2009 Anthill Farms Pinot Noir Demuth Vineyard- USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley (1/31/2012)
Popped and poured with a client over dinner at Frankie and Johnny’s Steakhouse in NYC. Just delivered to my office a few months ago. This is a wonderful wine that was shockingly approachable despite its youth. Excellent balance, moderate fruit (tart cherry and perhaps a bit of plum) and only very light oak notes with maybe a whiff of vanilla from the oak and perhaps even some allspice. NO COLA or other traditional California pinot funk. Pure and smooth and developed well in the glass and in the bottle as we ate. After an hour it was singing even better. Extremely smooth with no rough edges. The color seemed a bit cloudy, but it’s always hard to tell in a poorly lit restaurant, and who really cares - the flavor was great. Anthill Farms looks to be as good as they say, with a great syrah I had last week and a great pinot this week. AND the ABV was only 13.3%, so everyone can like this wine without complaining. (92 pts.)
Thanks for the note, Jay, as I’m looking forward to trying the '09 Anderson Valley single vineyard pinots from Anthill Farms.
I generally am less happy with the Sonoma bottlings, and in 2009, I feel the Campbell Ranch and Peters Vineyard pinots are too sweetly fruity for my taste. But I did like the '09 Tina Marie quite a bit, and think it is an outstanding wine, and certainly my fav of these Sonoma wines I mention.
IMO, Anderson Valley is very much where AHF excells, and your note is making me thirsty to open a Demuth Vineyard '09.
Nice, I’ve got one of these on deck for sometime soon, so I am glad to hear that it’s already pretty accessible. I haven’t tried a single vineyard Anthill from Anderson Valley yet, so I am pretty excited (I love AV wines).
Oh, and Lewis, I agree about the Sonoma bottlings. If I like this wine as much as I expect, I will definitely focus on these with my future purchases.
Jay, Great note, but I’m not ready to bite yet. Just finished my last '05 and '06 Demuth, but have yet to attempt more recent vintages.
In general their wines can be murky, especially when young. I often let them stand up for several days before popping them.
Btw I’ve found all of their SV wines to improve significantly with age. Sometimes I think, with Lewis, that the SC offerings are a tad sweet. But that seems to me a characteristic of the areas those wines comes from and they do appear to taste less sweet as they age.