I did not realize he was getting publishing articles and some are getting picked up by Huffington Post. Congrats! I read his notes on CT a lot.
I attended last years In Pursuit of Balance as a consumer and really enjoyed the conversation and wines.
I think 2010 and 2011 were great vintages, due to cooler temperatures, for wines going after this style.
I did not make it this year so was searching the net for info about it. Maybe next year I will try and pour some wine at the event.
Who went and what did you think of this years wines and event?
I went to the event and will have some notes posted on Grape-Nutz.com soon. Overall, I really liked the wines at IPOB - one of the best tastings I’ve been to in some time.
Joe,
Thanks for sharing my HuffPo piece on the In Pursuit of Balance tasting. Like Ken, I thought it was a terrific tasting, with an unusual number of very good wines. It was also exciting to discover several new winemakers making wine in my favored style.
Al’s right–HuffPo publishes a post from me every week.
Ken, I look forward to your write up on the event.
First off, many many Congratulations to Richard. I always enjoy tasting with him…and I also enjoy reading the Huffington Post. So it is especially enjoyable for me to see the two combined.
Having said that, does any one else find it odd that an event which has as its stated purpose, "“to promote dialogue around the meaning and relevance of balance in California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay” gathers together a group of completely like-minded producers? I guess if you want the dialogue to consist of a lot of “I agrees” and “You’re right” such a gathering makes sense. But I tend to think that at least some divergent viewpoints make for more meaningful dialogue.
They might be worried that someone would serve a 15.2% alc pinot, labeled as 13.7%, and like it
I’m assuming they’re looking for a discussion about different ways to achieve balance/etc at a lower alc level, rather than having the high vs low alc discussion…and might feel that the high vs low alc discussion would distract/drown out the other discussion, which seems like a reasonable concern.
Thanks. I very much enjoyed watching last year’s Panel/Press Discussion which was broadcast on the web. This year it seemed that there was just a Press/Trade Tasting and a Public Tasting…so not completely sure how that leads to a discussion aboutdifferentways to achieve balance. Accordingly, most of the articles I have seen about the tasting have focused solely on alcohol levels (though Raj has definitely pointed out that balance is more than that in many of the articles I’ve read) and the quality of the wines (which seems like it was very high).
But I think the topic you mention would be fascinating. Personally, I would love to talk about the 22.2 brix we picked Hirsch at in 2011 but how the pH was higher than in 2009 when we picked at 24 brix (and I’d love insight on why that happened). Or how in a cool vintage we often end up with a higher % of malic acid and this leads to such a shift during ml that we have to add acid even when the starting pH is quite low. – Or how to adjust pruning timing to change ripening curves, etc.
I think that would all be great…but if that was the goal I don’t see that it happened from the articles.
I would love to better understand how tartaric is formed in the grapes/leaves/etc during the season and why it was so low, esp relative to Malic, in 2011. I would have guessed tartaric formation is related to amount of sunlight…but 2011 had a good amount of sunlight hours/intensity…it was a very cool year, but good for sunlight (as compared to 2010…according to the stats I’ve seen). So, if true, that shoots the sunlight = tartaric theory.
In addition to Hirsch, it’d be interesting to compare our Pratt (Sexton? What is the correct name here), since you and I both got fruit there.
I didn’t go to either IPOB tastings, so don’t know what was discussed there. Hopefully others that attended can put in their two cents.
While i suppose you could loosely call this a group of " completely like-minded producers", I feel that this is quite a broad brushstroke. I don’t exactly think of Miura, native9, red car, freestone (until just this vintage), or rcent calera ( pushing 15) as low alcohol producers. And while there is maybe more 13 percent types, there is a pretty vast range of geography and style here. I don’t think anyone could confuse a miura pisoni for an anthill.
Adam, not much, other than the concentration of high quality producers, many with production too small to pour at a tasting the size of pinot days. I wonder if this really very many winemakers that would say they are not going for balanced wines though, and the inference that balance is a club could be seen a a tad pretentious.
On an aside, i am extremely interested in the relationships between the types of acid and relation to ripeness, and have pored over your posted harvest data alot. It seems to me that wines like the ones from rochiolis old vines set a benchmark for wines with impressive richness and concentration, led to trending to richness that led to extreme wines. And now a backlash of sorts. This “movement” will surely lead to a similar escalations of early picking, and whole cluster fermentation, ( interesting contrary to me, as lignified stems and less ripe grapes dont always marry), producing polar opposite extreme frankenwines. Maybe the next backlash will lead us back to the middle ground.
I have absolutely experienced heat and disjointed alcohol at very low stated values, and had extremely nimble wines squarely in the upper register.
I can relate to a consumer or customer criticizing or critiquing In Pursuit of Balance & the events focus, ideals or direction, but for two other producer to do so, well… I thought we were past those days.
