. Both were very good, but the ‘03 Francesca’s was friggin’ mind-bending! I anticipate that I will have to purchase additional bottles …
Thanks, Doug. Your recent notes on this and the SH lead me to check in on these, so thanks for the inspiration!
Sounds great, Brian.
I really fell off on buying Arcadian in recent years, so I have little experience with '03 or '05.
Sounds like I need to remedy that.
Cheers.
Brian,
Hows about a more detailed tasting note on the 2003 Francesca? (never had it).
I have a couple in the cellar and would like to know if it’s for current consumption or if I should wait a couple more years…
I’m not Brian, but here is the thread I started on this wine a couple of months ago. Seal of approval, for sure.
TN: 2003 Arcadian “Francesca” Pinot Noir…mmmm…hmmmm
Post #1 Postby Merrill Lindquist » Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:57 pm
Oh Joe Davis, you are killing me since I discovered your Arcadian label!
Rich, ripe, wild strawberry-to-raspberry, with some earth. Bordering the more elegant descriptors of “framboise” or “sous bois,” but I’ll stick with the strawberry and earth for simplicity.
A hint of spice, great depth and complexity, although highly integrated. A super-soft mouthfeel and long, lingering finish. In short, minus the accompanying wine-speak (which I am not very good at), this wine hits all the spots. What a pleasure.
I’ll be checking back in on the '03 Francesca’s this evening, and will round-out my TN therefrom … I’ll move that TN to the head of the queue since interest has been shown.
p.s.: Paul, the short of it,however, is that the '03 Francesca’s is quite pleasing now, but nonetheless has room for further improvement, imo.
I’m just a handful of bottles into my Arcadian habit, but each that I’ve tried has had a revelatory quality, including the very first - the '06 Purisima Syrah I ordered at SY Kitchen less than a year ago. Thanks for the notes - always a pleasure to read.
Thanks, Matthew.
I like your comment about "revelatory quality’
Had the same reaction when I started on Arcadian.
Mine were the 1997 Pisoni and then 2001 Sleepy Hollow.
Cheers.
At the end of a long trying day dealing with wine software that has caused a lot of people to be very unhappy with Arcadian, its a wonderful reprieve to read your notes above. At the end of the day its about the wine I make. Thank you everyone for the good words
I opened up a 2001 a week or so ago. Very nice bottle indeed. I have not had enough of his wines older to have a lot to compare it to. I think it was part of a club shipment. Impressed all that tried it for its stage and age for a “CA PN” tasted with a Grand Cru Pommard from 2002.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
