I understand where Lew and Paul are coming from in terms of how these drink on release. The fruit seems “bigger” than a Rhys or Copain, the acids are brisk and the alcohols are low (I’ve never experienced any heat). For me the big draw for these wines is the texture. They have an excellent sappy texture that I rarely find in other pinots. They definitely don’t deliver a lot of the earthy minerally finish that Rhys, Ceritas or recent Kutch wines do. There is a consistent pine needle and orange peel characteristic to the Summa’s that I like a lot.
I think the comments on ageability are overstated. I’ve tried 04, 05 and 06 Summas (not the OV) in the past 12 months and none were over the hill. The 05 was in a great spot. The 04 seemed like it would benefit from more time and the 06 seemed like it would also benefit from more time. Are these 20 year wines the way a 2008 Rhys Alpine probably is? No, I doubt it. But for my tastes the sweet spot seems more like 6-8 years from vintage, not 2-4.
We had an offline in Chicago and drank the 04. 06, 07 and 08 (there was no 05 if memory serves). What was amazing was that all of the wines tasted nearly identical – very similar flavors, body, etc. I’ll add that all 4 of us agreed that the wines were near clones of one another. Although it’s a bit of splitting hairs, the 04 was the best of the lot, 07 and 08 virtually identical and 06 the laggard. Would say all could probably have used a bit more time, but given the similarity of flavors between the 04 and the 08 (admittedly only 4 years), it’s hard to guess how long one is going to have to wait to see secondary flavors emerge.
As so often happens, the announcement from the winery of an upcoming new vintage release is the catalyst to open a prior vintage of the wine- to check in and help define whether there will be a next purchase order.
In this case, likely yes, depending upon price.
I opened a 2009 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast (Sonoma Coast)
Good vibrant purple color but very cloudy. Murky, suggesting some homemade wine. I do not recall this wine being as murky in past bottles.
Nice nose of earth, spice and red berries. The spicy component hits you at first, and then recedes as the earth and fruit speaks up. The finish is crisp and clean, although a bit short.
Generally, a tasty wine.
I opened one of the 07 chardonnay’s on Friday night. It was definitely oxidized but worse than the oxidation it had a weird rotten pineapple flavor to it. Probably a byproduct of the oxidation. I might have one more. First bad RM i have ever had.
Dale, I had my last and only 07 about two months ago and it was fantastic. Can’t imagine it gets much better…real mind blowing Chard. I’d drink it now. It was as good, if not better than an 01 Aubert Ritchie we ad the weekend before. And that wine was sublime
Interesting. Thanks, Corey. I know there are some here who have stated that the wines are best with a number of years on them. Would be curious to hear their thoughts on your group’s tasting and what, specifically, they perceive as changing with time in the cellar.
2007 R-M Theriot Chardonnay and Summa PN were both popped in the past 10 days with the Chard being sampled over 2 days. Summa got a few hours in the decanter.
Chard gave me whiff of nuttiness initially but this abated quickly, touch of frizzante too for a moment. I didn’t feel the wine was aged but rather a bit disjointed. Nose had lemons and some kind of chemical aspect to it (Mel said turpentine?) and I liked the texture and mid-palate but the finish was a touch bitter to me. The wine stood up overnight with little degradation and Mel actually said she liked it slightly better on day #2. We have one other bottle, maybe this summer?
Summa was a champ and we served this when Mel’s oldest son was visiting. Tremendous perfume without sweetness or pine notes, beautiful taste without cola and a medium long finish with consistent acid thruout. Can’t wait to open a Old Vines if this is how the pedestrian Summa showed. This mild winter has meant a lot of Pinot has been uncorked here with this bottle, a 07 August West Graham Family and a pair of Hanzells, 2001 & 2005. as the ones I remember best.
Has TRB posted tasting notes anywhere for this allocation? If memory serves, there is usually a paragraph on each bottling prior to it being open to the public.
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