How apropos that this bottle was a gift from FMIII and now it’s gonna cost him another $10 for Laura’s House!! He gave it to me yesterday for a special occasion and we pulled the cork tonight with family to celebrate our lives and friendships. Something we try not to forget everyday.
Thank for everything FMIII.
2014 Copain Pinot Noir Whole Cluster Wendling Vineyard- USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley (11/16/2018)
Same impression as last time. This wine has an old world quality to it much like a Musar or Southern Italy. It must be the whole cluster influence but this would be very difficult to call this Anderson Valley served blind and that’s a compliment. Fairly opaque.with purple around the rim. Nose does show some red apple with herbs. Extremely strong mineral foundation with red apple and tart red fruit. There’s a good affect of limestone ripping throughout. Seems medium plus acid pushing high which I really enjoy.
2011 DuMol Pinot Noir Ryan - PnP. Strawberry just leaps out of the glass on the initial palate. The spice that is so present on the nose appears on the mid-palate creating an interesting balance with the strawberry. Finish is long and deep.
2004 Loring Wine Company Pinot Noir SRH Cargasacchi Vyd - Picked this up on the cheap from a local wine shop that bought a cellar from the children if a deceased vintner. Unfortunately this wine was also deceased. I’ll move on to another wine from the same purchase and see if this is going to be a trend or just a one-off.
2004 August West Pinot Noir SLH Rosella’s Vyd - Strike 2! Burnt caramel and ethanol. Round 3 coming up. Good thing the retailer is going to stand behind them.
2005 Marguerite Ryan Cellars Pinot Noir Gary’s SLH Vyd - 3rd time is a charm, or at least a drinkable wine. Brickish red, nose of dried cherries and a bit of heat. 14.9alc on the label noticable on the nose but surprisingly not much on the palate. Ripe bing cherry, fairly light bodied, silky texture, watermelon hard candy, zippy acid and just a hint of a burn on the finish. Just happy I didn’t have to open another bottle.
Tonight’s dinner: koji marinated pork loin with a sherry orange marmalade pan sauce.
Paired with 2014 ABC Santa Barbara PN
My four year old son says it smells of cherries and strawberries.
My wife says it’s ok. It lacks depth and not rich enough. Finish is not the best. It’s your type of wine.
Both of them are right: I like this style of California PN. It’s something I can drink with most friends since the more savory PN is not enjoyable for them. Medium density of dark cherries/strawberry. Light hint of earth. Balanced acidity and nice texture. Tamed alcohol. A slight bitter note at the end and not particularly complex or long finish but great QPR ($15 on sale) and perfect for a weeknight meal.
Pinot is my wife’s favourite variety! She’s happy this will have us open more than usual.
Seems like a good way to start is with a 2013 Patricia Green Berserker’s Cuvee!
Excellent mushroom aromas with cherries and earth. This keeps getting better. I like that it’s savoury but with nice bright acidity.
Over about 2-3 hours it stayed delicious and opened up with a bit more complexity.
2015 Weingut Rings Freinsheim Spätburgunder- Germany, Pfalz (11/17/2018)
From a Spiegelau Burgundy stem, this wine shows a translucent ruby in the glass. There is a richness to the nose of this wine that reminds me of some of the Cristom wines I’ve had in the past as it leads with smoke, a hint of vanilla, a lush red-fruit profile with some earth in the back ground. The palate is lean, slightly austere and acid driven with a fair bit of tannin that feels like it’s going to need another year or two to integrate a bit more with lingering notes of cherry, strawberry and raspberry on the palate. I get the feeling that with patience these will be a serious bargain in another few years time for the purchase price of around $25/bottle. Patience with this wine will be rewarded. Very Good to Excellent with room to improve further if you’re patient.
With family last night. Pop and pour and then followed for an hour. If it’s pinot and my son likes it, it’s good.
2013 Sojourn Pinot Noir Gap’s Crown Vineyard Sonoma Coast- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (11/16/2018)
Developing slowly. No rough edges. Dark and hefty cherry. Meaty. No funk and no cola. Smooth. My son said no vanilla no chocolate, both of which he likes. I say no annoying oak. He still likes the wine, which is a surprise. Nice acidity and some citrus. very good balance and no disjointed flavors. Fresh and bright. Could last another decade or more. (92 pts.)
OK, the accent here is on ‘young’. Healthy medium ruby color to the rim. The aromas are rich and ripe, but quite primary, featuring red cherry, with a hint of black raspberry underneath and a touch of sage. The palate is moderately dense, with plenty of both tannin and acidity. The finish is a little short. This is very good but almost painfully young and simple. However the course of the evening it began to develop some manners and polish. I have much less experience with Cote de Nuits than Cote de Beaune and this to me typifies a village lieu-dit from Gevrey. Plenty of power, not a lot of subtlety. However based on limited previous experience with this producer, this should have gotten a lot more time. Rated 88.5 when first opened, 90 at the end of the bottle. Should improve about 2 points over the next 5 – 10 years. It was a singleton, dammit, but at least it earned some money for charity.
Look at all the handsome people up in here. Love the photos and the notes.
Rumor is we’re going to be drinking from a 5L tomorrow. Maybe we can generate several notes off that bad boy.
Keep posting folks. Remember, each TN is worth $5, and if you put a picture of your mug with the wine, I double the value to $10. Merely shooting a photo of a boring wine label doesn’t count for the doubled value. And finally, we have a matching Wine Berserker donor, which means everything is 2X. GO GO GO!
OK Frank, a few questions, comments, essentially squeezing you and the Blessed Berserker who is matching:
So it’s $5 per 750ml, doubled for the photo. So is it $10 per magnum, $20 per 3L, etc? And does everything still double if there’s a mug shot? And will you cut us some slack and still pay $5 (doubled for photo) for a 375ml?
