EPIC Roasthouse Pigroast and Pinot Event Notes

Last week was a week filled with Pinot. Starting Wednesday when I volunteered to pour for the Newcomers Tasting and the Wines of Ed Kurtzman tasting (part of Pinot Days), Saturday’s Epic Roasthouse Pig Roast and Pinot event and culminating in the Pinot Days Grand Tasting.

Epic Roasthouse, for a little background, is a steakhouse located on the water in the Embarcardero. It is very expensive and has garnered a reputation for being an expense account restaurant. When Peay Winery alerted their mailing list customers to the event I thought well, this is going to be a bank breaker. To my surprise the event came out at what seemed a very reasonable $50. Then I thought, well not much food then…I was wrong. Excellent ribs (although those who ate them later found them too spicy for the Pinots), Porchetta sandwiches, caprese salad, potato salad, pork loin sandwiches, and finally maple ice cream ice cream cones with a bacon brittle topping…Turned out to be one of the best wine tasting I have been too.

A few people had great foresight to pour some cold CHardonnays on what turned out to be a sweltering mid 80 degree day in SF. I’ll note the Chards first:

07 Ceritas “Porter-Bass Vyd” Chardonnay - low 13% alcohol Chard. Very crisp, lemony, flinty with a nice minerality to it. Reminds of a cross between Chablis and full blown Chardonnay. Price is $51 which isn’t cheap but for purchasers of highend Chardonnay this is worth it. 92/100

07 Freeman “Ryo-Fu” Chardonnay - richer than the Ceritas, more tropical fruit, lemon, minerality. Nicely weighted, nicely textured. Another terrific Chard from Ed Kurtzman. 92/100

07 Peay Estate Chardonnay - Andy Peay, aptly wearing a t-shirt with a pig diagrammed on it, decided not to be out done so he bought several Chards off Epic’s list. Terrific Chardonnay and probably my favorite of the 3 by a slim margin. Shows more roasted almond to accompany the citrus and tropical fruit. I loved the almond in the wine…93/100

Now to Pinots - the mostly very good to great with one real clunker.

2007 Macphail Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast- I don’t recall this having a vineyard designation but thought it was terrific. Macphail seems to do a great job balancing rich fruit, with good acidity/structure/complexity. I really enjoyed this wine. 93/100

2005 Hirsch “Hirsch Vyd” Pinot Noir - from Magnum. I tried it about 1/2 empty and thought it was terrific as well. More acidity than almost anything there, blackberry pie fruit, baking spice and nice minerality. 92/100. They poured an 06 as well but I found it under fruited compared to the 05.

2007 Peay “Estate” Pinot Noir - terrific wine for the money. Nicely fruited with dark cherries, a little bit of chocolate, spice and nice enough acidity to keep it fresh. 91/100

2006 Freeman “Akkiko’s Cuvee” and “Keefer Ranch” (IIRC on the Keefer), but very nice with nice fruit (cherries/cranberries), underbrush and nice acidity. I have to say though that I prefer the 05 and 07 versions of each of these wines. still very good though and I would give each 90/100…not bad just the 05 and 07 are that much better!!

2007 Ceritas “Escarpa Vineyard” Pinot Noir - Probably my Pinot of the Tasting. Pretty amazing wine of black cherry, spice, minerality, licorice and tannin that needs a little time to unwind. Great acidity…just a super effort. 93+/100

Red Car’s 2007 Pinot was utterly undrinkable to me. It was a like a ball of fruit punch with cinammon mixed in. No front, no backend, all mid palate. to quote Jim Laube “tasted twice with consistent results”

Iron Horse also poured their Pinot along with a sparkling Pinot Noir - the sparkling was nice b/c it was cold, crisp but other than that I won’t be looking to buy either their Pinot or Sparkler.

All in all a terrific event. For those that wanted to continue drinking, you could go up to the private room upstairs and order any of the winemakers Pinots at half off the wine list price which put them at just above retail.

I would definitely do this again for the price and quality of wine and food.

Tony; Nice event and some great notes!!! You had quite the weekend!!


If you get a chance, put up something about Bodega Bistro…that place deserves some props!!

Thanks for everything!

Cheers!
Marshall

Marshall - working on it. Can you email the names and vintages of the wines you brought?

Thanks

Tony,
Thanks for the great notes. I was wondering how that event turned out. I was really tempted to go, but would have had to miss the two Saturday afternoon Pinot Days seminars, and I like those too. I’m glad the food was good, and there was lots of it. I also agree with your comments about all the Freemans you noted, and the MacPhail. Interesting about the Red Car. Can’t say I’ve ever been too impressed with their Pinots. The '07 Box Car was a mess when I tasted it last year–very disjointed.

Was there as well, Tony pretty much said everything. Really a nice event. Tony didn’t mention the Roessler wines, which I thought were excellent.

Richard - I was really impressed by the event. I thought they did quite a bit for my $50.

Alan - I knew I forgot someone. The 07 Roessler wines were indeed very nice. They poured a Griffin’s Lair and Ridges. I thought the Ridges was a little bit of a step up on concentration/depth/complexity. Still very nice wines.

Richard - I believe they poured the 07 Box Car Pinot…it wasn’t any better.