Looking for something interesting in the cellar, the heavy bottle of 2005 Adrian Fog Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir, alc 14.5% caught my eye…the nose was like sweet-tarts and the taste was confectioners sugar poured over artificially flavored fruit all mixed in an oak barrel of dill pickles…YUCK!!! One of the most contrived and “spoofulated” wines I have ever had…not corked, not cooked just bad…
??? $75 for this
Looking for something better… 2005 Domaine Tortochet Gevrey-Chambertin Les Jeunes Rois", alc 13%…now we have a very bitter and astringent wine that has green notes and the sensation of the use of underripe grapes…granted, this might just be young and shut down but it gave NO pleasure and didn’t seem to promise any later…
Finally, a 2006 Alesia San Mateo County Pinot Noir was opened and was really excellent with balance, interest, intensity and great structure
The first time I had an Adrian Fog “Pinot” was the '01 vintage, after it received a big Parker review, and something like 95 pts. I hated it, and had a hard time discerning anything Pinot-like about it. I tried another vintage or two after that with similar results. I’ve successfully avoided them since.
I opened a bottle of an 02 Adrian Fog single vineyard about a year ago and it was cloudy, stinky and a mess. I had no idea what the flaw was so I actually put the cork in the bottle and brought it to Ian Dorin (at Wine Library) to see/taste. He took one whiff and refused to even taste it! Poured down the drain and won’t be buying any more.
Interesting glancing at some of the tasting notes in CT. The 2002 vintage of the Adrian Fog Savoy appeared to have some secondary fermentation issue. And yet a few tasting notes seem to increase the rating because they find the spritziness unique or typical! Fortunately most of the tasters ding the wine pretty hard core.
I opened a bottle of the Alesia last week and was amazed. Pinot seems to be so hit or miss, even at the higher price points, it amazes me how people like Rhys and Sojourn manage to make consistently great ones in the $30 - $50 range.
Wow, must be a horrible producer to get green notes from a 2005 burgundy. A shut down 2005 will just taste like minerals and oak. There shouldnt be any green from being shutdown. FWIW, most 2005s seem shut down hard these days that ive tried.
BTW, I agree with you. I hate adrian fog. What a complete waste of good grapes
This also seemed to be the case with the 05 Adrian Fog I bought, and I’ve read many other comments to the effect that something biological and nasty is going on in that wine after bottling. A great example of why Parker should be ignored when it comes to Pinot.
To add to the commentary above about Adrian Fog wines from '01 '02 and '05… This '00 we had two months back had the same wacky secondary fermentation stuff going on as the other examples people are citing. Seems like a consistent problem across multiple vintages and it is hard to imagine nobody has called the producer out on this…
2000 Adrian Fog Pinot Noir Hawkeye Vineyard Anderson Valley. Houston, we have a problem. Something has gone terribly wrong here and if one looks at the small number of notes on CellarTracker, this bottle does not appear to be unusual in terms of its failures. For starters, the color is totally faded and rather cloudy in appearance. If one holds the glass up to the light, it is almost as if the solids in the wine have separated from the liquids. On the nose, it is quite fuzzy and disjointed with over-ripe fruits, balsa wood and soft earth aromas seemingly all over the place. In the mouth, it is totally crab-apple sour and makes the face squinch up in response. Plainly stated, this is just awful and totally undrinkable.
A very dangerous game when attempting to push the limits on wine so that they taste good young…you end with crap just a few years down the road. It seems to happen to many producers.
A shame, as some critics never seem to go back and taste what they once scored very high.