From my seat, it seems that one producer enjoyed taking the other side of almost every discussion in wine on ever blog, every chat board & every medium in an attempt to maintain buzz. Unfortunately, twice now it’s been at the expense of Raj Parr which is just not classy nor does it show leadership.
As for consumers reading this post, there are lot of other great Pinot Noir events out there including: World of Pinot Noir, Pinot on the River, Pinot Posse, International Pinot Noir Celebration & Pinot Camp.
Disclosure: I poured my own wines at In Pursuit of Balance and am a close friend of Raj Parr.
I’d welcome your comments on anything that I specifically said about IPOB. Here’s what I see that I said:
The quality of the wines was very high.
Raj has consistently pointed out in many of the articles that balance is about more than just alcohol.
That I missed the seminar from last year that was broadcast over the web (if one occured this year and I missed it, I apologize. I looked for it and couldn’t find it and didn’t see it described in any of the articles about IPOB).
That without this seminar the press on the event has focused almost completely on the alcohol and the specific wines (see “How Low Can you Go” from Wines and Spirits and Steve Heimoff’s blog as two examples of this concentration on alcohol)
That by not having the seminar and having dinners and the Tasting, IPOB was more like other Pinot events.
That having more divergent viewpoints in a seminar format would better serve the stated goal of “promote dialogue around the meaning and relevance of balance in California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.” Eric already took a bit of issue with this, and his point was well taken.
A point that I didn’t make in this thread, but that I do hold and would welcome your comments on, is that I do think the name “In Pursuit of Balance” is exclusionary and I agree with Corey that most CA Pinot Noir makers are pursuing balance.
I also am very sorry that you took these points as somehow critical personally of Raj. I am at a loss to understand how. I am not sure if you follow me on Twitter but if you look at my tweets on Friday you will see that I was (I believe the first) to Tweet a Congratulatory message to Raj for his great write up on Jim Laube’s Wine Spectator blog, along with a link to that blog. I have a hard time figuring out how doing that, and then going on here and being critical of Raj personally somehow, fit together. — I also want to point out that I enjoy and do my best to support California Pinot Noirs of all styles (in fact, just last night at Cowboy Ciao here in Scottsdale I bought my distributors a bottle of your 2009 Kutch Anderson Valley Pinot Noir. It was very good, btw).
What I won’t let go without comment, however, Jamie, is your unknowing speculation about my motives. To say that I am taking the positions I hold, or posting the comments I do, based on some “attempt to maintain buzz” is both entirely speculatory and not factual. I say what I say because I believe what I say. And I think it is important that different points of view be heard. I truly believe that forthright discussion and even disagreement about viticultural techniques, winemaking techniques, grape chemistry (such as my coments about pH and malic levels), and wine styles is good for wine quality and for all of our businesses. For you to imply that my motives are otherwise is simply uncalled for.
In case it’s not obvious, the statement above was poking fun at Adam (in a small way, or what was intended as small/inconsequential) about the Keefer/Carg switch that came out at the WOPN last year.
Also, forgot to say that it was another excellent write up by Richard. I agree with your comment that 2010 has produced some exceptional wines. 2011 might or might not be an excellent (or good) vintage…it’s early to tell I think, and it depends on the vineyard, picking date and other factors.
Adam, like-minded producers joining together makes sense to me - I almost view it like pop music where similar acts put together a Lollapalooza, a Lilith Fair, a Monsters of Rock, etc. They appeal to the same fan base, and the dialogue can be about their different approaches, even if similar.
I appreciate the comments…though I’d be remiss to not point out that one of the most successful (seemingly from press coverage) Coachellas was the 2010 where Jay-Z headlined the opening night. A different point of view.
But even if you are completely correct and I am completely wrong, as someone who wanted to attend but couldn’t because I was traveling on business, I missed there being a panel and the video feed of it. Last year I did learned a lot from it and saw more complete and complex coverage because of the panel (here’s an example: http://www.tastingpanelmag.com/Publication/TP/2011/May-2011/In-Pursuit-of-Balance.aspx) that I did from accounts from the tasting. Just my $.02 worth.
Well, the British army wasn’t invited to the Boston Tea Party, either.
Adam, always glad to see your viewpoints expressed here. It is a recurring refrain, however, for you and other proponents of the Riper/Richer School to call out for “equal time” when events or articles choose to focus on the minority-but-perhaps-growing subset of CA pinot noir, i.e. the Elegant/Restrained School. But the Riper/Richer folks are clearly the mainstream segment, whether defined by numbers of producers or market share or critical acclaim among leading wine critics. That is not news. So it is logical and inevitable that events or articles about the minority segment will often focus strictly there. It’s not even worth registering a complaint about being excluded, IMO.
Adam has produced many wines that are much lower in octane than some of the participants in this event.
I don’t find Siduri to be a full fledged member of the Richer/Riper Club.
Just sayin’…
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