Tom, Trung and I played a round of golf last month and then grabbed some lunch and headed for a little sojourn at Tom's place to taste some 375's of Sojourn sent to him by the winemaker there for mistakenly standing him up on his scheduled visit to the winery earlier in the year. It was particularly interesting to try these side-by-side.
2004 Vollenweider Riesling Wolfer Goldgrube Spatlese. This wine shows off a sweet, lush bouquet that is immediate and overt—with lovely aromas of fleshy peach meat, petrol and dusty blue slate. In the mouth, it is somewhat unctuous in density, but extremely fresh and lithe. There are plenty of sweet peach and tangy apple cider flavors that combine in a finely-balanced and easy-flowing package leading to a finish featuring some cool slate sensations.
2007 Sojourn Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. Served from 375 ml. The nose here features aromas of twigs, tart red berries, sour cherry, dusty earth and cola in a fairly bright profile. It has a bit of a red berry syrup feel on the entry, but it cuts across the mid-palate better--where some fuzzy acidity comes in, along with a good deal of bitter-tinged graphite minerality. Still, it is a bit open-structured and easy. It ends balanced and fresh, but of only moderate length at this stage of the game.
2007 Sojourn Pinot Noir Gaps Crown Vineyard Sonoma Coast. Served from 375 ml. Of the three Sojourn Pinots we tasted, this one is aromatically the biggest. It really kicks out the overt aromas of sweet raspberries, fleshy plum and brambly rhubarb. It is similarly large-scaled and solid in the mouth. I like how it doesn’t hold anything back, with tons of toasted oak spices, fizzy acidity, dense red berry fruit and cocoa paste combining in a virile and engaging fashion accented by a whisper of tannin. It is big and dense, but pure and engaging.
2007 Sojourn Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast. Served from 375 ml. On the nose, this shows aromas of savory toasted stems and cinnamon stick married to sweet fruit notes of rhubarb and fleshy raspberries. In the mouth, although it is definitely denser and more tightly cohesive than the appellation wine, it still comes across as the most elegant of the trio. It features lots of spices, cola, cherry, smoke and dusty earth flavors, with lots of freshening acidity to keep it lively and lifted. Still, it keeps a fine bass note of darker fruit and chocolate humming along to keep it grounded. It finishes with the best length of the three.
2003 Loring Wine Company Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard Santa Rita Hills. My offering to the party comes with a synthetic cork. The color is more of a faded garnet, with browning hints. The nose shows off a big hit of sous bois funk, leather, cinnamon, slightly roasty black cherry fruit and other fine baking spices. The roasty qualities seem too much for some, but after a short while, I think the whole bouquet really finds a cohesive Burgundian-styled personality that I, for one, really like. In the mouth, it is full of rich dark berry fruit and still-fuzzy tannins. It shows off very good density without any cloying character. It is a bit of a late bloomer, as it is more reserved on the entry and mid-palate, but much more explosive toward the back. The finish is a bit chewy at times and the tannins a bit obtuse, but overall I was pleasantly surprised to find this still performing solidly.
2005 Sojourn Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley. Served from 375 ml. I find this wine to have an appealingly fruity nose of dusty cherries, kirsch, cocoa and a sort of pink cotton candy or red pixie stick dust note. In the mouth, it has good lively character, with a giant squirt of fruit and accompanying acidity leaping across the palate with ease. It features sweet red fruit, like cherries and raspberries. It has soft, small-grained tannins that exhibit no drying qualities at all. It finishes well balanced, with a coating of cocoa powder and vanilla-tinged oakiness.
Overall, I enjoyed the Sojourns. They were a bit bigger on the whole than I was expecting, but in the end I actually found myself liking the biggest of them all the best. I think Tom and Trung's preferences went to the Sangiacomo, but I did like that Gaps Crown.
-Michael