A tasting put on by Rajat Parr and RN74 to “promote dialogue around the meaning and relevance of balance in California Pinot Noir.” Quite a nice list of wineries poured some good wines, though it was curious to me that one or two felt they would fit into a setting like this. I tasted through about half the producers pouring, partly because that was enough wine for me, partly because it was literally so crowded you couldn’t easily move through the tables in some places, and a few wineries poured out before the end of the tasting. I was there for the consumer tasting in the evening, and apparently they were slammed for the trade tasting in the afternoon.
2007 Calera Pinot Noir Jensen Vineyard- USA, California, Central Coast, Mount Harlan
Medium dark cherry fruit, but has a candied quality, and a touch of bitterness on the finish. (87 pts.)
2009 Ceritas Pinot Noir Escarpa Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Beautiful dark cherry, nice intensity without showing any sign of overt sweetness, great balance.
2008 Cobb Pinot Noir Coastlands Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Nice medium body, good intensity, a hint of candied cherry but not overly ripe. (91 pts.)
2008 Cobb Pinot Noir Coastlands Vineyard: Diane Cobb- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Good depth and intensity, bit ripe, slight candied cherry, some sweetness, but otherwise nicely done. (91 pts.)
2008 Cobb Pinot Noir Emmaline Ann- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Nice lighter body, light strawberry/cherry fruit, good acidity, elegant. (89 pts.)
2009 Evening Land Vineyards Pinot Noir Occidental Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Dark, deep cherry, quite intense, almost dense, chewy, decent acidity, somehow seems unnaturally concentrated, a bit out of place in the “Pursuit of Balance” tasting. (88 pts.)
2007 Flowers Pinot Noir Sea View Ridge- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Hint of burnt toast on the nose, dark cherry fruit, slightly sweet finish and a bit flat and flabby. (88 pts.)
2007 Flowers Pinot Noir Frances Thompson Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Fairly dark and deep, bit of toast on the nose, little too much apparent oak for my tastes. (91 pts.)
2009 Kutch Pinot Noir Anderson Valley- USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
Darker cherry, nice intensity, nice structure with bit of black tea, good finish. Very nice. (92 pts.)
2009 Kutch Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Black pepper nose, black cherry palate with some wonderful complexity and good balance. Terrific Pinot. (93 pts.)
2009 Kutch Pinot Noir McDougall Ranch- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Bit sweeter, floral nose, medium dark cherry fruit, nice balance though slightly soft, with some light tannins on the finish. (91 pts.)
2009 Littorai Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard- USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
Hint of toast and smoke on the nose, very nice dark cherry fruit, excellent structure and balance. Very nice. (93 pts.)
2007 Littorai Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard- USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
Medium dark cherry, more red fruited then the blacker 2009, good balance, but lacks some of the complexity of 09.
2009 Littorai Pinot Noir The Pivot Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Nose shows some light caramel and sweetness, palate is nice dark cherry, on the slightly riper side, but good intensity and decent overall balance. (91 pts.)
2008 native9 Pinot Noir Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard- USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley
Ripe, sweet, bit syrupy. Tasted at the RN74 “Pursuit of Balance” tasting, why anyone thought this wine would fit in this setting I’m not sure. (84 pts.)
2009 Peay Vineyards Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Very nice dark cherry, plenty of intensity and richness but nicely balanced. (91 pts.)
2009 Peay Vineyards Pinot Noir Pomarium- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Beautiful medium dark cherry, nice complexity, touch of sweetness but excellent balance. (92 pts.)
2009 Peay Vineyards Pinot Noir Ama Estate- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Rich and lush, quite intense, deep cherry fruit, forward, maybe lacking some nuance and complexity, but very enticing, voluptuous Pinot. (92 pts.)
2009 Sandhi Wines Pinot Noir “ELV Tempest”- USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Rita Hills - Sta. Rita Hills
Nice dark/black cherry, some density and weight, good balance with a touch of distracting sweetness on the finish. (91 pts.)
2008 Wind Gap Wines Pinot Noir Woodruff Vineyard- USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Compared to the 09, this is a bit lighter and sweeter, with dark cherry, medium acidity, some green olive from the whole cluster. (89 pts.)
2009 Wind Gap Wines Pinot Noir Woodruff Vineyard- USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Beautiful deep dark cherry, good intensity, medium acidity, some olive notes, bit burnt toast. (90 pts.)
Alan - nice notes! Did you not get to try the 2007 and 2008 Ceritas Escarpas? It was a nice lineup and nice to compare 3 vintages.
Also, I see Copain was noticeably absent from your list along with the 2005 Mount Eden (which I thought was the best wine in the room) and the 2007 Mount Eden.
