Our regular group got together Saturday night to drink through some new world Pinot Noir. We had some tasty cheeses and a nice home-cooked chicken and rice dish to go with the wines. A 23-year old wine and one from Marin county were my wines of the night--it's always great to be surprised!
1996 A.R. Lenoble Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru. This was compliments of Adam and Ann (as were the ’05 Shea and the ’02 Andromeda). It is a very nice sipping wine—with an aged ginger ale character on the nose, along with aromas of marzipan, hazelnut and dried honey in support. It is rather vibrant and lively in the mouth, with a fine lemon sourball intensity of flavor, but also a honeyed complexity of burnished age all around the edges. It is tangy, tingly and at times earthy, with grapefruit rind and dark honey accenting the moderate finish. Overall, I thought this was a fine showing for this bottling.
2006 Chasseur Pinot Noir Vin Gris Sonoma Coast. Our other starter was from the cellar of our host, who proclaimed it to be a give-away to members of the Chasseur wine club. Overall, a nice freebie, indeed! A dark salmon color leads to a nose featuring pomegranate, fresh strawberry, lime pulp and spring flowers. Later on, it turns a bit earthier, bringing in some ash rub and powdered mineral accents. It has a surprising thickness of texture in the mouth for a rose, and has more of a bass note than one might normally expect. Still, it remains pretty and fruity with tangy red berries and pretty spice riding on top. It is clean, but one would not describe it as sharp or crisp—showing good balance for its weight and staying true to itself throughout. A nice surprise and a good rose to drink on its own.
1985 Chalone Vineyard Pinot Noir Reserve Chalone. As usual, it was up to Ed to teach us whipper-snappers about the benefits of aging certain producers, and here was a lesson well worth learning. This Chalone is an outstanding wine and a testament to how wine was made there once upon a time. First off, it is a very healthy color. And the nose right out of the gate displays a fabulous depth, where one can bask in the core of sweet mixed berry puree, chalky limestone and a touch of musty and sweet scorched-earth funk. There is also a bit of chocolate in there at times and the whole is just simply very attractive and rich without any hint of jamminess or heat. In the mouth, it shows off an elegant, silky-smooth texture even though there are some soft but clear whispers of plush tannins and a firm structure still in place. Mixed blue and black berries and warm caramel notes flow along easily, though there is perhaps just a bit of a leathery feel to it all around the edges of the tongue. The finish is open-knit and perhaps a bit less focused, but pure, finely dry and wonderfully balanced. I could drink the whole bottle without blinking, I suspect. WOTN.
2005 Shea Wine Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Shea Vineyard Willamette Valley. This wine opens with a good hit of stemmy, herbal aromas on the nose, along with scents of malt and ferocious briery berries that give the whole thing a sort of wild character. That profile thankfully begins to subside after a while, however, as warm pure red cherry and raspberry fruit begin to quietly emerge from the fury and give this a more inviting profile. All the while, the palate here provides a gentle but obvious sweetness of fruit, spice and fine-grained wood flavors that hang together well amidst some decent acidic vibrancy. The woody tannins grow a bit on a finish that still manages to be lively and fully-fruited, while also being dry and balanced. I have to say I started out not caring for the wine, but it did come around eventually and ought to be even better with more cellar time.
2006 Dobbes Family Estate Pinot Noir Quailhurst Vineyard Chehalem Mountain. The aromas of this wine are way up on the high end of the exotic scale, showing off all kinds of crushed raspberries, spiced fruitcake and mace notes. It is gentle and medium-bodied but deeply sweet-fruited in the mouth, with tangy sour cherry flavors accented by big spicecake notes. It is exceptionally creamy in texture, with some vanilla and oak fully framing that core of deep sour cherry compote. It displays some late lift and freshness--actually finishing a bit fizzy, with some interesting herbal elements coming in to add greater complexity. Overall, this is a lot of fun to drink and is devoid of much tannin interference, but also seems to hint at a more serious side that will perhaps grow more pronounced over the next few years. My #3 wine of the night.
