Tessier TN

Bottle one of four from MysteryPack of older pinots, available now for $120 total

2010 Tessier Russian River pinot (the only one of the four with no vineyard specified, just RRV, and the oldest of the four pinots in the Mystery Pack, which are the two reasons why I opened this one first)

Magnificent perfect acidity. I was a huge Williams Selyem fan through the 1997 vintage after which Burt Williams left, and for me that defined what to look for in Russian River pinot. This is different. The acidity is clearer and more transparent like looking through a newly cleaned window at the fruit, there is Santa Rita-type distinct earthy terroir on the finish which is not my Russian River predisposition at all (never seen it before in RRV), the oak is present but obviously because this wine is at a young stage (this ten year old pinot needs air or time to integrate the oak which is mild). I wonder if this is from uphill a little in the Riddle Vineyard area as RRV heads westward toward Sonoma Coast. If it’s from flatland RRV, it redefines RRV for me. It’s impossible not to pour a second glass. At one point I thought, is this Burgundian since I like it so much? No. It’s RRV plus Sonoma Coast plus Santa Rita and that acidity just perfectly calculated for a long finish and a freshness that goes well with food but does not need food. For $30 as part of a one-time-deal it’s a ridiculous bargain and a must buy. After writing this I ordered another four pack. It’s interesting with all this pinot that I became aware of her rigorous discipline in winemaking and her wines through a grenache I liked which I have not yet ordered.

I tasted her wines side by side with Eric Lundblad’s Ladd wines (I’m a huge fan of his savory wines with food) and yes Virginia there are American wines which go great with food but with complexity and distinct uniqueness and without brash acidity. Not “like” anything, they are what they are and it obviates the need to spend, maybe ever, more than $48 for any bottle of wine other than Bordeaux-based.

I love red Burgundy but more than half the bottles I drink are narrowminded disappointments (except Dominique Laurent, never narrow LOL) and the pricing in the past six months has become a sick joke which only self delusional addicts can rationalize and which when tasted blind make no sense. Except for those very few transcendent experiences…dammit…

St. Henri Shiraz 2002

Outstanding young fruit, good acidity, oak minimal, but annoying powdery tannins.

2006 Lillian Syrah

Counterproductive packaging.

I think this is not the higher end Blue which has the exact same label but it’s slightly bluer. But it looks KIND of blue. Maybe? The back label does not tell me. I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DRINKING. Did someone advise her that the panache that comes from a tenuous ongoing connection to Manfred Krankl means she has to be as cryptic as his wine names are? He’s successful IN SPITE OF his wine names. Atlantis Fe Square Root Of Whatever. And now it’s even worse because if some twenty year old, like a politician’s family member, are at all a blood relative of Manfred, he/she gets to sell Aligote for $400 a bottle in a threepack The design of the Lillian regular syrah (I think that’s this? effed if I know) and the Blue are elegant when viewed abstractly, but when meaning is sought in the design, for example I’D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT I’M DRINKING, for this transplanted New Englander they are definitely pictures of a battered seagull feather on the beach that’s been there a long time.

Anyway the wine, just opened, too cold, first of several days.
Starts with light reduction, which for me has almost always meant a wine I will really like if it dissipates, an issue on which Allen Meadows is pedantic and boring and unhelpful. Balanced and delicious and clean and fresh. That is not the wine, it has not even started. But for starters the fundamental winemaking is stellar, balanced plus fresh nonbrisk acidity plus staying out of the way. As I write this, thirty seconds after swallowing (huh? must be the temp) the chill-restrained finish emerges, dark and tarry and oh yeah. Bears no resemblance to any Sine Qua Non I’ve had (I “like” half of the SQN reds I’ve had, I’ve “loved” (deeply) maybe ten percent, the other half I do not care for, it’s a very exciting Advent calendar as long as my friend Steve opens his and I’m not paying. Stock and Stein are readily available and worth it, however).

Several minutes later: that wonderful finish is still there, and it’s not from alcohol, it’s not from oak, it’s dark, this might be world class for my palate.

Later: oak just emerged, dammit, there had been none. It’s sexy and expensive though. If I had to guess, it’s a plus, but it means this wine needs a lot more time or a lot more air. It’s on the edge of interfering rather than complementing. Please, oak, don’t emerge more. And please, alcohol, don’t emerge at all. This wine is just getting started.

Dammit the oak is on the finish.

A few minutes later. Oak drowning out the terrific uncompromising dark fruit.

