I’ll jump in to match. Since I am hosting a charity week next month (Oregon Chardonnay for Dakin Humane Society everyone) I’ll have to keep it to $1 a note, but I should be able to get a company match, so that will help.
One of those days at work where you get home on a Friday night and you think I’m going to do absolutely nothing. Then you realize you’ve accumulated 38 puzzles from the pandemic and they’re piling up in the closet. Time to get the bunny slippers on and knock this thing out.
Pinot noir is the only way to puzzle.
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2018 Siduri Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (11/19/2021)
Medium dark maroon colored. The nose has a hint of molasses but a really delicious red fruit note. Palette is classic Santa Rita hills with a mineral note on the attack and find prickly tannins at the finish. Super enjoyable, thanks Adam.
Posted from CellarTracker
And I’ll just venmo you $20 for your charity because you’re so passionate. I donated directly to Dakine about 5 years ago and I think I’m final off the mailing list! LOL
1/3 Pinot, close enough:
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NV Egly-Ouriet Champagne Les Prémices - France, Champagne (11/19/2021)
Disgorged July 2020. Slight pink tint. Some fruit and floral notes on the nose. Full of flavor on pop and pour. Ripe red apple, lemon curd, small amount of brioche, all hitting at the same time. Finish is relatively long too. Punches above its weight for the price point.
Posted from CellarTracker
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#2 tonight!
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2017 Bruno Lorenzon Mercurey Le Chapitre - France, Burgundy, Côte Chalonnaise, Mercurey (11/19/2021)
Uncorked and slow-ox’d for 5 hours. Light fruit and baking spice nose. Loads of strawberry and raspberry, some more of the baking spice, at a perfect level. Feels so light, but still very serious. Very tasty right now.
Posted from CellarTracker
A picture of the wine is included (knowing it won’t count for the $10).
Hubert Meyer Pinot Noir Crémant D’alsace Brut Rosé
100% Pinot Noir with a light pink color, less salmon than pictured. Surprisingly fine bead for this price point. Ripe strawberries and maybe yellow raspberries (help… I am so bad at tasting notes). The dosage was a tad high for my tastes (tech sheet indicates it’s 7.3g/L) and was a bit out of balance with the acidity, but for $18 I am being extremely picky. Great QPR.
We also finished the 2018 Philippe Gavignet Bourgogne that we opened a few days ago. We PnP, but it was mushroomy and acidic in an unpleasant way. We stuck it back in the fridge, kind of disappointed. After two days of hanging out, it was much improved and I got notes of almost-ripe cherries, red currants, with a hint of mushrooms and nice acidity. It was nicely balanced and had a good QPR.
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2018 Copain Pinot Noir Sealift - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (11/19/2021)
Dark garnet, medium body, some nice earthy spice/crushed berries on the nose, has lovely darker, but well focused fruit, bright acidity and a hint of sweet fruit give this a juicy feeling, but there’s a serious wine behind that sensation. Very nice. (91 pts.)
No picture, but a separate donation will be made.
2007 Biggio Hamina Deux Vert Vineyard - nose has a spritzy cherry profile, with a little bit of funk. On the palate, i get black cherry, mushrooms, earthy spices, with a little bitter note on the finish. The mouthfeel is light, but packs a lot of flavor. With a little air, this becomes a little angular, but it does have a nice, warming finish.
2007 August West Roselllas - on the nose, dark black cherries with a hint of vanilla. This is a little lighter on the palate than expected based on the nose. Sweet raspberries with that same hint of vanilla. This is very gulpable right now, very smooth, don’t need to think about this wine too much, just enjoying the ride. The finish is a little shortish.
2007 Paul Lato Gold Coast - on the nose, i get a dark pomegranate flavor profile with a really nice floral note. On the palate, this is like blend of the Biggio Hamina and the August West - darker berry flavor profile with some nice earthy spices mixed in. This is even lighter than the August West, but also like the AW, this is nice and smooth - goes down easy.
Frank - since i am not posting any pictures, I will match $10 for each tasting note I post.
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Tonight’s round #2
2017 Kelley Fox Hyland Vineyard Coury Clone
This is the first year of a three year contract for this fruit. Generally, I’d be reluctant to open such a young wine, but I just received two pearls of wisdom for Kelley herself. 1. She treats her red wines as if they were white wines (from a production standpoint) and her whites are masterpieces. 2. She prefers to drink both white and red wines young as she prefers them in their vibrate prime rather than looking at something from the past.
The color of this wine is a radiate ruby that seems almost ethereal.
The nose started really tight but opened up into a fabulous fruit bowl of fresh picked raspberries and cherries. Over time, a wet stone/mineral element emerged along with a sweetness my wife calls Kelley’s crème brûlée.
The palate is still entirely primary, drinks so well right now, but clearly has tannins, bright citric acidity, and magic in reserve to evolve for plenty of years to come. My preference says this is still on the young side and should be held for a few years. For what it’s worth, I just tasted the 2019 and thought it was even better, but the 2017 might just be in a “stage.”
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I got off to a good start for Laura’s House. As I was afraid, it required some sacrifice. Last night was cold and windy… weather for Chateauneuf more than Pinot Noir.
The evening started well at Embark Restaurant in Brunswick. With my salad and paella I enjoyed:
2019 Benziger Pinot Noir, Monterey -
Clear crimson color. The aromas are appropriate, with red cherry and a hint of black pepper. The palate is medium bodied. The flavors are a little diffuse. The texture is richer than expected; not completely appropriate for Pinot but worked with the weather and the dish. Rated 83, drink up.
