I had the opportunity to try the 2007 Melville Terraces Pinot Noir Saturday and was struck by the intense mineral notes on the nose. Very strong rocky minerality that really stood out as much as I’ve ever noticed on a red wine before. But this is not common in California wines in my experience. I know there is a debate as to the existence of those type of aromas/flavors and where they come from but I’m more interested in where people have found them in the New World consistently if anywhere. I do remember many singular examples and a few repeated ones.
I’d like to know who else has seen it repeated in the same wine vintage to vintage.
A couple others that I’ve noticed it more than once off the top of my head are:
Copain Hawkes Butte Syrah(though my last go around didn’t stand out that way)
Alesia Falstaff Road Pinot
Arcadian Chardonnays
Mt Eden Chardonnays
I can’t remember the exact syrah, but I had an 04 Alesia Syrah with a lot of minerality on the palate.
From my limited experience with Saxum, I’ve felt some of their wines from 04-06 have had it on the palate as well.
Mt Eden Estate Pinot
Copain Kiser En Haut
Anthill Abbey Harris, Comptche Ridge
Edmunds St John - in the “frequently but not always, applicable to most bottlings” category
Interesting topic. I do find a “minerality” in some US wines but generally in Cali wines the fruit is what jumps to the front … especially when young. I think that is why many that start with Cali are a bit miffed by European wines.
I am not a fan of mineral dominated reds but I love when there is an element of it. No specific US wines jump into my mind but I’ll try to search my notes.
Calera. (Pinot and Viognier)
Mount Eden. (Red and white)
The best Anderson Valley wines.
Stony Hill Chardonnay.
Dunn, Diamond Creek and certain other Napa Mountain Cabs.
ESJ.
Arcadian makes some very, very nice Chardonnay, but if you were to throw an Arcadian into a Puligny or Meursault tasting, as a ringer, then I bet it would still scream “California”.
Although I would be happy to be proved wrong.
I dunno - if you took a really cold, rainy vintage in Sleepy Hollow [is there such a thing?], and threw it in with a big, bright vintage in the Cote de Beaune [something like the 2002s, on release, prior to the premox], then maybe the Sleepy Hollow might be able to fool some people.
Actually, come to think of it, that’s a tasting I would enjoy attending.
On the red side, I was fortunate enough to have the 2005 Cristom Eileen on multiple occasions, which was Allen Meadows’s top-ranked Oregon Pinot of all time [I don’t know whether anything from Oregon has since supplanted it, points-wise], and while it was very tasty, it bore no resemblance whatsover to anything from Burgundy.
Also South Africa I think has some of the oldest dirt in the world, but is considered “new world.” Always find a Graves/St. Estephe like graphite/ash minerality in wines from Vilafonte (great stuff BTW).
Monte Bello often shows a mineral component. As noted above, it may take some time for it to show since the fruit of Cali wines tends to be so up front and out loud.