That would be DiamondCreek, Wes.
Tom
How different is any of this from BV Private Reserve and Inglenook Cask, which go back much, much further.
If people buy the wines, why would they do it? One of the key things that is rarely mentioned on line is that the wineries really don’t need the Berserker entitled class.
This is awesome haha!!
Adam - do you mind giving some background on why you guys produce so many different single vineyards? Did you guys always pump all of these out or is the KJ family asking you to?
Why are Pinot single vineyards produced at variancwa much greater than Cabs?
There was a huge selection of Siduri single vineyard Pinots long before the buyout.
There certainly were.
I like, Howard, that you combined distinctiveness and good in your response. Distinctiveness alone is probably not enough. I remember a fine conversation I had with Paul Sloan at Small Vines last summer. We were talking about making a pinot from a single clone and he answered in the negative—he had tried a bit and the wine simply wasn’t interesting/good enough that way.
The market will dictate whether a SVD bottling is worth producing. “Good,” “Interesting,” and “Distinctive” are all subjective.
The time would be when nine of the twelve cuvees do not sell well at $60 per bottle and the winery discovers that three of them would sell well at $100 per bottle.
Very true. For Siduri it was, in part, geographic diversity. Sourcing grapes from the northern end of the Willamette Valley to the Sta. Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County made it easier to bottle different wines. If we were getting all of our grapes from, say the Russian River, it would have been more difficult to justify that many offerings. Per larger area (such as the Russian River Valley) I think the most bottlings we ever had was 5 or 6.
Does that make any sense?
Adam Lee
I believe of our 27 PN releases 17 are from a single clone. Sometimes it is the point, sometimes that’s all there is. Regardless, differing point of view and it seems Mr. Sloan and I would disagree.
Howard also mentioned a wine being complete or not. A single clone/block/vineyard/whatever can be very distinct and all super-positive stuff, but just not complete on its own. Or, maybe even too much of some good stuff which needs to be blended down.
It’s all case by case. I infer Mr. Sloan’s opinion was regarding single clones all in the same vineyard. Just because, in his judgment, he made the best choice for that particular circumstance doesn’t mean you can extrapolate.
I’m not. Also because that’s his belief doesn’t mean he’s any more right than am I. I’m just saying I have 17 PNs that are individual clones (in Oregon, especially with anything over 30 years vine age, that is almost always going to be the case) and I don’t think I am suffering from distinctiveness or completeness problems. I am simply saying I disagree with his apparent opinion as expressed here by a third party.
I was mostly reply to Mike, saying we shouldn’t be extrapolating on one winemaker’s particular experience in the context of a particular single vineyard, and adding to what you and Howard said. There are endless examples of clonal, soil and aspect variations within vineyards that are distinct and justify or demand being bottled separately.
I’ll add (for those playing at home) blending is an art. Just because a winery’s lower level Pinot is a blend of clones/blocks/vineyards/whatever doesn’t mean it was just thrown together leftovers. They’re planting and sourcing for what the potential components can add. Fermenting and barreling the lots separately. An absolutely fantastic lot may also clash in a test blend. Other lots or individual barrels may just not make the cut. If you make an ideal blend, that almost guarantees you have odds and ends left over. A common approach would be to start with lots that will drink well young, then use the more distinct and age-demanding lots as a sort of spice box to round out, complement, add complexity in various ways. That gives you a quality lower priced cellar defender and some higher priced wines for the collectors.
And that’s what makes this wonderful world of ours go round so fascinatingly. I need to try more Patricia Green! I should report accurately: Here are my notes from the day of my visit, for clarification:
“Also, no single clone work for him unless it makes the best wine, and right now he feels the blends are better for him.”
The one absolute I have found in wine is that the best wines are made by passionate people who believe that the way they do things is THE correct way. You may have two winemakers doing things exactly the opposite of what is other is doing, but somehow they both can make great wines.
I’m an open minded guy. I’m getting fruit from a vineyard this year (for the first time) that has a different approach than most of our sites. Getting two blocks. One of them is a pure massale style planting. Very excited about it, in fact.
I’d lean on the side of massale myself, and Whistling Ridge is planted to multiple clones in most blocks. That said, both Fir Crest and Durant are single clone Pinot Noir plantings(for our blocks) and I like them both quite a bit.
I don’t know if there are really any hard and fast rules of vines that trump site. While many vineyards in Burgundy were historically planted using massale selections, if I was offered Musigny fruit with the caveat that it was limited to a single clone of Pinot Noir, I’d take it in a heart beat. If it was a single clone, planted at half the normal density, with 5th leaf fruit, farmed by somebody from Bordeaux, and I had to pick it all by myself…I would still take it.
And honestly, only the vine age would dampen my spirits in any meaningful way.
It is curious what consumers see as a ‘problem’. If a winery has contracts on 10 different and unique sites paying a premium for the fruit and decides to make only one Sonoma County bottling, I doubt it would take long for the complaints "Why the hell do they put all this great fruit into a low-end blend? I bet they could make a kick-ass single vineyard out of that fruit from “X.” The amazing thing about wine is nobody is required to drink it.
Me? I’m just waiting for vine by vine bottling. I mean, a whole row can make for big differences in soil, drainage, sunlight, etc.
Aren’t we seeing this in Napa Cab now ? I passed on a single row, single vineyard bottling earlier today.