Terrific Joe. I opened the 22 Trout Gulch Chard last night. He really makes what I believe are excellent wines. Hope you enjoy them too.
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No doubt I will!
The first vintage has yet to be released, but for those after the best CA Pinot Noir I’d keep an eye out for the inaugural 2023 vintage for Platt Vineyard. Fans of Rivers-Marie, Littorai, Ramey and others will be familiar with this vineyard, and it sits directly adjacent and above the Kistler family’s Occidental Vineyard property in Bodega. AXA Millesime purchased this property a couple years back and have created a new brand based off the vineyard and only Rivers-Marie is still getting fruit with the balance going to the newly created brand. Any winemaker in the area will tell you that 2023 is going to be special for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and I had the opportunity to taste through these wines block by block and was completely blown away. With their inaugural release 2023 I think you’ll see an immediate addition to the fold for California’s best in both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but no idea what the price will be.
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nvm it looks like it’s named platt vineyard. I will subscribe. My favorite chard in cali has been the platt chard.
If you find out how, let us know.
I had no luck finding it.
It’s here.
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Scherrer makes a PN from Platt. Was offered here on BD a few years back. Looks like 2019 was the last year?
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@Frank_Murray_III just got the shipment of Kutch Mindego PN, pretty excited. @Jamie_Kutch really did a great job getting my order out.
I am going to wait for couple of days before trying it out…
only one thing I am a bit concerned, not really disappointment, but the bottle material seems not being made consistently… there are uneven scuff marks on the bottle, bobbles and some dents, which all classified as glass defect…made me believe either the bottle was lower end bottle (one of the lowest I’ve seen on wine), or the bottle manufacturer is not delivering what they promised…
Although I am not from the glass manufacturing industry, however with my experience in manufacturing, the QC standard for these bottles are fairly lower than most other winery’s products… which is pretty sad considering many people spoke highly on what is inside…
I’ve never noticed anything with the bottles. I guess I take for granted. Why not just ask Jamie and see what his reaction is?
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that did crossed my mind, but I received the wine without broken glass…so not sure mentioning to him will be nice or not…more importantly, didn’t want the end result being he upgrading the bottle to premium glass, and the cost reflect on the price of wine… 
I am going to the business trip tonight until weekend, guess I will take few pictures of the bottle and sent it to Jamie and let him know once I am back…
Just giving this a go in the spirit of the original question, without a debate on the merits of other areas:
Littorai
Williams Selyem
Occidental
Rivers Marie
Rhys
Hanzell
Hirsch
School House (Not yet mentioned!)
Then perhaps Au Bon Climate and Domaine De La Cote for me
Although wild definitely consider Ceritas, Whitcraft, Drew, Dumol and Cobb, just haven’t had enough recently.
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Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think anyone has mentioned Wayfarer. They make terrific Pinot!
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Guy Davis and Davis Family Vineyards has gotten no credit so far. Great wine maker making excellent wines year after year. Both better quality and better QPR than many of the previous mentioned wineries.
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Rather than automatically bottling sites separately, I always look at what I would have if blending sites to create something more than either would been separately. I ended up blending 2020 Platt with 2020 High Slopes because it made a stunning wine in what was an unfairly uniformly maligned vintage (not smart business-wise to turn two $75 bottles into $56 bottles). I’m seriously debating doing the same with the 2021 vintage which will be bottled shortly. It’s nice to label after bottling to have this flexibility.
I could not justify the significantly increased price of fruit in 2022 and would have lost the site anyway in 2023. So 2019 could be the last Platt vintage for us.
F
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Thanks for the update Fred. Very informative to hear how you assess each vineyard, each year, to come up with the best expression.
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Always love reading different perspectives from Berserkers… 5 years ago if someone asked me about California Pinot, I would have said why bother? They charge way more than Oregon and most of them taste like Cotton Candy. Of course my simplistic view wasn’t accurate. There are great values in California and no they don’t all taste like Cotton Candy. We have enjoyed Pinots from Ladd, Peake Ranch, Tercero, Talley, Liquid Farm, and Kynsi on our recent visits.
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Hi Fred,
Thanks for the comment, and sad to see Platt go…
I still recalled the day I first met you on the Pinot Days event at SF, and how your PN lineups struck me with the superb quality.
First mention of Pisoni I’ve seen, one of my favorites.
Littorai, Rivers Marie. Sojourn for variety and value.
I took a trip recently to Santa Inez area and tried Dragonette which I really enjoyed, fruit from some very good vineyards, including Bien Nacido. Very good Chardonnay as well.
I second (third?) the Dragonette rec. I just tried their recent 2021 svds and was blown away.
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Somewhat amazed to see a thread like this without Sea Smoke getting more attention.
Of course there are the Oregon fanboys touting ‘value’ but I have yet to taste an Oregon Pinot that grabbed me the way Sea Smoke did.
I readily admit I like big, fruit forward Cali Cabs primarily and for those who want a bridge to Pinot from Cab I think Sea Smoke is a good one.
That’s just me. I don’t claim to be a Pinot expert. I do claim to enjoy Sea Smoke.