Assorted Rivers Marie 2008-14

WINE TALK
41

Speaking as a still relative new person to this board, but long time wino, this does absolutely nothing but aggravate a person not familiar with the “inside” joke. Kinda like this is our club and a slight jab to new people who are coming here for real info.

Before anyone says it, yes I put more stock in a tasting note. Thing is it’s hard to read every single thing here and this makes it hard to calibrate to other people & their scores/notes.

This is really an interesting thread.

People really read and ponder these things?

It’s fine that people post notes and scores, but it takes a lot to read them and then to figure out whether the score matches the prose and whether the person has any context with which to make the conclusion.

This board has people with all kinds of palates, tastes, and experience.

I wasn’t aware of the joke but I kind of like it - a 93 is a very nice score to attach to a wine.

People score wines as shit that I’d give 93 points to, and give 93 points to wines I think are shit. Who cares?

42

If a completely new poster did this would it be acceptable? Asking for a friend.

43

who cares?

44

Who cares if a new person does this? Is that what you’re saying?

45

Either?

46

So if everyone started doing this, that would be ok as well?

47

If their notes were as good as Adrians, yes, absolutely! I give almost not weight to 98% of the scores I read here.

48

Anthony I would welcome new posters and old posters alike to post notes as detailed and thought conveying as Adrian. You can score them all as a 69 for all I care.

Seriously. Who cares. If you write a detailed and worthwhile note like Adrian does, the score doesn’t matter. When you read the note does it convey what the taster has just drunk? If so it’s a good note and the points don’t matter next to it.

For all the harping people do on this board that score doesn’t matter and that only the note matters there’s certainly a lot of whining and moaning about Adrian’s fake score.

49

It’s not the score, it’s the confusing nature of it.

How about just don’t give one?

50

Oh and I learned long ago not to believe most people when they say scores don’t matter.

51

anthony,

what are your thoughts on Rivers-Marie and what are your thoughts on the wines?

that is massively more important than worrying about an arbitrary score. Aren’t we here for actual wine discussion?

52

Why does that matter? It could be scores & tns on sodas.

53

Personally do I think it’s a little silly? yes. I get the inside joke, though it’s kinda stopped being funny but is kinda just ‘there’ now…

However, does it really matter? not at all.

Like his notes, read it… don’t like it, close the thread. really nothing worth arguing about.

Plus if you really care about the score, it’s quite literally 2 clicks away.


Of course it’s “acceptable”… It’s also going to be a little silly… but it’s not like the Mods would ban the user / delete the post.

54

Ur correct, done wasting time on this.

55

speaking of rivers marie, just got my shipment notification for the release last month!

56

I’m not the brightest and it took me about ten seconds to realize that the 93’s were tongue in cheek. I agree with John Morris-hilarious. Pointilism has many facets. Using points as a basis for parody is perfectly appropriate. R-M has an ardent fan base. I have to wonder, is the backlash really about the inside joke or that the wines are being criticized as “not all that”?

57

An inside joke on a wine bored? I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!!

58

The responses to Adrian’s scoring system are quite telling- irony at its absolute finest.

59

adding an extra layer into the irony of it all is that Adrian actually did enjoy some of the wines and he didn’t eviscerate any of them. And yet, people still have their pitchforks ready over something silly

60

Good lord so much bitching on a setup that is nearly instantly checkable. Just click a link to a note, then click the link on the tasting event, help Eric Levine out a bit with traffic on CT and get this:

2008 Rivers-Marie Chardonnay B. Thieriot Vineyard 90 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
I actually compared this favourably to the style of Henri Boillot. The nose shows a moderate amount of reduction, while the palate has both the fat fruit, oak, and mineral/acid cut that I get from Boillot’s wines. Where this differs is the fruit profile. While this is clearly the leanest of the 2008/2009/(corked) 2010 flight, it’s pretty obvious that the fruit here is very plush and broad; not so much the Burgundian style. There are sweet citrus elements here, perhaps a bit of marmalade as well. But all in all, this was my clear favourite of the two sound chardonnays.

