Since it’s in today’s release… notes from a bottle last month - sampled at the winery and followed over 3 days:
Day 1: Enjoyed, but regrettably no notes taken.
Day 2: Translucent ruby red. Lifted nose of Baking Spices and Violets. On the palate: Taut and precise, red fruit dominant: tart cherries and cranberry, a little spicy. Great acid spine and length.
Day 3: Pretty color of dark ruby with a 3mm clear meniscus. Very floral nose of violets and mountain flowers along with some stem notes of cinnamon and yerba buena (does it grow nearby?). The nose now also shows a mineral component of crushed rock. Very balanced palate. Wonderful structure with a beautiful interplay of fruit, minerality and acid. Floats on the palate and hits the high registers. Fruit profile is all red – cherry is dominant. SO complex and every changing.
Overall, a truly stunning Pinot and easily among the best American Pinots I have tasted. Benefited significantly from more air, so if you open it now, follow it over a few days. 95+ pts.
I’m no plant expert, but as far as i know, Yerba Buena is a plant found in California with aromatic leaves that are used for a herbal tea. I think you should be able to find Yerba Buena tea in Texas at Whole Foods or an HEB Central Market.
Sometimes back ( do not remember exactly when ) I posted in this Board that in 30-40 years from now, Phys Swan Terrace will be the La Tache of Calif-PN.
Hope Kevin will start a programme : to craft big bottles in Swan Terrance and hold-up bottles for future release or other purposes.
I tasted this wine almost a year ago at the winery and found it stony, with blue (dominant) and red fruit and rose petal. Clayton, you don’t make any mention about whole cluster, nor did I find it a yar aog, but it is worth noting that this wine is 90%, if I recall correctly.
Various brown spices (cinnamon, nutmeg etc.) are how my nose usually picks up the presence of whole cluster on a young wine… but everyone’s senses are different.
I’ll have to back up Clayton on this one. Many people describe Whole Cluster influence as spicy particularly with bottle age. What can seem stemmy in youth often becomes spicy with age. Other Whole Cluster characteristics are floral especially rose petal (actually more due to whole berry fermentation than stems).
I would definitely agree it becomes spicy with age but more in the savory or peppery way in my experience. Baking spices I have always associated with barrel treatments. I’m prepared to be re-educated though.