I thought this was a great event but I do agree that it was a bit packed in there. I tasted most of the wines I sat out to taste but had to turn my back on others. All in all, I was very impressed with Ceritas, Copain, Mount Eden, Tyler and Kutch’s McDougall.
I didn’t attend the event, I was pursuing balance that day up in the RRV tasting the likes of Inman Family, Dutton-Goldfield and Arista who I presume didn’t fit the criteria to qualify for this flavor of “balance”. I was intrigued by the addition of Native9 in the list of producers. James makes wildly layered pinots full of character, flavor and balance but I didn’t think he matched the political makeup of the others. I mentioned to him people would say he didn’t belong. It’s too bad as his pursuit of balance, albeit from a different approach, should be tasted side by side with producers of a different approach. There is no reason, or interest, in my opinion, in spending the day tasting pinots of a singular style. After all, I think all the producers at the event have one thing in common, they make terrific pinot and that should be the only criteria we care about…
I tasted the Peay Pomarium Pinot Noir in February during Triangle Wine Experience and really liked it. Andy Peay said it was their best vintage yet. I bought one bottle but probably should have bought more. I found it very aromatic and the nose was part of the attraction.
Nice notes, Alan. Thanks for sharing them. Alas, I dwaddled in getting signed up for this tasting, so missed.
Instead, stuck w/ having dinner w/ SteveEdmunds & DavidDarlington that night.
That’s an interesting lineup of wineries and wines. The term “balance” is used by many as a code-word for Pinots of lower
alcohol. I daresay, I suspect there were some Pinots there in the upper-14%, maybe even above 15%, range. Our bad-boy, Adam Lee,
was invited, but had other comittments for that day.
So…Alan…were there any Pinots there that grabbed you be the throat and said “this is what balance is all about”??
Of the two EveningLands you tasted, I suspect the one you thought was out of balance (Occidental) was lower in
alcohol than the StaRitaHills Tempest. Juss guessin’.
Could you get back to us w/ a plot of % alcohol along the x-axis, and your “balance #” along the y-axis??
That would be very revealing, I think. Better yet, a 3-D plot with % alcohol on one axis, the “balance #” along another axis,
and the point score along the Z-axis. That would, obviously, settle this issue of “balance” once and for all and we can go on
and nit-pick over other issues!!!
Tom
Steve, I absolutely agree. I didn’t go because of the premise of the tasting, I went because it was the chance to taste through a nice collection of interesting producers closer to home than RRV for me There was certainly a reasonable range of styles represented, frankly just a very small version of what can be found at a much larger tasting like Pinot Days. We tasted at Arista back in March, and thought the wines there were very nice.
I didn’t pick the producers for the event, I just went and tasted. Personally, I think the premise is a bit off base. If someone (like me) prefers more restrained wines from lower brix vineyards, and someone else prefers bigger, bolder, riper styled wines, I have no problem at all with either. Wine is a continuum of styles, and we all have our range of taste preferences that fall onto that continuum. What I find to be too sweet and candied will be right in the middle of someone else’s preference range; and what I find to be perfectly balanced will undoubtedly be called lean and acidic by someone else. I picked up my Kosta-Browne last week, and I can say without hesitation that their 2009 wines are really, really good.
The Native9 wine at this tasting seemed out of whack to my tastes. I remember trying a Native9 a couple of years ago at Pinot Days, and finding it to be a pretty amazing wine. Probably riper and more voluptuous than would normally be in my personal wheelhouse, but it had a sizzle and wildness that really grabbed me and made the wine fun and interesting to drink. The Native9 version on display at this tasting was nothing like that earlier wine, it was just sweet and syrupy, without any layers, frankly without balance (a word I have been using for a long time, and which I DON’T use as a euphemism for low alcohol).
Lance, I think I may have tried the 07 and 08 Ceritas, but since I know those wines pretty well (particularly the 07) and love them, I didn’t spend much time with them or write notes, trying to get to wines I’m not as familiar with. Similarly with Copain, I skipped that table because I had recently tasted through all the Copain wines with Frank Murry here, and knew them to be outstanding.
Cheers
Alan, are you sure the '09 Mount Eden was the Estate and not the Domain Eden? Seems early for the Estate, but I guess could make sense to contrast along side the '05 and '07. At Pinot Paradise 2 weeks ago they poured the '08 Estate and '09 Domain Eden.
Great seminar and great tasting afterwards. Yeah, it did get crowded, but it was well worth it.