Two days later. Oak has calmed down but there’s winemaking stuff – oak, tannins now powdery – in the way of that deep dark fruit, I can’t see it any more.

Nice notes George! I must try the Tessier.

Thank you Don, I can’t speak for the terroir, I can speak with confidence for the grapepicking/winemaking choices. The grenache last year showed the same attributes.

Square Peg Winery, a very recent visit review, not a TN

In retrospect stunningly recent, March 13-15, but another world altogether:
Winery visit on the cusp of stay-at-home during a haphazard glorious weekend in Occidental and Mendocino County which at that point had no virus reported: Square Peg Winery. Lovely intimate visit, possibly excellent terroir, with mixed wine results (14.5 % pinot) with the case I brought home. At the winery, the wines stood up to a 2002 Le Moine Clos de Beze I opened as thanks, but now I am home. Anyone out there have general impressions about where the winery is going? Is this more Zin terroir than pinot?

I have not yet tasted the Square Peg Riddle Vineyard pinot I brought home next to a favorite of mine, Young Hagen Riddle Vineyard which was the bargain of the day at Berserker Day and I screwed up and bought only a few, I should have bought it all. Serious. Riddle Vineyard is right next to Square Peg but I don’t think many American pinots would stand up to the Young Hagen for my palate. Square Peg I wish you luck in my upcoming Riddle Tasteoff.
Square Peg’s Brad gave us a beautiful, kind, langorous, unforgettable, open, winery and vineyard visit and I really root for him. The reservation-only tasting room might be the prettiest I have seen, his wife is a brilliant very accomplished artist. We were at the informal tasting bar, which had great views of vineyards we discussed and the visit was a privilege, we were treated as friends.

The Early Virus Era wines.

Huet has become for me really intriguing, when the acid outweighs the sugar it’s a very complex satisfying drink with food. If you find any 2007 Franc de Pied buy it, it’s a remarkable tweener.

This was my last 1992 Matanzas Creek Merlot, over the years they were from various provenances. With perfect cork, this bottle was a $200 Pomerol, but most bottles you would find now are tired, I won’t buy more. But geez, this one was so deep and complex and Bordelasian. I’d buy a case of this if it were sure to be this.

The Poonawatta was terrific and balanced. 140 year old vines now. None for sale in the world.

The Lone Madrone The Dodd is perfectly balanced, a lot of tannat.

All of the other wines pictured I have mixed quasi-emotional opinions about how these particular bottles showed. A roomful of tasters would have been split between nice try, like, and love.

OK back to isolation Era.

1993 Champy Clos St. Denis

I braced myself and gritted my teeth and waited for an onslaught of Brett. What if there’s no Brett? Might be one of the great wine bargains.

There was no brett. Lean and boring at first. Then Morey terroir, albeit in a light brisk package but still hey this might be a bargain find!

But the fruit though typical was light and diluted and could not withstand the acidity. Let’s wait a day. On Day Two the acidity was searing, the fruit was small and tired, and the wine was literally untasteable.

Sigh. There’s apparently more than one reason why 1990’s Champy grands crus are low priced.

Kristie Tacey at Tessier was kind enough to answer today that the vineyards contributing to the above 2010 Tessier RRV Pinot were Saralee’s and Trenton Station. No new oak used (yay!).
I looked up those vineyards and I was wrong, Saralee’s is in traditional RRV, Trenton Station is a few miles west nearJoseph Swan but still not up in the Dutton/Riddle area. So I guess the fresh acidity and earth are things Kristie found in traditional RRV grapes, not the usual soft rhubarb root beer. I think pinot and oak go together poorly and maybe this is what happens when you don’t pick too late and you don’t mess it up with crowdpleasing sweet oak.

Kristie poured a couple of her Tessier Pinots at a tasting I attended early this month. The 2017 from Anderson Valley’s Filigreen Farm and the 2016 Saveria Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz Mountains were both impressive. And her 2018 Alegría Vineyard Cabernet Franc from Russian River Valley was fantastic! Kristie didn’t pour her Gamay or Grenache at that tasting but I’ve really enjoyed them before.

Earlier today I ordered a second Mystery Older Pinot Fourpack, two grenaches, and two of those Alegria cab francs, her last vintage from those grapes.

I wrote at length about a 1993 Dominique Laurent Beaune Vielles Vignes I started last night and about Laurent’s wines but I deleted it and much of this thread. In short, it was beautiful. The 2017 is available for $43 if you can sit on it for 24 years.