TN: 2007 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Southing (24 hour decant)

Rob_MacKay · November 7, 2009, 6:06pm

2007 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Southing - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Rita Hills - Sta. Rita Hills (11/6/2009)
Decanted for 24 hours this time and that seems to have nicely unlocked this beast. Shows nice big cherry scents with some spicy oak. Flavors have really melded together well on the palate and the overall texture has taken on an elegant smoothness that I wasn’t expecting. Medium to full bodied with voluptuous fruit flavors and a great finish. Certainly lives up to the potential I was expecting from my previous note but also tells me that if you want to pop and pour this baby, wait for about 5 or 6 years. (92 pts.)

S_L_Clayton · November 7, 2009, 7:00pm

nice… I like the gonads involved with the 24 hour decant

M_Sai · November 8, 2009, 12:53am

Nice Rob, I tried the same thing on a '04 Southing but just got a wall of oak for my trouble. I wonder if SS has adjusted their oak regimine from '04…

Poppy_Davis · November 8, 2009, 5:28pm

They have.

Last weekend I had the chance to taste an '01 Southing side-by-side with an '07 Southing. The '07 had been decanted for about 2-3 hours. It was very interesting. The '01 is completely mellowed out and very elegant, but the young vines just do not have the complexity that the '07 shows. I agree with Rob that the '07 will be awesome in about 6 years, once it’s had some time to settle down.

Peter_Simpson · November 9, 2009, 1:51am

Seems like Sea Smoke have taken a page from Joe Davis’ Arcadian playbook.

Poppy_Davis · November 9, 2009, 2:48am

Definitely. 2001 was the first vintage. The vines were just babies. As the vines get older, they are producing fruit with more complex flavors and the wines are much more structured.

Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m · November 9, 2009, 7:59pm

Peter,

What makes you say this? I’m very curious to hear your reasoning – fwiw, I receive this thought as a good thing, I just want to know where you’re coming from.

Terence_T-Bone_Livingston · November 9, 2009, 8:29pm

Strictly the '04 vintage, Brian.

Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m · November 9, 2009, 9:08pm

it took me a moment to “get” that you were talking about Arc’s ‘04 vintage … good one!

… still curious to hear your thoughts, Peter.

J_e_r_e_m_y_Hannah · November 10, 2009, 5:27pm

I conducted a similar experiment with an 07 Southing the other day, but I decanted for about 3 hours and then left a glass for the next day. Really was quite a drastic improvement on day two. It was insanely smooth and structured. I had a bit of trouble with the alcohol being slightly out of balance both on day one and (to a lesser degree) day two, but it’s nothing I don’t think bottle age will work out.

Peter_Simpson · November 10, 2009, 7:10pm

Brian, here’s my under educated and probabky incorrect take on California Pinot Noir. As I understand it, there are two schools of California Pinot producers. The first, or tradionalist, school harvests less ripe fruit and attempts to produce more structured wines that will gain in complexity and nuance as they age. These wines are often not much fun to drink on release. Joe Davis at Arcadian is definitely a leader of this traditionalist school, and makes no secret of the fact that his goal is to produce structured wines that age well. I was unaware of this and had pretty much given up on Arcadian, as I didn’t have enough experience to judge or appreciate these wines on release. Thanks to some ATL collectors, I recently got to taste some older Arcadians, and many of them are magnificent. The '01s and some '03s are drinking really well now (no comment on the '04s!!!).

The second, or modern, school of winemakers harvest very ripe fruit that produces fruit forward, less structured wines that are ready to drink on release, eg Loring and Siduri. My first intoduction to Sea Smoke was the '04 Southing, this wine was very fruit forward and delicious to drink on release. It seemed to have been made in a similar way and to a similar level of quality as '04 Kosta Brownes or '04 Roar Gary’s, and to me was definitely in this second school.

In my mind great wines are being made by producers from both schools, so one doesn’t necessarily need to choose sides here!

The '05 Southing was more stuctured, and took about a year of cellar time to begin to show its stuff, so maybe the trend away from the modern style began then, or maybe the young vines weren’t capable of producing structure before then. I haven’t tried an '06 yet, but reports indicate it may need another year or two in the cellar. Poppy says the '07 Southing may need six years to come around, hence my comment that Sea Smoke has joined the Arcadian school of winemaking.

I hope that Sea Smoke have done a good job communicating this change in style to their regular customers, in order to prevent disappointment if the wines are drunk too young. Of course, we’ll all have to wait a few years to determine how well Sea Smoke ages.

Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m · November 10, 2009, 7:20pm

Peter,

Thank you for your response.