I usually don’t drink too much of any varietal in one week, but things happen and like the old Mounds/Almond Joy quandary, sometimes you feel like a pinot and sometimes you don’t.
Mount Mary, Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley, 2011
I’ve always wanted to try this producer, but haven’t really seen it around all that much. This has a pale rose wash of a color, beautiful to look at. Strawberry and watermelon on the nose and palate, which finishes with almost a slightly bitter nut skin finish (walnut perhaps?). Finishes light and is a little uni-dimensional, with a little tangerine-kumquat coming through. Well made, but you have to like subtlety. 12.9% A-
Rhys, Pinot Noir, San Mateo County, ‘Family Farm Vineyard’, 2013
Spicy floral, red fruited nose. Red fruit, Ludens® cherry cough drop with a musky finish. After a while, some rose and candied watermelon rind show up. This should age well as it has everything in balance: ripeness, acidity, and oak is only a background support unlike some other years where it comes through more forcefully. Thankfully, the stems don’t stick out either, which has always been a complaint of mine with Rhys’s pinots. Probably the best Family Farm I’ve had so far. Reminiscent of Anthill (without the roundness or weight). A-
Eminence Road Farm Winery, Pinot Noir, Finger Lakes, ‘Auten Vineyard’, 2012
From the warm Upstate summer that 2012 brought, comes this darkish pinot noir from a funky winery that is making really nice wines. This has a very nice mouthfeel and weight, which is pretty substantial for a Finger Lakes red. Red fruits with a bit of black fruit nuance, a little short and unidimensional, but lovely nonetheless. Short term aging, 4-6 years? Blackcurrant leaf, a little Morey Saint Denis or Nuits Village like. 12.1% A-/B+