My wife and I spent a long weekend up in Bodega Bay to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We took two afternoons to visit with some wineries that have long been our favorites, plus to explore and see if we find a new love, which we did. Here are some impressions and quick tasting notes; I’ll post some photos below as well.
[Since it’s late and I have a busy early morning at the office, I’ll start with Kutch and add the other reports in the next few days as time permits. Thanks for following along.]
VISIT TO KUTCH, AUGUST 24, 2017.
Jaime was kind enough to meet with us at the crush facility just south of the city of Sonoma. Although he shares the facility with other wineries, he has his own space and equipment in one portion of the building, including some impressive wooden fermenters you’ll see in the photos. He was set to begin harvesting the next day (Jaime does like to harvest early!), so they were hard at work cleaning and prepping everything, and it was most generous of him to take time to meet with us.
Jaime poured his as yet unreleased 2016 lineup for us, plus a 2014 MacDougall pinot, all drawn from open bottles preserved with Coravin, which seems like a perfect concept for his situation. All the wines seemed to be in perfect condition.
2016 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. Unlike in some past years, this wine is now made from portions of the harvest at the sites where Kutch makes their SVDs. 100% whole cluster, 12.1% alcohol. This has a soaring red berry fragrance and fruit, really lovely. There is some pull-back at the end from stem tannins, but this already would be sporty drink and a terrific value (I think $39). This bottling has seriously overdelivered in recent vintages.
2016 Signal Ridge Pinot Noir. This is from the Mendocino Ridge AVA, which only has a dozen or fewer small vineyards in it. The vineyard sits at 2800’ elevation, which is the highest vineyard in Sonoma (Coast?) or Mendocino. This was 50% whole cluster and 12.0% alcohol. This has bright, tart red cherry and cherry pit, with a hint of herb. It has a long finish with a significant cherry pit dimension at this young age. It has good intensity for a wine that is so unmanipulated and has such little weight.
2016 Bohan Pinot Noir. From 45 year old vines which are own-rooted and dry farmed - I believe these are the oldest pinot vines in the Sonoma Coast. This was the leanest and most savory wine in the lineup, at least at this early point. Bony red fruit with some dusty bramble and plenty of savory herbal qualities. I think this will end up being good (in a more extreme AWFE style) if you give it a few years to integrate with the stems.
2016 MacDougall Pinot Noir. This is always the darkest and biggest pinot of the Kutch lineup, but of course that is a relative measure, and this is still well to the whole cluster, less ripe, lower alcohol and more elegant side of the spectrum. This vineyard sits at 1,000’ elevation, south facing, and in hard rocky soil. This has more of a dark cherry and purple berry profile, maybe a bit of plum, with some rocky mineral and savory herb.
2016 Falstaff Pinot Noir. A different face of the Sonoma Coast contrasting with MacDougall. This vineyard sits at 100’ on sandy Goldridge soil, covered in morning fog. This has lean but intense red fruit, and a decidedly savory profile, where the fruit doesn’t cover the pepper and bay leaf dimensions. The stems come in greener on the whole clusters here, compared to the darker and riper stems at MacDougall, and the wine will need more time to knit together. The MacDougall is a funner drink today, but I’d probably lean to this wine in the cellar and as being the especially Kutchy expression of Jamie’s vision and passion.
2014 MacDougall Pinot Noir. This has deep purple berry fruit, violets and other dark florals, but it firms up and finishes with savory, mineral and acidic character at the finish. A very nice wine which will continue to improve.
2016 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast. Kutch’s debut chardonnay, the 2014 Santa Cruz Mountains, came roaring out of the gate and was, in my opinion and that of a number of other Berserkers, perhaps the best debut wine of 2016. Though it wasn’t a surprise, as Kutch + chardonnay has always seemed like something that just should be. It’s been six months or so since I opened the first of my bottles of the 2014, so I don’t have a side by side comparison, but this was another stunning effort. Perhaps leaner and lighter than the 2014, or maybe it’s all or part being two years younger, this is a pale yellow, lean and bright, white flowers, cool wet stones, and lemon and orange acids. Very precise and focused.
I think I have only met Jamie once before, at a Kutch tasting dinner organized by (you’ll never guess who . . .) Frank Murray several years ago. Maybe I’ve met him one or two other times, but only very briefly if so. So I don’t have a lot of history or know him very well on a personal level. But he is certainly an impressive guy, and most impressive for the intensity and passion he brings to his wines.
Jamie has strong opinions and has created a powerful vision for himself of what he wants his wines to be, and I have a great deal of respect for his articulation of and commitment to that vision. I personally have a lot of room in my tastes, my life and my cellar for much of the spectrum of wine, if it’s made well, and Kutch occupies an important place in that spectrum. I think I will try to gradually increase my Kutch buying and drinking in the coming years based on the high and growing quality of his offerings that I’ve seen the last few vintages.
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), Mike worked a full schedule in software and on Wall Street, while he made small but growing amounts of wine in his garage, grinding through two jobs plus long hours of commute in between what paid the bills and where his true passion lay.
