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.