TN: 2010 Pip Chardonnay (USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast)

Having the family over today so in lieu of Puligny or Chablis, decided to roll this out and look back in at Falltacular, of which this wine was a part. Comes in a shamrock green glass bottle, which is unusual as I don’t recall seeing much of this CA these days. Anyway, onto the wine. FWIW, this is made by Chris Towt, who I had the pleasure to meet last weekend over here at the 'Tac event. I enjoyed talking with him (would have liked to more, Chris!) and he is part of the Durrell Vineyard folks and also the winemaker for Dunstan wines. Good showing and for the price, terrific value.

  • 2010 Pip Chardonnay - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (1/22/2012)
    Listed alc is 13.4%. The Pip website says the wine is 2/3rds fermented and aged in stainless and the other 1/3rd in neutral wood after fermentation. Thinking that, I thought of Louis Michel in Chablis, who uses no wood at all and does everything stainless. I like the Michel wines so it’s nice to see someone else fashion chardonnay the same way. Uncork and pour, there is quite a bit of green apple, pear, an anise note and a lemony tone around the wine to provide the acidity. Almost feeling like a sauv blanc, given some of the flavor expression. The texture is a bit rounder than say the Michel chablis, and yes granted, the two wines are grown in different places and soils–no question but still the simple comparison and flavors markers I mention here are similar. You know where this would pair well…think of an arugula/baby green salad with some sliced poached pears and apples and a bit of goat cheese and light citrus dressing. Smashing. FWIW, the website offers this wine at $18. Pretty solid and candidly, much better than some of the thick, coconut and tropical crap that passes for $50 chardonnay these days.

Posted from CellarTracker

Frank, thanks for the kind words about Pip, and I’m already excited (as I’m sure many people are) for Falltacular 2013. Nice work.

Pip is my “under $20” effort that came about when a block of Sonoma Coast Chardonnay became available just before the 2010 harvest. I am not the winemaker, but I was close to the winemaking operations and we decided to ferment it in stainless steel and it underwent 100% ML. We blended this lot with another lot I was fortunate to pick up from a Russian River vineyard source and the result was 1,649 cases of 2010 vintage Pip. It’s available on our website, http://pipwines.com for $18.

I’m equally excited about the 2011 vintage which will also be a blend of 2 vineyard sites (both well known for their Chardonnay), stainless steel fermented and aged, but this time none of it underwent ML. It’s bright and delicious, I should have about 1,100 cases to be released in the Fall 2012.

The other project I work on is Dunstan, an Estate wine from the Durell Vineyard (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir). Our first vintage was 2008 and we’re just about to release the 2009 Pinot Noir. We recently hired Kenneth Juhasz to takeover winemaking duties for Dunstan and Pip (Kenneth also makes Auteur, Donum, Robert Stemmler and is consulting winemaker to Pali) and are excited to see where this project goes.

I work at the Durell Vineyard and would be happy to give a tour to any Berzerker that is interested - we’re about 3 miles southwest of Sonoma town square. I can be reached at the vineyard - 707 933 3839.

Cheers!

Chris

Chris,


What vynds. are the fruit from in each vintage? Where in the SC Ava? True Coast, Pet. Wind Gap, Closer to Carneros? Sounds like an interesting project. Are you in Bottle Barn?

You forgot oaky.

I did? Isn’t thick and coconut enough? But, but, so we don’t leave any room for guessing…and none of the heavy oak flavors. [swearing.gif]