Oh wow.

It's been several years since I had a moment like tonight. I had a good dinner in mind and I browsed the spreadsheet and found a wine that might be as good.

It was.

Dinner was veal rib chops with a pan sauce of Rainwater Madeira, cream, onion and rosemary, mashed potato and fresh chayote squash from our next door neighbor. I had planned on lamb chop, but the chops in the store were decidedly sorry looking, and the veal had the right color and plumpness.

Oh yeah, the wine. Back in February 2005 I bought a couple of bottles of Pinot Noir for $25 each, which was then and still is somewhat on the high side for my squeaky-tight wallet. Joseph Swan, Russian River Valley, Trenton Estate Vineyard, Estate Bottled, 2002.
Oh wow. I popped the bottle an hour and a half before dinner and took a sip. A hint of what I guess you guys call bottle funk - sort of musty and acidic - that disappeared in a few seconds. A true clear ruby color, almost like the surface of an overripe strawberry, but believe me there wasn't any hint of overripeness. Tangy entry, layer on layer of Good Wine Taste, but the first sip was a bit short on the finish.

Trust me, it wasn't short after an hour! By the end of supper, a few hours later, the tang had all but disappeared, replaced by a sort of slow entry that kept promising and then delivering, followed by all sorts of wonderful stuff. It is perhaps as European as a California wine ever gets. No trace of sweetness anywhere, but no astringency either after the first half hour or so.

I bought a couple more bottles later, and I'm entirely glad I did. This is one of the wines that I'll be conflicted about for the next several years - should I or shouldn't I? And when it's all gone, I'll be conflicted again - if I'd kept some back, maybe it would still be getting better! But again, I wouldn't have had so much fun drinking it in the first place!

Why I like wine.

John

John,

If you liked it this much as it appears, then my advice is drink 'em this like this. I don't know the vineyard track record for development and I don't know what your remaining bottles would become, but it probably won't... be... like... this... for... long.

It's Pinot, right ?

But I do know Rod can release vintages fairly late sometimes, supposedly to permit some "developed" enjoyment at release.

Wow, indeed.

That's a particularly...how should I say it...hot and bothered description of, er, um, wine, John.

And you don't smoke, so you couldn't even have a cigarette afterward.

Jeff,
Trenton Estate is pretty old vines, they were already there when Joe Swan bought the property, and the vineyard has a reputation for producing long-lived wines. I'd guess they won't fall off for at least 6 or 8 more years.

Hoke,
True, I don't smoke. Re-reading, it does seem like I was high, but it was only on the wine!
I've never been good at the descriptive words, but the experience last night left me more than usually bereft. I did save half a bottle for tonight.

John

Ah, John, just having a little fun with ya.

And you do fine with descriptive words here. You conveyed the joy of that bottle quite well, I'd say.

Tonight I capped it off.
Well, actually I un-re-corked it and finished it.
Well, most of it.
Just to keep you on tenterhooks, I'll work chronologically.
I chose sauteed chicken thighs, finished with some tarragon and fino Sherry, and "Carrot-Rice Casserole", a Sunset Magazine recipe that's well over half a century old, but that doesn't make it bad.
I looked closely at the filled glass, and sniffed more carefully because it was the second night and the supper didn't require so much trying to do three things at once. My nose is numb (I repeat) but I got, besides the wine, some nutmeg sort of spice - dusty and not sweet. In the glass, it's really dark, with just maybe the meniscus clearing. Entry was a lot smoother than last night, and the wine was more even through the mouth. Definitely California. Definitely not anything remotely "candied" - and I've suffered that. I managed to make a sip go for maybe a minute, and enjoyed the whole experience.
I also saved an ounce or two in the end of the glass for later.
I had made an apricot cobbler for dessert, using frozen apricots I picked from the neighbor's tree back in June. 'Twas good! But not for wine.
After supper, I came into the bedroom and started playing with the computer, sipping some coffee and some wine. It goes well with coffee, there's no clash with Jamaica Blue Mountain blend.
Sipping and browsing forums and generally lazing around, I reached over and CLANG! I knocked over the last ounce of wine, breaking the glass and demanding a cleanup all over the computer desk and the cheap rug underneath. No, the glass wasn't Riedel.

Oh well, three to go.

John

(Part of a sampling of 5 Pinot Noirs in 3-oz. pours)

2002 JOSEPH SWAN "TRENTON ESTATE" PINOR NOIR, RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY
I had tasted this before at Enoteca Vin and wanted more please. Paler, appears thinner than the first two wines. More fragrant that the other two wines I had in this flight. Mainly raspberries? Again a spicy, peppery finish. (After chatting with the neighboring table of three--he writes food and wine notes for GillznFinz.com--I let them have a sniff of the glass with the Joseph Swan. He picked up on cinnamon where I was smelling pepper.) Elegant, gentle, super-smooth on the palate until the spicy finish. Also made me think of berry ice cream. Impressive! Restaurant and wine shop owner Chrish Peel's personal favorite and my favorite of the five I tried Saturday evening.

John, we agree on this one but David Bueker found it wanting.

JC,
"Appears thinner", yes, I can see that. In my roughly 1 oz first sip, the color was quite strawberry-ish. And it isn't thick in the glass with football player legs - in fact, practically no legs at all. I attribute the spicy, peppery finish to the lower Russian River Valley where it's grown. Other wines (Rochioli, for instance) often show the same, if you get past the winemaking stuff. Also, old vines matter, especially in the finish, as far as I can see.
Berry ice cream? Hmm. Testing my memory. Ok, I can see the point - a very smooth finish, spices and ripe berries (another RRV characteristic) - but OTOH there was absolutely no hint of sweetness anywhere in my bottle. None. Nil. Nada.
One often confuses structure with tannin - I know I do, and I suspect some others do, too. This PN has lots of structure and practically no up-front tannin at all. The tannin is there if you think about it and separate it out, as is the oak. Combined, I think they're part of the spice or cinnamon side to the flavor. My feeling about structure is closer to my feeling about balance. I can't remember having a wine with what I thought of as imbalance and good structure at the same time. Or vice versa. If you get a bottle that's "dumb", you may find it recalcitrant in terms of fruit, but if you go back and think about it, you usually see the ripe berries peeking around the corner like a shy kitten.
I can't think of an alcohol bomb that I thought of as anything else. Fruit bomb, yes - if it's a fruit bomb AND has moderate alcohol AND a good backbone, which does include, for reds, IMO, some oak and some inherent tannins - then it can be well balanced and well structured. And it may be better next year. But I can't think of a fruit bomb that I wanted to put away for 5 or 10 years.

Ain't wine fun?

John