I had been wondering what Pinot to open at home. Many thanks to Chris Seiber for making my decision easy.
2011 Alesia Pinot Noir ‘Alder Springs’ -
Did this last year, I’m guessing my one remaining bottle will go for the same cause next year. I need to get to the farmer’s market, so I hope it’s not cheating if I just repost my tasting note from last year… the wine hasn’t budged. Note from 11-28-20
“Medium ruby color. Aromas feature red raspberry and plenty of earth. There is a tiny touch of volatile acidity and even alcohol on the nose, just enough to add a slightly savage note to an otherwise very polite panoply of aromas. Quite a surprise, as alcohol is only 13.5%.
The palate is light in body but solid and ripe, with red and black cherry flavors to the fore and raspberries deep in the background. The tannins are fully resolved, but vigorous acidity keep this fresh, even lively. This is agreeable and subtle, although it lacks the intensity of fine Rhys Pinots, it is still very pleasant, especially to find a bottle from this producer that is fully secondary and ready to drink. I have more, would plan to drink them over the next year or so, I don’t think there is much to gain from further age, although I may hold on to a few into 2022. Rated 91.5, ready now.”
I’ll raise my rating to 92 points on last night’s bottle.
Donation: I will match the sum of the other donations.
Benziger with photo: Frank, $10. Benefactor, $10, = Dan $20.
Alesia with photo: Frank, $10. Benefactor, $10. Chris, $10, = Dan $30.
Dan Kravitz
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After making our own contribution to Laura’s House, it is time to post this note from last evening. We had our first Goodfellow, the 2014 Whistling Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir. Thank you to Marcus for including an aged wine in his offering! Pinot doesn’t represent a significant amount of our cellar, but we certainly will continue to buy and support Goodfellow. Very light in color, but very intense in flavor and concentration, with red cherries, earth and spice on the nose. I also picked up a little bit of cinnamon on the nose. Beautiful red cherry and strawberry on the palate, with integrated tannins and a smooth finish. We had given this a few hours of air before opening and saved some to try tonight. This is really good stuff! Thank you to this board and to Dr. Alan for opening my eyes to the Goodfellow wines!
I know there are a lot of wonderful causes to support, but the work that Laura’s House does, and what Frank does to help support Laura’s House really resonates with me for personal reasons. And I will post a picture of my ugly mug to help support the cause!
Ed
With Chris’ generous donation challenge I will dig deep into my basement to find some old domestic pinot noirs. Thanks for the challenge Chris. Also thank you Frank for doing this again.
Wow. Y’all got off to a great start in the past 24 hours. Bueker adds a $1 per note match, and several now are matching on their own notes. THANK YOU!
And what I continue to enjoy about this format are the photos. Yeah, I can read the notes and there are a lot of good note writers around here, but the photos are what make it pop for me. We get used to seeing the bolded user name, the avatar images, the ‘tone’ of the passion of each other, but with the photos, we humanize each other.
The internet can be choked with disrespect, an absence of grace and class, but with these photos, we’re forced to see each other as we are: as people, as connected to each other. And the essence of Domestic Violence is the dehumanization and disconnection the victim(s) feel. As my wife says “all abuse is intentional”. With photos, all we can do is appreciate each other, get connected. For those photos, THANK YOU!
Remember, when you finally make your donation to the Laura’s House website, please put in the donation comment that this is in support of the Wine Berserkers challenge.
I’ll be opening a Blanc de Noir tonight, and I’ll do as Ed S did and post a photo.
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Another day another Pinot
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2016 Cartograph Pinot Noir Russian River Valley - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (11/20/2021)
pop and pour. Classic Sonoma Pinot notes, darker fruits, cranberry, some oak spice, little sweetness. I’m a good spot with a few years in bottle, always nice to see the appellation wines evolve.
Posted from CellarTracker
2019 Kokomo Gopher Hill Block Peter’s Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast
Andrew, love the photobomb of the youngster behind you and your bottle of Cartograph Pinot! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
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Stephen, were u going to qualify this with a tasting note?
Thank you Frank again for what you do annually for Laura’s House. Also I very much appreciate Chris Seiber’s challenge to bring out some of the aged domestic USA pinot noirs. I will aim to bring out a couple of older USA wines that meet the challenge. First up…
1999 Cristom Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Marjorie Vineyard
I have a couple of these so I thought tonight would be a good night to see how they have been sleeping. Bought these at release from a retail store for $42.99. In the back of my mind I recall that the Cristom pinots carry a bit more weight and thought it would go well with Beef Wellington with a sherry cream peppercorn sauce. That did indeed turn out to be the case. Opened the bottle with a Durand just in case the cork wanted to disintegrate . Not necessary as the cork was well intact and only ~1/2 inch soak at the wine end. In the glass the wine showed slight bricking. Aroma had a nice cherry note interlaced with a floral presence. In the mouth the wine carries the sweet and sour cherries along with a leather taste. The wine is well balanced with integrated tannins and a very nice acidic backbone. This pinot noir style is rich and full bodied with a nice long finish and registers in at 13.5 % alcohol. There is no confusing this wine as an old world Burgundy. It is a beautiful wine at 22 years of age and should be at this level for another 5-6 years.
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