TN: 2012 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

• 2012 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (4/13/2014)
  I opened this with great anticipation. After tasting it several times over the course of about 3 hours, I came away not understanding what this wine tries to be. It’s somewhat harsh with the acidity, but also very ripe, with strawberry, red cherry, raspberry, and cola. It seems to be attempting to have subtlety and nuance but unfortunately, those facets aren’t present for me. My Burgundian/Willamette Valley palate simply wasn’t impressed. (83 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Would you drink a 2012 premier cru Burg at the same price point now? No, you would lay it down and pick it up in a few years. Why would you expect the Rivers Marie to be any different?

My experience with this wine is that it need a few years to come into its own (have not tried the 2012 yet).

Mine just arrived on Friday… A little bit early, no?

I had really high expectations as well. This was my first taste of one of the best QPR wines available. I served it PnP straight from the box, maybe a little too warm and was not impressed. Tried 3 hours later same thing, I wasn’t getting a lot of fruit. I tried today and the fruit was there, but I wasn’t blown away (86/87). I still think this will be great my sample size is too small.

The wine is getting 91 on Cellar Tracker now. My question is: Is that for now or expectations for the future? Thanks

I don’t think many people rate toward expectation for the future, but everyone is different.

That being said, if you guys want a lot of fruit in 2012, try the Summa or occidental. I’m drinking a summa right now and it’s a lot of deep concentrated fruit. Only took about a hour into opening

I dunno… I appreciate the young '12 sonoma coast. I understand the acidity comment, but it all seemed to work for me and I’ve already drunk through my bottles and liked each bottle. I do think the wine works best if served at cool room temp (65 or so) or even cooler. The wine has a bit of lushness or suaveness on the palate that can seem like it falls apart as it warms up to these warm spring temps ( at least here in CA).

You already drank though all of them?

Well, I’m drinking the 2006’s right now.

My experience says that this wine needs 3-4 years to begin to reach its peak.

IMO a very fine example of a very young, price worthy ($25), modern-styled Pinot Noir.

I just don’t think this is Beau’s style of wine, age aside. I know what he means by his note; not a wine for everybody. Extremely popular with my non-geek guests though, and a great value for when I’m in the mood for something like this.

[/code]

+1

BTW… I hate this “you opened it up to early” theory. I feel when a winemaker puts a wine in bottle and releases it to the public, he should expect it to drink well. I also think we are smart enough to know if a wine is of our standard whether we drink it early or later… I do agree a wine will get better, but never had a wine go from average to great over the course of ten years…

Does PC Burg at the $25-$30 price point exist? I guess it could be the case for less favored appellations like Santenay or Savigny-les-Beaune.

In any case, I don’t think there is an expectation for CA Pinot Noir–regardless of producer–that fruit-forward entry level wines will develop with age. (Though surprises do happen.) I have definitely experienced bottle shock where the same wine was much improved 6-12 months later. But I’d put that on the producer for releasing a wine too quickly following bottling.

Even for a wine that probably isn’t intended to age, 18 months from harvest seems a little early. In the broader market, I’m seeing primarily 2011s, even from medium to large producers that I associate with pumping things through the pipeline for a fast buck.

This was the first year I have purchased R-M and having heard a lot of praise here for the Sonoma Coast bottling, I had to try at least one. I found it to be a little disjointed and a little on the simple side, but decent for the money - and I also thought this bottling was supposed to be an early drinker? In the larger scheme of things, I’m not seeing a lot of love from critics for the 2012 Pinots. I know it is early in the release season for pinot, but 2012 was supposed to be a great vintage, no?

Thomas Rivers Brown posted his thoughts on drinknig windows across the R-M pinot portfolio a few years back, and I was surprised that even on the sonoma coast he was like 4-5 years out if memory serves… Mine never last that long, but I like to give them a few, and do find a benefit.

I’d love to see an update by Thomas on current drinking window preferences again too…

PnP’d one of these a few weeks back and was very impressed given the price. Found it to be balanced, plenty of both acidity and fruit and, for the price, well worth the money. Definitely more new world styled, but in a good way (would not compare with an OR or Burg). It was unusually cloudy, not sure whether that was due to shipping a couple days prior. While a couple years might make a difference, personally, I buy the appellation wines to drink early while I wait for the SVD’s to develop.

Would be happy to take a case of these off anyone’s hands (I was only alloted 4)

uhhh me first!!

How much I wish this were true. But it isn’t. It’s not true for most of the 1% of wines produced that we spend so much time obsessing over. Pre-prohibition, CA CS was held for up to 10 years in bottle before release. That’s just not economical for a company to do anymore. It isn’t done in BDX, Barolo, Burgundy, Germany, and on and on. Why is there an expectation that it should or does happen with domestic producers?

Rivers-Marie Sonoma Coast is the only wine that I know of where I don’t even read the notes I just click max quantity and go. Even on the off years its worth the tariff. Best QPR stateside? It’s definitely in the conversation. Across various critics they like it consistently.

As a burgundy/Oregon palate which california pinots do you like for sub $30?