2011 Kutch Pinot Noir McDougall Ranch - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (10/26/2014)
The conditions of the wine cellar (packed to the gills) led me to opening this bottle. I could reach it, so it’s what I grabbed. It seems darker than it was a year ago when I first tried it. It’s deep, brooding, showing more structure, and generally ticked at me for opening it. I tried apologizing, but it just stared at me, like a cat that knows exactly what you want it to do, but has no interest in doing. An hour of air, and then 2 hours brought more life/brightness to the wine, but it’s still closed in. The floral and black fruit aromas were the dominant character. I left half the bottle corked up, and resting in the wine cellar until the next night. I see lots to this wine, just not tonight.
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Night two: much more open and friendly. Great match with my cheese course!
Thanks for coming back with a TN refresh, David. For a wine like this, I think we all miss the storyline if we don’t see a follow-up, assuming there is wine for the next day like with your bottle. I’ve had a few of these now and this is a wine that deserves aeration, at least for my view. Here is my last note from the summer, to help foster some more discussion.
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2011 Kutch Pinot Noir McDougall Ranch - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (6/28/2014)
Opened this about an hour ago, it’s a touch warm for my tastes but I’ll fix that before we serve it. As of now, there is some definite fruit weight here, a zesty, creamy-like raspberry and the same black cherry note of my previous bottle this past March. Lots of minerally tannin and some stemmy signature that works into the finish. There is significant structure here, which I expected based on past experience, so we’ll decant this before dinner and then serve blind to see what reactions we get…run forward another day, I simply left this in the fridge overnight. Serving now with the right temp and stem, this remains terrific. There are stems impacting the wine, as they give an herbal edge to the aromatic and palate. The fruit is really centered in the black cherry and stony cherry today, like a liquified minerality woven into it. Juicy finish, same stoniness. This is still pretty coiled a day later and so my instinct says to aerate the wine real well if you drink now, or simply look at the benefits of some age. For summary, I continue to dig the 2011 vintage, as well as the approach and results that keep coming through Jamie’s pinots, which are structured, balanced wines with lower alc and beautiful potential.
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The stems were certainly more apparent when I first opened the wine. Last night everything was much more integrated. Time does appear to be the best advice.
I haven’t opened a bottle of 2011 McDougall in 9 months and appreciate your notes David and Frank. I will add that all of our wines (except for 2013 Sans Soufre) since 2011 are in need of longer aging due to the increase of 100% whole cluster fermentations and our farming of all of the single vineyards by acreage contracts. The added structure from stem tannin needs time to unwind and that seems to be exactly what you found in your bottle on night 2. In my own experiences, I have had success opening bottles of 2012 McDougall and drinking it over 4-5 days by keeping them overnight in the fridge. That leads me to believe that it will age for 20 years, easily.
Thanks for chiming in Jamie.