Favorite wines of the day:
Ceritas Escarpa Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009
Peay Vineyards Pomerium 2009
Tyler Bien Nacido 2009
Wind Gap Woodruff Vineyard 2008
Copain 2009s (all of them)
Calera (all of them)
Hirsch Reserve 2009
Littorai Pivot 2009
Kutch Falstaff 2009 (might be the best Pinot Noir I’ve ever had from the “Sebastopol Hills” area (south of Bodega Hwy/north east of Bloomfield Road)
Failla Pearlessence 2009 (I think Ehren said this was the site out near Hall Road in Southern Sebastopol).
Despite the crowds, I was persistent and actually tasted every producer. By the end (7:30 and later) it had gotten pretty cleared out, but I hope they are able to use a different venue or setup if they do it again. My top three were probably Peay, Copain and Mt. Eden. I agree with Lance that the 2005 Mt. Eden was my favorite wine of the night.
A few things I had not tried before but really enjoyed were Cobb’s Diane Cobb Coastlands 2008 and Soliste’s 2008. I haven’t heard anyone mention Soliste, and I wasn’t a big fan of the 09 or 07 they were pouring, but the 2008 had some very interesting, dense mineral and earth components.
Alan, another wine you didn’t seem to like but I enjoyed was the Flowers Sea View Ridge which had an intriguing salinity on the nose and good minerality on the palate. I also found the Wind Gap pinots to be a bit too green for my taste – and I typically like those notes.
The Kutch wines were good, with McDougal being my favorite. Gavin Chanin, who at 25 is my same age, just made me envious of what he’s doing.
Alan, I decided to go too late and thus was shut out. I am surprised to see it was so crowded since they made the point about limiting the size. I guess they limited it over the limit!
Of course The reason for no response is that there really is no answer. This whole “balance” thing is off base if you ask me. Different people have different tastes in wine, and one person’s “in balance” will be another’s “out of balance.” I don’t doubt there are people out there who absolutely loved the Native9 wine that I couldn’t drink. Frankly, I think that wine was so far out on the spectrum that it would probably not be labeled “balanced” by many, if any, but who knows? I found plenty of wines to like at the tasting, but my personal favorites are totally different from someone else’s. That’s life, and I don’t think any of us would have it any other way. You loved the Qupe syrah at Rhone Rangers, while I found it a bit on the ripe side for my tastes - though still an excellent wine, and one that plenty of other people would likely call perfect. Balance is in the eye of the beholder, it’s a range of characteristics, an important one being ripeness, that every person has to decide for himself. As I said, I didn’t go to the tasting to find some nirvana of “balanced” wines, I went because there were a lot of interesting producers there, leaning more toward the style of Pinot I tend to prefer. But then I also loved the 2009 Kosta Browne appellation wines I picked up a week ago, and they would probably have stuck out a bit in this lineup.
Andrew, would have been great to see you there. I know they limited tickets, because I bought fairly early after getting an email from a winery whose list I’m on, then I saw the ticket count go down pretty fast after that.
Tom - I’m not sure I an give a fair comment to that question actually.
I took a much different stance to the event in that I looked at the entire event as just a tasting of good winemakers trying to find their ‘pursuit of balance’. You had winemakers making Pinot from Sonoma Coast, Central Coast, RRV, SLH, possibly even Carneros, SC Mtns, etc. To quantify, balance is subjective really to ones’ own opinion. Now, layer in all the different regions named above and I’m not sure you can really say one wine was ‘balanced’ where another one wasn’t per the winemakers expression.
I will give you this however…the 2005 Mt Eden Estate Pinot was incredible for me! I also really enjoyed all the Copain wines, Kutch’s McDougall (which was ‘balanced’ now but I bet will be great in a few years), and a few others included Ceritas. To further my point above, the 07, 08 and 09 Escarpa was served and it was nice to look at the same grapes from the same winemaker over 3 back-to-back-to-back vintages and explore the translation of their ‘balance’ if you will. Was one more balanced then the other? Perhaps…but I think that may miss the point.
Ok, last point to further run away from the topic of balance - One take away from the event for me was when Jeff @ Mount Eden made the comment that it was really unfair for them to pour anything older then their 2005 during the tasting when there were a bunch of young (2009) wines in the room. To paraphrase, the statement was ‘how can anyone expect to REALLY taste and enjoy a more elegantly aged wine when there are so many young wines in the room?’.
That might have been the most ‘balanced’ thing I experienced during the tasting.
Lance,
I think the 2005 Mount Eden Pinot was the best PN of that vintage (And I tasted quite a few of them).
Also my favorite young Mount Eden PN of all time.
It will age many years!
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There was certainly a reasonable range of styles represented, frankly just a very small version of what can be found at a much larger tasting like Pinot Days. We tasted at Arista back in March, and thought the wines there were very nice.