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2009 Rivers-Marie Chardonnay B. Thieriot Vineyard 85 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
I liked this much less than the 2008. While this seems to have many of the same hallmarks as the older wine, there isn’t enough of the mineral and acid elements here to give this wine the cut it needs. Already on the nose this is fairly sweet, showing even a hint of caramel. I’m guessing this was also visited by some botrytis (something I personally dislike in chardonnay). The oak here isn’t as well integrated either, showing a slight amount of bitterness and tannin on the back end.

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2010 Rivers-Marie Chardonnay B. Thieriot Vineyard Flawed
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Corked.

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2009 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 88 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Interesting; I had had this wine about four years ago and thought it to tasted a bit too much like sour strawberry juice. I certainly didn’t get that impression today. The nose on this was really aromatic, with a nice exotic mix of black and red fruit, some spice, and a very mild cola note. The palate starts off very nicely too, with a concentrated attack with the same luscious fruit, but it tapers off quickly on the back end. And despite the almost 10 years of age, this doesn’t display any secondary characteristics.

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2014 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 88 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
This didn’t show as well as the 2009, but I liked this a little bit more. It’s a more muted and sedate wine, with a nose that isn’t as explosive as the 2009. In fact, there’s a slight bit of reduction on the nose that couples with some riper fruit. The palate is less of a big diminuendo compared to the 2009 as well. It’s more even and doesn’t taper off as much, but the attack isn’t as strong either. This feels more structural to me, and shows a really nice vein of minerality that gives this wine directionality.

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2010 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Old Vines Summa 90 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
This was my wine of the night. The nose and palate show a fruit profile that is ripe, but with tart elements. The generous and expansive fruit here leans to the red end of the spectrum. And even though the ripeness here makes you perceive the wine as being somewhat sweet, there’s still some acidity to lift this wine up from being heavy. This is what my conception of great California pinot is, but no matter what, that is not a genre that I enjoy.

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2010 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Gioia Vineyard 83 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
A very disappointing wine, though perhaps it suffered a bit by being sandwiched by the two Summa OV wines. This is pretty much the only wine where I picked up pronounced earthy characteristics (or at least, the only wine where it stood out enough that I bothered to make a note of it). The palate is the point of failure here; there’s just too much alcoholic heat on the backend, and not enough other stuffing to help cover it up or support it.

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2008 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Old Vines Summa 85 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
The nose here is quite high-toned and volatile. Some at the table said it was VA, but I felt that there was more alcohol and aldehydes than acidity. In any case, it wasn’t the most pleasant. The palate is definitely better than the nose here, but that’s a pretty low bar to beat. The fruit is here, and it’s a mix of red and black, but it feels tired and doesn’t have the generous expansiveness that I found in the 2010. The palate also thins out after the attack. Those of us who owned this wine expressed some worry about it; I’d certainly be interested to know if this note was of a representative bottle or not.

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2009 Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon 88 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley
The nose here is nice, showing a bit of dust, a hint of oak, and lots of black fruit. Missing, though, are the green elements that I love in Bordeaux. The palate is very similar, with a generous amount of supple fruit that doesn’t have much give. Surprisingly un-tannic. In fact, this was something I noticed across the cabernet flight – all the wines are very soft and don’t have any chewy tannin at all. Despite the lower appellation and the age, this also didn’t show any secondary characterists.

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2009 Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard 88 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
This is a step above the other two 2009 cabernets, but not that much of a step up. Of the three wines, I thought that this was the most red-fruited, and showed the most structure. Even then, the structure here isn’t that big. It’s a wine that seems like it will topple over if you give it a gentle shove. Where’s the tannin? This is fleshy and generous, and a bit too easy. I like to work for my cabernet.

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2009 Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon Corona Vineyard 88 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville
Like the other two cabernets in this flight, this was a very soft and structureless wine. It’s not overwrought and oaked out of the wazoo, but there’s also far too much give on the palate. The nose is a little more intense than the 2009 Napa, and I think this feels like a denser, more potent version of that wine. The fruit, like the 2009 Napa is also black, and while there’s more structure here, it’s still too easy of a cabernet for my taste.