TN: 2005 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Southing

WINE TALK
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  • 2005 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Southing - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Rita Hills - Sta. Rita Hills (4/10/2011)
    Brought to La Rustica in Seattle. We had a short wait before dinner, so we went to their small salon/grotto in the back of the restaurant. I had them open our bottle when we arrived and asked for two small glasses to be poured and brought to us in about 15-20 minutes to taste.

Dark garnet. Spicy nose showing dark cherry and other dark red fruit. Wonderful aromatics. Full bodied Pinot Noir and is as ripe a PN as I can truly enjoy. Medium acidity. More tart cherry, cinnamon and a hint of tart darker berries. Long finish with a firm tannic grip. Things are going well, the wine is showing nicely. I’ve had a mixed bag with Sea Smoke, so we are feeling good.

The food hits the table. Braised lamb shank for me and ravioli stuffed with mushroom and truffle sauce for my wife. Seemingly good pairings for Pinot Noir. As the meal progressed, the savory nature of our food really brought out the cherry cola/ sweeter fruit component of the wine. The complexity of the wine really took a back seat and I was ultimately disappointed as it showed so well at first, but really did not do well with the meal.

Posted from CellarTracker

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Hey Tony, I was surprised by your thread title…didn’t think you drank Sea Smoke. How was the food?

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Food was pretty good. I have a bunch of Sea Smoke, but I have found a lot of variation between bottles. Do you drink it?

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No!

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That’s what I figured. I have so much of this type of stuff to move through. I should try to sell it, but Alison likes it, so we are drinking them up.

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As mentioned in the Carlisle thread, I sold my SS recently, including 2 of these and a couple of 05 Tens.
In packing up the wines a few weeks ago I noticed I had one lone bottle of 05 Botella left, and decided to have w/ dinner that night. The lightest, least oaked of the wines, it was still just too much for me - as you say a bit ‘sweet’, but also a bit heavy and a touch hot.

My other general PN observation is as opposed to say 3 years ago, I find I have very little central coast PN left in my cellar. I just do not seem to buy it anymore. I do have some Calera, but that is a different kettle of fish to me - and the prices went crazy lately so I don’t really buy that either.

I’ll keep trying the wines at tasting events though, certainly not closing my mind to an entire region. I have had a number of Arcadians from SLH that I liked.

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what lucky guy sold these to you? neener

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That’s what I get for helping you when you were moving to GREAT BRITAIN!!!

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Now I’m feeling bad about that so I’ll offer to trade out those Sea Smokes for something right down your alley, how about some Leonetti to make things right?

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Jesus…

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[rofl.gif]

Maybe I should bring a QC to Harbor City.

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You dissing Leonetti now? Next you’ll be ragging on other local “Cults” like Cayuse!