TNs: CA Pinot Noir tasting with some of the usual suspects

I recently helped organize a CA Pinot Noir tasting with my wine group. The idea was to look at a variety of producers who are focusing on terroir and balance, typically with lower alcohol. It’s very difficult to be comprehensive so there are certainly missing producers. We also added a couple of Burgundies as reference points. All wines were tasted single blind in their flights, including the Burgundies (no ringers). The first flight was double-decanted about one hour before serving and the third flight was double decanted about 1.5 hours before serving. Middle flight was pop & pour.

Unfortunately because I was helping to run the tasting and do the scoring, I didn’t get as much time with the wines as I usually would, and my notes are pretty poor for some of them.

Flight 1: 2009 CA Pinot Noir and an Overseas Visitor

2009 Clos Saron Home Vineyard Pinot Noir: Complex nose with spice and underbrush, and brett. Great crisp fruit flavor, but I got a distinct sickly, twangy aftertaste which I believe is brett, and it spoiled the wine for me. Not everybody said brett, but this was a clear last place wine in the flight for most. Group’s #6, my #6. This was my second bottle of two and both had this issue, this one worse than the first. I purchased direct from the winery and shipped in cool weather. It’s a real shame as I felt this might have been the best wine in the flight if not for this issue.

2009 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir Estate: Classy nose with rich pure fruit and stones. Quite primary on the palate. Lots to give but a bit of a stone tower right now. Group’s #2, my #3.

2009 Copain Kiser en Haut Pinot Noir: Sweeter on the nose, a bit like the character of some Dehlinger wines. More reserved on the palate with dark fruit flavors. Some people complained about this being over-ripe, though I wouldn’t agree with that. Group’s #3, my #5.

2009 Copain Kiser en Bas Pinot Noir: Tighter nose of spice, strawberry and cherry. Fairly open with nice dark-toned red fruit. Group’s #1, my #4.

2009 Rhys Family Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir: Very spicy nose of wild herbs, a touch of candied fruit, perfume, and dust. Beautiful flavor, a star. Quite a bit of tannin. This was a very controversial wine with ratings all over the place. Some people thought it was flawed (burnt rubber/mercaptans, medicinal). Actually almost all of this (except mercaptans) follows other recent notes including different people finding very different things in the wine. I didn’t notice any of the off aromas and several people agreed that they were not there when they went back to the wine later. A few were more adamant that it was flawed. Group’s #4, my #1.

2009 Louis Jadot Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Ursules: Distinctly lighter color that all the others in this flight, and more reserved on the nose with some oak. Lots of tannin, but this had layers and layers of depth and complexity. I loved it, though I think its young Jadot character made it more difficult for some people to like compared to the other, more open wines. Group’s #5, my #2.


Flight 2: 2006 Anthill Farms Terroir Comparison

2006 Anthill Farms Abbey-Harris Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley: Dark compared to the other wines in this flight (in general they were similar to the Beaune in the first flight). Rich, somewhat sweet nose with baking spices. Very ripe, rich with a sweet character on the palate, but nice flavor and overall seemed balanced. Some people thought that this wine had very high alcohol (bottle says a little over 14%). Group’s #4, my #3.

2006 Anthill Farms Demuth Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley: Spicy nose. Very pretty with medium body. Not so ripe but has a friendly character with a little greenery in the flavors. Group’s #3, my #2.

2006 Anthill Farms Peters Vineyard, Sonoma Coast: More of a funky nose with sawn wood. Darker-toned and a little sinister. I found this one a bit hot on the palate. Group’s #2, my #4 (actually, if I had rated it any higher it would have been the group favorite).

2006 Anthill Farms Tina Marie Vineyard, Russian River Valley: Dusty mineral, spice and underbrush aromas. Lighter body, very elegant and really pleasant. I liked this a lot. Group’s #1, my #1.

These were the first Anthills I’ve tried and it was a bit of a strange flight. Opinions were all over the map. I felt like some people came to the tasting trying to hate any CA Pinots and were looking for faults whether they existed or not. But at the same time, the first Anthill was a bit of a fruit bomb which was really unexpected.


Flight 3: 2005/2006 CA Pinot Noir and a Nuits Stalker

2005 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir Estate: Toasted, leathery, pickles. Ripe fruit but weird notes in both nose and flavor. Group’s #5, my #6. Not sure if this was a bad bottle - none of this character in the 2009.

2006 Rhys Swan Terrace Pinot Noir: Mineral/chalk nose with some sweet fruit. A bit hot. Fairly tannic and a little closed but has nice pure fruit flavors. This was the most overtly tannic wine in the flight. Group’s #1, my #4.