2007 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. This is rather cloudy in appearance and features an open nose of vanilla and raspberry, along with high-toned rhubarb. It is young and primary, but intense and engaging. In the mouth, there is vanilla and sweet cherry flavor galore, tinged by a hint of youthful heat. It is really expressive with the big sweet fruit core sticking out front. The texture is creamy and matted, though with some high-polished gloss toward the finish--which is long, spicy and tingly. This is a promising youngster that really ought to be held at least a year or so.
2005 Chasseur Pinot Noir Sylvia’s Russian River Valley. This wine is wide-open and welcoming, as the bouquet lifts effortlessly up out of the glass--featuring a huge core of lovely spiced blueberries and very ripe raspberries and a faint dusting of chocolate powder. It displays much the same personality in the mouth, as the wild brambly berry fruit is hugely mouth-filling, open and exuberantly forward. As with many of the other wines tonight, though, it is not at all syrupy, blousy or over-done despite all of the sweet warm fruit shining through. Indeed, it manages to seem pretty at times, especially on the lengthy, cheerful finish. It may be on the cocktail wine side of the spectrum, but I for one would be happy to drink it in any setting.
2006 Big Basin Pinot Noir Branciforte Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains. The Big Basin represents a stylistic shift toward higher-toned aromas of brambly mountain berries, white pepper, dirt and more obvious Pinot funk all around. Like the previous few wines, it is openly fruity and forward, but with a considerably more tannic bite. It is more linear and honed, and does have a bit of heat on the finish, but is otherwise well-focused. It has a fleshy feel, but tangier, more lifted fruit than most others in the line-up. It is a vibrant wine with a good deal of personality and a good future ahead of it and represents a very good find from a producer I was not previously acquainted with.
2006 Windy Oaks Estate Pinot Noir Diane’s Block Klein Family Mountain Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains. The Windy Oaks is a bit dull and cloudy in color and presents a more herbal, smoky and stemmy aromatic profile than the Big Basin. Rhubarb, cranberry, ground nutmeg and other brown spices round out the zingy bouquet. In the mouth, it is seamless but lively—with lifted red fruit in the form of sour cherry and raspberry in effortless abundance. It is full-bodied, intense, and tangy, tangy, tangy. It returns to its herbal, minty roots toward the back and on the finish of the palate, which also shows some mocha and chocolate dusting.
2002 Sean Thackrey Pinot Noir Andromeda Devil’s Gulch Ranch Marin County. Deep aromas of sweet creosote, incense, blackberry pie, clove and Christmas fruitcake are super-sexy and aromatically intoxicating. On the palate, this wine shows the stickiest, richest tannins of all the wines and also the most resounding bass note. It is extremely concentrated, maybe even a bit corpulent in texture, and there is a lot going on flavor-wise—all at a high decibel level. It is definitely rich, but gorgeously flavored and super sexy with spices and lush black fruit. It reminds me of the 2002 Paul Hobbs Hyde Vineyard pinot back on release—a wine I also liked a great deal. This was my #2 wine of the night.
2005 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Koplen Vineyard Russian River Valley. The Kosta Browne is by far the darkest-colored wine of the night. It opens on the nose with aromas of wild blueberries, wood spices and lots of stemmy qualities. But then a massive secondary wave comes in and literally burns the nostrils with an intensity of bright cherry, raspberry and spice aromas. The wine has a massive amount of glycerin on the tongue, though the fruit does not feel as thick as the Andromeda. However, it is more intense. Sweet rhubarb, cranberry, tons of spices and a tingly prickle of heat roll across the palate as the tannins grow to eventually coat the teeth. This can definitely go a long while and would probably have been better to hold. The wine has a very unique character and really stands apart from the crowd and I’m intrigued to see how it develops.
-Michael
