Pinot Days 2011 was a real blast, one of the more enjoyable large-scale tastings I’ve attended. One cannot hope to even begin to taste most of the wines at these events, but here were some memories that stuck out:
Most enjoyable producers:
Windy Oaks - As always, delicious and well-structured, will age beautifully.
Pelerin - Stylish SLH and Rosella’s pinots. I enjoyed talking at length with Chris Weidemann about his wines and winemaking.
Arcadian - I get what the enthusiasm is about. Very elegant, almost sexy style across the board.
Auteur - Boldly styled, but just awesome aromatics and flavors in good balance. The Shea bottling really shone.
Keefer - Solid, well-made wines from the proprietor of the well-known vineyard.
Swan - Another leaner, lighter style, but I can see how these well-built wines are renown for their ageworthiness.
Wrath - Intriguing for the bright flavors; some bottlings see zero oak of any kind! Excellent value as well.
Sequana - Dutton Ranch bottling in particular stood out.
Eric Kent - Solid across the board. A barrel sample of the 2010 Stiling had great stuffing.
Loring - My first encounter with Loring (and Brian!), and the buzz is true: big, broad-shouldered wines, but very flavorful…and a really cool guy too.
Sojourn - Very reliable producer…Craig’s wines seem like they should age well.
Skewis - Suave, balanced pinots from Mendocino and RRV, if memory serves.
Presqu’ile - Doug Wilder graciously pointed me to this new producer, who poured a nice Santa Maria pinot and a stylish rose as well. Their winemaker (Dieter, I believe), is a real hoot as well.
August West - Very solid, full of character. To his credit, Ed was pouring a 3-vintage vertical of Graham! (Thanks to Paul Luckin for jogging my pinot-clouded memory on that one!)
Least enjoyable (and deserving of mention for it):
JCB (American arm of Boisset) in the Burgundy corner had the chutzpah to pour a 2008 Mendocino pinot that was just oozing smoke and ashtray. The price? 75 bucks!!!
Meiomi’s little marketing stunt was tasteless at best.
The event itself was well-run, with great volunteer staff, food and water readily and consistently available, and I would recommend it without hesitation.
Lattanzio, Scherrer, and Keefer were the standouts for me on Saturday. I was dismayed, however, at the number of bretty wines being poured by some other producers. Yikes.