2005 Littorai Cerise Pinot Noir: Mineral/iron nose and a spicy character, maybe some stems. Quite open with a nice ripeness and flavor. However, this was a very controversial wine - many people found the nose objectionable and several who were familiar with Littorai felt it was flawed. One Littorai lover had it as his top wine in the tasting and also picked it out as the Littorai, so I’m really not sure. I didn’t understand why people found it bad. Group’s #6, my #2.

2005 JF Mugnier Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos de la Marechale: Minerally fruit, slightly stemmy. Quite rich and ripe, very nice. Very few people picked this early on as the Burgundy but just before unveiling the wines, a couple of the Burgundy lovers had switched their guesses over to it. Group’s #2, my #3. Before the tasting I was worried that this wine would be too far inside its shell to show well, but that didn’t turn out to be a problem.

2006 Rhys Alpine Hillside Pinot Noir: Super dark color and quite closed. Big and a little monolithic. This seemed fairly shut down to me. Group’s #4, my #5.

2005 Arcadian Clos Pepe Pinot Noir: Again the last wine in the flight stood out as the lightest in color, which again led me to guess it as the Burgundy, however this time it was a ruse. The nose was slightly funky with a hint of cheese, but this is misleading as it actually smelled very nice. I felt this was a bit closed in but it seemed to have a lot of layers, only some of which were showing. Group’s #3, my #1.

This HAD to be a bad bottle!

TTT

Great notes, Craig. [thumbs-up.gif] Thank you for sharing; sounds like it was a very fun event!

How would you rank the flights, Craig? I ask because Flight 1, for whatever reason, gives me the impression of possibly being the weakest of the bunch (albeit nothing to sneeze at).

Flight 2: 2006 Anthill Farms Terroir Comparison

2006 Anthill Farms Demuth Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley: > Spicy nose. Very pretty with medium body. Not so ripe but has a friendly character with a little greenery in the flavors. Group’s #3, my #2.

2006 Anthill Farms Tina Marie Vineyard, Russian River Valley: > Dusty mineral, spice and underbrush aromas. Lighter body, very elegant and really pleasant. I liked this a lot. Group’s #1, my #1.

Both of these sound very good!


Flight 3: 2005/2006 CA Pinot Noir and a Nuits Stalker

2005 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir Estate: > Toasted, leathery, pickles. Ripe fruit but weird notes in both nose and flavor. Group’s #5, my #6. Not sure if this was a bad bottle - none of this character in the 2009.

Yuck!

2005 Littorai Cerise Pinot Noir: > Mineral/iron nose and a spicy character, maybe some stems. Quite open with a nice ripeness and flavor. However, this was a very controversial wine - many people found the nose objectionable and several who were familiar with Littorai felt it was flawed. One Littorai lover had it as his top wine in the tasting and also picked it out as the Littorai, so I’m really not sure. I didn’t understand why people found it bad. Group’s #6, my #2.

this sounds quite tasty to me!

2005 Arcadian Clos Pepe Pinot Noir: > Again the last wine in the flight stood out as the lightest in color, which again led me to guess it as the Burgundy, however this time it was a ruse. The nose was slightly funky with a hint of cheese, but this is misleading as it actually smelled very nice. I felt this was a bit closed in but it seemed to have a lot of layers, only some of which were showing. Group’s #3, my #1.

Love this wine. Indeed, it requires more cellar time.

Great tasting! [cheers.gif]

The general feeling was that the quality was highest in flight #3, followed by 1 and then 2. and I probably agree (I might have 1 & 2 even). However several of us felt that all three flights were quite strong, and a number of people found the first two pretty variable.

Of all the wines, the Copain En Bas might have been the most universally liked.

Very cool. Thanks for the reply, Craig. [cheers.gif]

Great line-up of wines, Craig. Surprised at the fruitbomb character of the Anthill Farms Abbey-Harris, and I may decide to wait a while before opening one. Abbey-Harris normally does not show that way in my experience. I actually had planned to pop it open this weekend, but plans changed. If I do open it soon, I’ll make sure it has a chance to breathe.

What was the rationale for no aeration of flight 2? I actually think all three flights would benefit from 3+ hours in open decanter, but I guess you thought otherwise.

Great lineup of wines.
Anthill wines definitely need some air to show their best. Had the '07 Comptche and Demuth this week and both needed at least 30 mins in a wide bottom decanter and both got better as the evening got older.

I had never had Anthill. We discussed how to treat the wines beforehand and my friend who contributed the Anthills felt we should pop and pour. Given the logistics/location of our tastings about the best we can do is an hour decant.

I don’t think the Abbey-Harris was bad, it was just surprisingly ripe.

Craig, we decided to proceed with our AHF tasting alongside a couple of Burgs. My take on the Abbey-Harris… I’d probably not go quite so far as to use the F-word (fruitbomb), but clearly there is a sense of sweetness on the nose and palate, as you found also. This may be a young wine/baby fat thing that recedes with a little time in bottle, or maybe not. If it does recede, will be a great wine IMO. Out TN’s are here.