Over the past few years, I have had surprisingly good showings from Gary Farrell and Hartford (the Arrendell bottling) ranging from '95 to 2000.
I have a '95 Davis Bynum Le Pinot (Rochioli) on deck, I fully expect it to have held up nicely as well.
I was so happy they offered those library pinots on Berserker day! I’m very excited to try them
This was my favorite line:
No one can accurately predict a Pinot Noir’s apogee. As winemaker Zelma Long noted, “The truth of wine aging is that it is unknown, unstudied, poorly understood and poorly predicted.”
So true…
I agree Stan - and - it is purely a matter of personal taste whether to age and how long to age.
Arrendell does age exceedingly well.
What are the decent red Burgs that don’t age? Saying most Burgs don’t age seems strange to me.
And remember, each bottle.will age in a unique manner. Therefore, even if a specific vintage is known own to age well, you’ll never to be 100% certain of your specific bottle.
Saying the obvious, I understand - but always good to state IMHO .
Cheers
Haven’t had the Dehlingers, but totally agree about Chalone. I’ve had older Gary Farrell that was very good, too
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Rusty suggests that, while WesMar “performed well overall, . . . the results would lead me to drink the wines at younger ages.” I respectfully disagree. I purchased a case of “library” wines from WesMar last year – vintages from 2001-2005. Each was fantastic. Still vibrant but with loads of character. None was in danger of being over the hill, and I wouldn’t bet against further development (and improvement) for another decade.
So, that brings up a good point about cellaring wines. Do we do with the hope that the wine will retain its original characteristics over time so we can drink a great vintage out into the future or do we cellar wines to develop secondary characteristics that may give a flavor profile we like better. The author of the piece (Prince of Pinot) having reviewed only 4 producers proclaims that it is so they still have the primary characteristics and never really mentions any secondary characteristics. 
Well, he said most burgs do not, not most decent burgs. The point being I believe that even in Burgundy the bulk of the volume produced is for early consumption. And many a 1er cru ought not to be be aged +10 years
I know of not one 1er Cru red Burgundy that wont age for a decade or more. Even from a lighter year such as 1992.
The prince has been up here for nearly every AVPN I have attended. He is knowledgeable of the varietal and producers in CA like few are. That being said I do think his palate and preference are for slightly bigger wines and on the younger side. When I did my grape radio interview with him I brought a '07 wine that was tasted next to my '13 of the same wine. Rusty commented it was at the peak for him Jay commented he would still consider it a young tasting wine. Different strokes for different folks.
The headline certainly grabs attention. Personally there are less than 10 CA PN producers I age over 10 years. Even in the premium side of things in general I do agree the new world style is best suited to 5-7 years from vintage. Arcadian, Swan (full disclosure I worked there), Hanzell, Rhys are at the top of the list for me and definitely wines in a general style similar to the ones I produce.
It used to be that we aged wine so it would smooth out and, secondarily, develop complexity.
The bigger question here, is what are we looking for in red wine?? One could age dolcetto, but the whole point of this grape is its rustic youthful charm. One could say the same thing about Beaujolais.Once a year, it seems somebody serves me a ten year old beaujolais and says, Wow, it still has it, but does it have it any better than when the wine was young??
On the other hand, I am not interested in drinking young cabernet for pleasure.
I find Pinot to be in the middle.
Jeremy says that he knows of no premier cru red Cote d Or wine that won’t age for at least ten years. I would say that we hardly know what the premier and grand crus of California are. We could reverse it and say that the wines that age well are the better crus. But how much of this is winemaking and how much is the vineyard?? Most people in Burgundy who have premier cru vineyards use at least one third new oak and age the wine in barrel over a year, and maybe even use whole clusters…self-fulfilling prophecy. One might also say they have more acidity than most California Pinot.
I myself have enjoyed many California Pinots that have aged well. off hand…
Acacia, Saintsbury, Mondavi, Marcassin, Rochioli, Wms Selyem (maybe even too much here!), Dehlinger,
Mt Eden, Morgan, Calera, Chalone, Au Bon Climat (the single vineyard wines age very well), Talley, Foxen,Sanford and Benedict, Sanford
On the other hand, I am still waiting on my Lafarge 93,96 and 99 vintages…why can’t these wines age faster??
Joe,
I did not list Rhys because 2007 is the oldest in my cellar. Not did I list Ici La Bas Elke Vineyard because of my financial interest, but the '97 and '02 are drinking well now.
This has certainly been my experience. It seems like most 1er cru are just getting their legs under them at 10.
And I think that Burgundy in general ages, village wines too can age pretty impressively if well stored.
Is anyone disagreeing with the premise? Several specific producers have been suggested as counterpoints, but they collectively are responsible for <1%* of the total California PN production.
- this is a guess
Russian River Pinots have the reputation of being forward drink young wines yet Swan, in the middle of RRV, makes PN that ages for decades (I’ve had them back to the early '70s, and they can be fantastic). Calif is capable of producing both styles (interesting/balanced/ageable, and interesting/forward/drinkWhileYoung). But the reputation of Ca Pinots is for the latter, making this issue a self-fulfilling prophecy to some extent…something this article encourages. I would avoid calculating the %'s within the spectrum, to guage Ca’s potential here tho.
I read this today as well, though I don’t know that the article’s title quite matches the text. There were many wines which showed really well. I’d also add that I don’t know that it’s possible to extrapolate anything from just a few wineries output.
Yes, I got the impression that the headline was to grab attention. As with many here I’ve had many CA pinots (and Oregon pinots) that have aged brilliantly. I’ve also had many that haven’t.