2005 Beauregard Vineyards Pinot Noir Trout Gulch Vineyard- USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (2/28/2019)
Served blind, this was completely dominated by a jarring sweetness on the palate. It was so sweet that it actually made me recoil from tasting it. It gave the impression of being picked at an extremely ripe level and then watered back to create some sort of wine-like beverage. Thankfully the other Beauregard Pinot served in the same blind flight was less sweet (only in comparison!), but the distinct palate sweetness seems to be a thing for this producer’s Pinot Noirs. I’ll stay away.
2014 Beauregard Vineyards Pinot Noir Coast Grade Vineyard- USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Ben Lomond Mountain (2/28/2019)
Served blind, and easily recognizable as Pinot Noir, this had some elegance, as well as good palate balance. My one concern was a notable palate sweetness that came dangerously close to candied. It didn’t fit with how the rest of the wine expressed itself. Maybe it’s just in an odd spot, but the more I drank of this, the more the sweetness stood out, and dominated the wine. Judgement reserved for this one.
Overall the 2014 was well served by being second in the flight, as the 2005 was horrific. I doubt my reaction would have been as favorable if I had tasted it first.
Trout Gulch is the source of some really lean, acidic, structured wines. Sweetness would be the last thing I would expect from there. Can Santa Cruz Mountian fruit even get ripe enough to get watered back?
Have you had this producer’s wines in the past? Interesting notes indeed.
2005 was certainly ‘a long time ago’ in the world of PN here in CA. I did a 2006 tasting a few months back where I brought a couple of KB’s and someone else brought a local PN from a respected producer. The KB’s were ‘ripe’ as one might expect, but the local producers’s were just as much so. 2005-7 were certainly years where many many pinots were made in that style - perhaps not by the likes of WS or ABC, but certainly by many others.
Yep, it’s not that long ago - but ‘general styles’ as it pertains to PN have changed a lot in CA since then. And not just PN - 2005 was a year that enabled folks to ripen stuff as long as they wanted as there was no adverse weather challenges to deal with an we had a nearly ideal winter and spring . . .