What is the optimum drinking window for California Pinot Noir? I remember asking this question on the Squires Board about ten years ago and the almost unanimous answer was: three to five years from vintage with very few exceptions. IIRC those exceptions were Arcadian, Calera, and maybe Joseph Swan.
Ten years later I think a lot of California Pinots are still best drunk at three to five years, but I believe there is a growing list of Pinots that don’t just last five years, but actually improve beyond five years. There may be some that improve beyond seven years but I don’t have enough data to list them.
Here’s my list of wines I know from personal experience improve beyond five years. The fact Sea Smoke is on the list was as much a surprise to me as it probably is to you. The fact Calera is no longer on the list is not a mistake.
Talley Rincon
Talley Rosemary’s
Lucia Garys’
Pisoni Estate
Sea Smoke Southing
Rhys all
Here’s a list of wineries I think produce Pinots that improve with age but my personal experience is limited
Arcadian
Au Bon Climat
Ojai
Ceritas
Arnot-Roberts
Iwould appreciate any additions to the lists and comments.
Recently one of our wine club members did a tasting of most of our 15 Pinot vintages. They reported only the 2003 was tired. That matches with our experience with the 2003. I have also recently had the Siduri, Brewer Clifton, Ken Brown and Loring Clos Pepe wines from 2005, 2007 and 2009 and they were drinking very nicely.
With regard to ABC, Jim Clendenen told me that his wines (other than the basic one) starts to be approachable at only around 8-10yrs…and they seem to age very well.
I hope Blake Brown can weighs in on older wines, he has tasted a lot of the 90s ABC PNs…
A lot of California Pinot ages extremely well. The notion that it doesn’t really confounds me. It ages great. But, compared to Burgundy, for example, it is heavily vintage dependent. Very warm vintages, which occur more frequently in California, often don’t age that well. The 2003 and 2004 wines fell apart fast. I also feel like 2007 has not aged well at all, except for select wine of exceptional producers.
As a general rule of thumb, however, I think the wines from the producers below age very well and show their best with at least 7-10 years of age from vintage:
Joseph Swan (particularly Trenton Estate, but all the vineyards age well, as does the Cuvee de Trois)
Rochioli (the SVD wines)
Williams Selyem (SVD and the RRV/Sonoma Coast bottlings and the “Neighbors” blends)
Arcadian (the 1997-2001 wines are still drinking beautifully)
Rhys (they really do take time to come around given the amount of whole cluster)
Rivers Marie (particularly the Summa and Summa OV)
WesMar (still under-the-radar and some of the best, most pretty wines in California; great to drink from the get-go, but I’ve had them dating back to 2000, and they are brilliant as they get secondary)
Inman Family (they really need at least 5-7 years before they start showing their hand)
Raen (boy, these wines are good … they haven’t been around to age that long, but they are so built for it, I have no doubt they’ll make 7-10 years easily)
The Kutch wines and some Siduri wines also age well. And in some vintages – thinking specifically 2005 here, and 2015 shows much the same promise early on – just age gorgeously. I still haven’t cracked many 2005s because they just continue to sing and age with absolute grace.
I’ve drunk California Pinot just before it goes into bottle from tank, and I’ve had them 45 years from vintage. You can find some beautiful things across the full range.
I believe Bohan Vineyard from Kutch will improve and from my experience McDougall Ranch will as well.
The wines haven’t been here long enough for me to be sure of exactly how long they will age, but after 3 years they’ve improved slowly and I believe they have 10 years in them.
When Allen Meadow was asked what North American Pinot Noir he had in his cellar, he replied, “Sure. There are a number I admire, but Anthill comes to mind. Rhys is another I admire greatly. I think Joe Davis, at Arcadian, is doing some really beautiful work. Some of Jim Clendenen’s stuff is really, really pretty. It’s a little austere when you start, like Davis’s stuff, but given time in bottle, it really matures. There are certainly others.”
Tom, a good list, and I note most of those producers have long term ownership and wine makers. My feeling is that these types of Pinots often don’t drink too well on release and, if you choose to buy them, there is no alternative but to age them. However if I’m going to have a bottle take up valuable cellar space for years, it better improve and turn into something special. Otherwise I might just as well have bought an early drinker.
The wine makers who can make a Pinot that drinks well on release and improves with age are few and far between. I wonder if a lot depends on the vineyards they are working with.
Regarding Rhys, I don’t think we really know yet. I’ve had a couple of older bottles that turned a corner into something more interesting, but that’s about it. Everything else is pretty much youthful and unevolved. It’s also very bottling dependent. I have much higher hopes for Skyline and Alpine than the others. Horseshoe may also sneak in there.
I agree. 2009 was the first Rhys vintage I bought and so far they have not turned into anything special. I am often amused at the tasting notes that say “great stuff but needs another two years, 93 points”
I also think the jury is out on Arcadian. The 01’s became wonderful at around seven years but subsequent vintages haven’t come close to that level. They haven’t fallen apart but will they ever become great?
Calera used to age really well, but they caught Parkeritis after their '07s got those huge scores, and have not been the same since.
I’m not sophisticated enough to create multiple drinking windows depending upon vintage, winery or other criteria, but I do age all of my Pinot for five years and in my experience (and just my opinion) it is a perfect length of time to provide a fully integrated and balanced drink with maybe more of the spice coming to the forefront and some of the fruit receding slightly. I don’t know that I would appreciate a Pinot with a lot more age on it (I’m the same with cabernet) anyway. Cheers!
Peter – with many interesting comments above, this I think is spot-on. I’ve noticed, particularly with the Copain 2006s and 2007s (i.e., right after the “shift”), that the wines are nice. They’ve been nice. They drink well. They haven’t fallen apart. But they’ve not become great. They have simply softened. There’s not even a hint that anything secondary will come out of them. They’ll probably just fade away at some point.
There are very few wines that develop really beautiful secondary qualities.
Agree that Rhys hasn’t had much of a chance even … the 2007s are barely turning the corning, but they still have stuffing and have evolved and changed. The 2006s are gorgeous. Even the Alesia bottlings from 2004, when clean, were nice.
About out the door, but I’ll think a bit more on the wines that drink well early but also age well. WesMar is the first that comes to mind. Those wines are always approachable and aromatic, yet they just age with grace, effortlessly. A lot of the Swan wines are like that, although the Estate can shut down at times. Varies widely by vintage, although the 2013 seems to be one that will be open for business at all stages, much like the 2006 and 2008 were.
My main reference for this reply is Copain, as I have been drinking the PNs from there since 2006’s vintage. I recently tasted the 2006 Kiser En Haut and it was cruising right along. Moving forward a vintage, the 2007 Kisers in my view were fading. The 2007 En Haut is more than ready, and the recent En Bas was seeming to be at the apex. I plan to open another 2007 En Bas in the next few weeks, maybe this Friday night, actually. As for the 2009s, these are riper toned and in my mind ready to go, yet the 2010s are beautiful, structured and the recent 2010 Kiser En Haut was beautiful. No sign of slowing down, still flush with energy, structure and balance.
So, all in, I think based on producer, 10-15 years is doable, but when there is a warmer year, then I would be more cautious that those wines will age.
I generally drink CA pinots that are 5-10yrs old but have had many that were doing fine past 10 years. It is more common for me to lament drinking them too soon than wishing I had drank them sooner. For my taste drinking windows for CA pinot are generally understated.