2008 SIDURI PINOTS BLINDTASTED WITH ADAM LEE - Tom’s House, Palo Alto, CA (1/25/2010)
Once again Adam Lee came down to share with us 8 of his latest batch of Pinots, this time from the 2008 vintage. Adam seems to enjoy getting feedback and tasting blind with our Bott blindtasting group, and we look forward to his visits, both for the wines themselves and for his very forthcoming comments about the challenges of winemaking and what went into the particular wines we’re tasting. We look forward to seeing him later in the year to taste through the Novy Syrahs as well.
Ross started us off with a blind flight that he said contained a “Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie and Chateauneuf du Pape from the same year.” I was guessing '85 from the maturity showing on these wines, so I was close on the year, but I was wrong about which was which because I was looking for a proper Hermitage, not an obscure Aussie wine by that name (which was so different from the other two, I was guessing it was an oaky CdP). The La Mouline definitely showed the best in this flight, and was surprisingly good for an off year for the Northern Rhone.
We then moved on to the Siduri Pinots. Adam was asked about the '08 vintage. He told us, “It was a very challenging year–with everything from smoke taint, to frost. Production was much lower than '07 across the board.” Also in '08, Siduri is not making a Hirsch or a Van der Kamp designate, due to the smoke taint. Some of that fruit, after filtering, went into the Sonoma Coast bottling. Adam also opined that a lot of '08s, without the tannins and big structure of the '07s, will be better drinking younger than the ‘07s. All of the Siduris we tasted were bottled in August. The group’s favorite, and my 2nd favorite, was the Eddie’s Lot bottling from Pisoni Vineyard, which is a section that Adam has been having the Pisonis prune six weeks later than they usually prune Pisoni. It also happens to be the most expensive Siduri Pinot bottling this year, at $75, compared to $30 for the appellation bottlings and $55 for the regular Pisoni bottling. My favorite in the tasting was the Russian River appellation bottling, which is showing well now and has good balance, but a strong argument could also be made for the group’s 2nd choice, and Adam’s favorite, the very balanced and fairly concentrated Garys’ Vineyard. There were no bad wines in this lineup, and it was very tough for me to rank a few of the wines (we have to report our favorites in order, 1 through 8, to arrive at the group scorings shown below), as I rated them just about the same. They are all, of course, quite young yet, so that’s another factor making it difficult to make fine distinctions, but that’s what we try to do in these blindtastings nonetheless. For me the weakest in the group, which I still gave 89 points, was the Cargasacchi vineyard designate, which I think lacks some of the complexity of the other bottlings due to being all from a single clone, Dijon 115.
We finished with a blind flight of Sauternes that Ross said were “connected” somehow. Mark correctly guessed that they were all the same producer, and probably consecutive vintages. Indeed, they were Rieussecs from '78, '79 and '80. I thought the '79 was the strongest, with the '80 not far behind.
All in all, another great visit from Adam, and we thank him for sharing his lovely wines and a bit of his vast winemaking knowledge and experience.
Blind flight 1 (revealed as '84s)
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1984 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
Medium red color with pale meniscus; mature, mushroom, bacon fat, tobacco nose; tobacco, solid tart red fruit, plum palate; medium-plus finish 92+ pts. (92 pts.) -
1984 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Light medium red color with pale meniscus; mature, tart roasted red fruit, truffle, plum nose; mature, earthy, roasted meat, smoke, mineral palate; medium-plus finish (91 pts.) -
1984 Petersons Shiraz Hermitage - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
Bricking medium red color with pale meniscus; oak, ripe berry, cherry, caramel, raspberry jam nose; oxidized, oaky, tart cherry, tart berry, oak palate, with firm tannins; medium finish (86 pts.)
My TNs and group scoring - '08 Siduri Pinots
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2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Eddie’s Lot Pisoni Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands
Group’s #1 (my #2) – 43 pts; 4 1st place votes, 5 2nd place vote, 0 thirds, 0 last places – dark cherry red color; ripe cherry, berry, blue fruit, floral nose; rich, ripe cherry, berry, blue fruit palate with depth; medium-plus finish (from a parcel of Pisoni, named after Gary’s father, where Adam has been having them prune 6 weeks later than the rest of Pisoni–i.e., in mid-February or early March) (92 pts.) -
2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Garys’ Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands
Group’s #2 (my #5) – 55 pts; 3, 2, 3, 0 - dark cherry red color; big, tart cherry, baked cherry, oak nose; tight, concentrated, tart cherry, strawberry, palate with good acidity and balance; medium-plus finish 91+ pts. (Adam Lee’s favorite in this blindtasting; on two rootstocks–3309 and 5C; inoculated with yeast from the Barolo region) (91 pts.) -
2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Pisoni Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands
Group’s #3 (my #3) – 56 pts; 2, 3, 3, 2 - dark cherry red color; focused tart red fruit, spice, black raspberry nose; tight, ripe cherry, black raspberry, berry palate with sweet tannins; medium-plus finish 91+ pts. (Adam Lee’s least favorite in this blindtasting) (91 pts.) -
2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Russian River Valley - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
Group’s #4 (my #1) – 67 pts; 2, 2, 2, 1 - medium cherry red color with pale meniscus; ripe cherry, baked cherry, cranberry, floral, vanilla nose; tight, tasty, tart cherry, red fruit, cranberry, juicy palate with good acidity; medium finish 92+ pts. (blend of Keefer, Parson’s, Ewald, Amber Ridge) (92 pts.) -
2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Cargasacchi Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Rita Hills - Sta. Rita Hills
Group’s #5 (my #8) – 71 pts; 4, 0, 1, 1 - medium cherry red color with pale meniscus; smoke, oak char nose, that changes over 15 minutes or so to baked cherry, allspice nose; tight, tart red fruit, cherry roll-up, simple palate; medium finish (clone 115; picked at 25 brix on 10/11) (89 pts.) -
2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Arbre Vert Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
Group’s #6 (my #5) – 75 pts; 0, 1, 4, 3 - medium cherry red color with pale meniscus; tart red fruit nose with nice green notes; tight, tasty tart red fruit, baked cherry, green, green herb, mineral palate; medium finish 91+ pts. (35-40% whole cluster) (91 pts.) -
2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands
Group’s #7 (my #6) – 79 pts; 0, 1, 0, 1 - medium cherry red color with pale meniscus; rich cherry, black cherry, raspberry, oak nose; tight, ripe cherry, raspberry palate with depth; medium finish (blend of Garys’, Rosella’s and Pisoni) (91 pts.) -
2008 Siduri Pinot Noir Chehalem Mountains - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains
Group’s #8 (my #7) – 96 pts; 0, 1, 0, 7 - medium cherry red color with pale meniscus; cinnamon, tart cherry, red fruit nose; lighter bodied, complex, tart red fruit, cinnamon, tart cherry palate with good acidity; medium finish (blend of Muirfield, Beran and Arbre Vert vineyards) (90 pts.)
Blind Sauternes flight (revealed as Rieussec vertical)
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1978 Château Rieussec - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Medium golden yellow color; crystallized sugar, tart orange, baked orange, celery salt nose; tart apricot, coconut palate; medium-plus finish (91 pts.) -
1979 Château Rieussec - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Medium orange color; reduction, orange rind, earthy nose; lemon, tart orange, clementine, mineral palate; long finish 92+ pts. (most complex of '78, '79, '80 flight) (92 pts.) -
1980 Château Rieussec - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Medium orange color; VA, green orange nose; tart orange, kumquat, tart apricot palate with good acidity; long finish (92 pts.)
Adam Lee
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