On Saturday, I popped these w/ some family members. Non blind over 3-4 hrs.
2007 Lafond Pinot Noir. Santa Rita Hills, 14.5% abv
Nice dark cherries on the nose. This was the biggest wine of the night and the most brooding. Some spice. Long finish but there was a bit of heat showing thru that made it disjointed for my tastes.
2007 Fulcrum “ La Encantada Vyd” Santa Rita Hills. 14.1% abv
Overall I liked this wine (and a nice contrast to the Lafond) but it left me perplexed. This bottle had some barnyard on the nose, but the hay was brand spanking new. On the palate, there was plenty of red fruit, some dust and/or minerality. There was complexity and intrigue to this wine, but we were all concerned that what we enjoyed tonight was a defect that would get worse with time. I’ve got another bottle to try down the road.
2005 Fiddlehead Cuvee Seven Twenty Eight Estate Pinot Noir “Fiddlestix Vyd”, Santa Rita Hills. 14.2% abv.
The most youthful and the clear favorite of the night. Great nose of dark cherries, but with some restraint. Brightness of red fruit on the palate with a nice silky mouthfeel. Good acidity w/ some tannins on the backend and overall nice balance and cohesiveness. Love to see how this wine develops with some age.
Love the 05 728. Needs more time to me but damn nice bottle. Popped the 06 Lollapalooza at the Yonster’s Saturday. That baby needs rest but is very well put together.
Todd- I’ll keep an open mind w/ Lafond. I just have a low tolerance to “feeling heat” in wine.
Terence - this was only my 2nd Fiddlehead Pinot. The first, however, ranks in my top 20 all-time wines. I had a 1995 Fiddlehead Willamette Valley 2-3 yrs ago that was off the charts! You folks make nice wine.
Howdy Lou. Winemaker at Fulcrum here. I just sent you an email(and just figured out how to log in here). The barnyard on that Fulcrum La Encantada is definitely there and I kind of like it. Having said that, if you open that second bottle and don’t quite like it please let me know and I’ll send you a free bottle from the current vintage. The barnyard shouldn’t progress any more although secondary flavors and aromas will start to increase and evolve.
Just don’t want you to worry about your purchase. We stand behind the wine and will always back it up.
Thank you for posting and pleased to know that was part of your intent. I do like a little barnyard and your barn was so clean it did create a wine w/ plenty of personality. Look forward to sampling the others in your lineup and I appreciate you backing up your product.
You asked about our blending and filtration on the SRH-
The root of the barnyard aromas is the fact that we put the wine into the “dirty”. This means no settling after fermentation and the gross lees and everything go into barrel. We then stir the lees in barrel to build body and to keep the wine healthy and avoid serious sufide off aromas. We only raked this wine once before we racked it to tank for final bottling. This lack of movement preserves the fruit in the wine. All of this is a pretty traditional approach that can lead to a bit o funk. Too much funk and it is a flaw. A hint of funk(to me) is complexity. Didn’t blend to acheive this as it was a small component in all of the barrels.
The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered. We do several tests on the wine(including ML and Brett) before bottling as a routine precaution and so I am pretty confident that this will not become a problem building in the bottle.
Hope this answers your questions and thanks for asking.
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