Anyone heard of Brewer-Clifton Pinot?

WINE TALK
21

According to a note I found on Ct, the ETOh was 14.1% and that seemed pretty accurate to me. This was not a big alcohol monster certainly. What I am gathering,though, is that this bottle may be an exception to the line-up of wines they have, so I will have to try more but tread carefully, it seems.

22

I had my first Brewer-Clifton last Tuesday – the 2009 Cargasacchi Vineyard Pinot. Clocked in at 14.7%. (2009 Brewer-Clifton Pinot Noir Cargasacchi Vineyard, USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills - CellarTracker).

Antonio Galloni reviewed it in the last issue of WA, giving it 94 points: “Generous fruit, acidity and structure all come together beautifully in the 2009 Pinot Noir Cargasacchi. It is arguably the most complex of the 2009 Pinots here. Plush dark cherries, plums, mint and licorice are some of the nuances that flow in this powerful, intense wine. Layers of sweet inner perfume add complexity on the virile finish. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2019.”

His note is spot-on. The wine was definitely weighty (and much more CA than Burgundy), but it managed the alcohol elegantly. It made me re-think the possibilities for elegant (and delicious) >14% pinot.

23

+1

24

No doubt all those rams’ horns buried by naked vestal virgins under a full moon have finally paid off for Peter’s fruit.

25

If I recall correctly, the '08 Pinot Noir Cargasacchi Vineyard was my favorite of their lineup as well - I posted my notes above.

26

For what it’s worth, Zachy’s has 3 different Chards and 4 different Pinots from the 09 vintage in stock and discounted from the listed regular bottle prices. No snide comments please!

27

Dead ringer for La Tache

28

I suspect you’re right - it was the “vestal virgins” combined with the cow manure.

29

Don’t forget the eagle’s blood

30

Well, you just saved me a ton of money. [whistle.gif]

31

Greg Brewer is a well know and well respected Pinot and Chard winemaker. He sourced fruit from us for many years and did a great job with it. He and Steve Clifton are very passionate winemakers. Greg also is Melville’s winemaker. His philosophy is to treat fruit from different vineyards exactly the same in the winery and apply the same wine making protocols. So the difference between, and there are differences, the BC Huber, Cargassachi, Zotovitch etc. in the same vintage is becausee of the vineyard not the winemaking. He also is a firm believer in 100% stem inclusion and very long cool fermentations- like weeks. To make his stem inclusion work he has the vineyard strip 100% of the leaves from the fruit very early in the growing season and lets it hang until the stems are very ripe. We for example strip 60% of the leaves on the eastside of the trellis because of the marine layer and 30% on the westside which gets the afternoon sun. I always enjoyed picking the BC sections of our vineyards because there were no leaves and it went very quickly. I believe the SRH AVA blend comes from the less interesting barrels for the SVD wines. At the risk of starting a food fight, while his wines tend to be high alcohol they are always in balance. I have had some 8 year BC Chard. from our vineyard that I thought was 2-3 years old and drinking wonderfully and its alcohol was 16%. As folks reactions can be colored by seeing the label, they can also be colored by seeing the ABV. Put BC wines in blind tasting with lesser alcohol wines and you will be surprised. [cheers.gif]

32

Credit goes to Robert Parker

33

My first ever Brewer Clifton was the 2004 Clos Pepe SRH Pinot. A friend of mine offered me his entire case, and I bought it solely on word-of-mouth recommendation. We drank the last bottle a few months back, and it was a wonderful wine. I got to meet Greg Brewer at a wine dinner he did here in Atlanta at Watershed (before it closed) this summer. We ran into him again in July at Melville where he had his kids in tow. I think the differences between his Melville Wines and his Brewer Clifton wines are pretty interesting.

Stephen is undoubtedly much more learned than me, but I would agree that although I’ve had some high alcohol wines over the years, I’ve never had one that seemed out of balance.

34

To the folks at B-C, I have enjoyed several of your single vineyard Chardonnays and Pinots in the past from retail or restaurant channels, and they are truly top-notch CA wines. I was pleased to recently acquire a number of bottles on the secondary market for around $40 and I felt like I got a good deal. I will no longer support your business or recommend it to anyone, however, due to your obnoxious marketing policies. Lurking BBs and making blacklists is petty to the third degree. Did you just put me on a list? Why or why not? [scratch.gif]
Mistake.

35

I’ve only had a few Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays from the '06 and '07 vintages as far as I remember, but I completely agree with this statement. Trying the wines before looking at the stated ABV, I would have been shocked every time. I like these wines and do think they are in balance, but of course they taste nothing like any Burgundy I have had. If you like the flavor profile of PN from this area, I think these wines are worth a try. I haven’t ordered in a couple of years, but I keep getting tempted to do so. I have read that some Chardonnays are bigger than others, but the PN’s across the board seemed rather elegant related to the majority of CA stuff I’ve had. Don’t get me wrong; there was lots of fruit and no lack of flavor, but it wasn’t a punch-you-in-the-mouth sort of fruit and there was plenty of non-fruit stuff (floral and spice) in there as well.

36

Just a thought here. If the extraction isn’t harsh and the yeasts are not stressed (minimal VA and fusel alcohols), perhaps the high EtOH is not going to be an issue as much. The slow, cool fermentation seems less likely to result in general roughness to the wine.

But I’m no enologist. I just believe there are more variables contributing to heat than ABV alone. There’s a correlation, just not necessarily direct causation.

At any rate, the wine in the original post sounds very good. The better producers in SRH can get great depth and body to a wine without letting it get stewey or hot. Burgundian doesn’t seem like the right word. The combo of size and earth seems to be tied to a cool/temperate climate that allows for long flavor development.

37

ABV is nothing more than a number. ABV is usually measured by a Ebulliometer which had a + or - .5% Inaccuracy. In California wines 13.9% abv. And below are given 1.5 points leeway not to excess 13.9% and wines 14.0% abv. Are given 1.0 points of flex. In theory a wine labeled as 15.0 abv. Can be labeled anywhere from 14.0-16.0.abv. It’s just a number. Many producers have labeled their wines as “Table Wines” to avoid labeling their actual abv. I have had wines with low abv. printed on the label. Tonight I had a 2009 Eric Kent SC pinot labeled in the high 13’s which had head on the back of my throat in the past I had a McPrice Meyers Syrah which was in the high 16%. Hot wines show the heat because they are disjointed not because of high alc. BTW Brewer/Diatom with a few others in the area are the stars of the central coast.

38

We had a bottle of the 15 Brewer Clifton Chard [SRH] over the last few days and I liked it, although was expecting it to be better. It’s 14%, and pretty big…but not so far as to be goopy. There’s some juicy acid too. I have another bottle and will enjoy that, but won’t expressly be looking to reload. I am looking forward to trying a bottle of the pinot though. I can’t remember which one it is. I’d give this chardonnay a B+ and with the sidenote that it doesn’t seem like a good value. Although I’d say that about most CA whites - I don’t get enough incremental joy out of them as the price goes up compared to other regions/grapes.

39

The 2015 Brewer Clifton range from 14 to 15%, that would go for the 2015 Diatom Chardonnay as well. I find them well-balanced and fairly priced for the landscape. One of only two wines to get a 100 point review from me last June in my time down there. I love his work.

40

It will be interesting to see what the ownership change does to the label in the near future and down the road. For those who don’t know, KJ bought them not too long ago. That definitely does not mean something negative is going to happen. It’s just a little more information.