I’ve got other Fish to Fry tonight (no Pinot Noir with the haddock).
But tomorrow it will be a 375ml of something Red and Rhys (not Syrah). I hope it counts the same as a bottle.
How many shots of my Ugly Mug can the board tolerate? Do I assume that every mug shot is another double donation? Even if you up the ante up for big bottles, I am afraid I probably don’t have a single large format Pinot downstairs, but I’ll dumpster dive as I have friends coming over right after Thanksgiving, just in case there’s something down there; there just might be.
And BTW, while I can’t match the Blessed Berserker’s donation for every bottle posted, I can and will match your donation for every bottle I open. Please reply with the exact name and address where the check should be sent. Other Berserkers, are any of you with me on this?
Thank you again for your generosity. And for one of the most inspired charity events I’ve ever heard of. Drink wine you love, don’t pay a penny, and make a donation to a worthwhile charity. Thank you once again.
As for the bottle sizes, I’m keeping this simple. Bottle size agnostic. $5 for TN, $10 for that TN if you put your mug in the photo with the bottle. Beyond that, it’s probably time to bring in Alfie Jr or Counselor Seiber for some legal interpretation. Just write your TNs, post some photos as you see fit of your beautiful self and keep it real. I’ll figure it out and Laura’s House wins.
Thanks for your match. Whatever you choose to do, it all helps. The Laura’s House website has online donation or you can mail them a check snail mail.
2006 Siduri Pinot Noir Keefer Ranch Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (11/17/2018)
Brick red and transluscent. Nose started out reductuve but morphed to mushroom, cranberry and old leather. Sweet strawberry, a bit cloying hut enough secondary characteristics to overcome that. Some heat from the mid-palate through the finish detracts a bit but at $21.99 I’m not complaining. Glad it’s still alive!
Big nose. Smells like rhubarb and cranberries and something kind of savory. Almost like pepper, maybe. Nice structure, red fruit, more fruit than I expected given the style I assumed this would be in. Very pretty, nice structure. Tiny bit if tingly/acidity feel that I always associate with stems. Ends with a savory note. Really clean, pure PN. Better with food and a year or two. This is my second bottle (first enjoyed with an early Thanks Day dinner). Nice value at the $16 price at KL, but not an outrageous multi-case buy for me.
Matching your donation for this, and any of my future notes, Frank.
O.k Frank beauty and the beasts if you will. Daughter just home from college wanted to join the party. 2015 Biggio Hamina Cellars Pinot Noir Holmes Gap Vineyard, damn Todd makes really good wines. Bright cherry and strawberry and a bit of mineral/earth on the attack. A silky mid palate that leads to a pretty long finish. Bright acidity balances the wine nicely and should make this drink very well for a number of years 13.0 ABV.
Getting to walking the talk, here are a few notes from me after dinner tonight. For those of you that have posted, keep going. We can beat back the negativity of the times by sharing and posting.
2006 Copain Pinot Noir Monument Tree- USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley (11/17/2018)
5 years since my previous TN, and at that time I thought the wine would drink best in/around 2015. I lost sight of my TN and the bottle sat in my cellar but I saw PIntag’s TN today so I thought I’d pull my final bottle and give it a whirl. Opened this about 2 hours ago. Some pinot funk infuses the aromatic with a nice presence, as well as into the palate. I also notice what seems like some wood, akin to a toasted barrel note. Not sure how much wood was used 12 years ago, which in 2006 was really the final vintage before Wells took on the philosophy change to his winemaking. I respectfully want to differ with PINtag’s note, as there is to me a good amount of stuffing left in this bottle, showing as a dark apple and raspberry quality, with residual grip in the wine (probably helped by the light chill I put on the wine). The red fruit frames the core of the wine, remaining to me fresh and still vivid. At 12 years old, I would look for some component of aged quality in the wine, yet I don’t find it. The color remains intact, there is no spice box or other aged aromas/flavors, just a cool core of fresh red fruits with the apple. I don’t see any rush to open remaining bottles if you have them, provided they drink like this one, which coincidentally I sourced from Winebid back in 2015. This pursuit of tasting wines, writing TNs and sharing is not about finding truth as much as it is sharing perception, which is subject to vary from palate to palate.
2014 Marguet Père et Fils Champagne Grand Cru Shaman 14 Rose- France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru (11/17/2018)
Last tasted this at the winery during my May trip to Marguet. Opened this for dinner tonight. Base is 2014, disgorged 09/2017, zero dosage, with 66% Chard and 33% PN. This started off slowly, a little dumb and lacking complexity. With air, this woke up. Peach colored, with green apple, strawberry, tangerine, and some chalk. The PN in this gives this a good push of flavor, and while there is some green apple, it doesn’t dominate. This is fresh, zingy with a lime/tangerine finish. Solid again.
The Princess and the Peasant 2015 Pinot
This is one of this year’s Berserkers Day purchases. I have to say in advance that this was tasted through almost 10 days of some of the worst air pollution I’ve ever been in. As much as I might complain about the air quality, I am blessed to be suffering poor air as opposed to losing everything in the fires.
This is bright, crunchy version of Pinot, sour cherry and acid. We had this tonight with a Flannery hanger steak with fries and roasted tomatoes. The acid cut through nicely, but I have little sense of smell at the moment and the taste is muted. I think I would really go for it but just can’t trust the palate.
![[drinkers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/82916bed5ad74ac8470bc04089d9758b0c80c9fa.gif "drinkers"){kind=small}
![[berserker.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8600bbd4810d342b8fbd4ffb62b4f0026275fd37.gif "berserker"){kind=small}
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
