WTN: 2000 Copain "Hein VY" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley (Calif)

[Jenise]

My first bottle of this wine. I was initially taken aback by how sweet/ripe this wine is (much more so than the Hacienda Secoya which I opened a few weeks ago--same vintage and appellation), but it only took a few sips to get completely seduced: the wine's exuberant with ripe red cherries. Cherry pie. Cherry cough drops. Cherries and herbs. Bursting cherries and herbs and tree sap and a honeyed finish.

The wine is just outstanding, a word I'm careful about using effusive as I may be about wines I really enjoyed. It calls to mind other pinots I've also loved from other Anderson Valley vineyards (a cool climate zone in Northern California) like Rose and Cerise. It tastes like them--a little Russian River spice candy crossed with Santa Barbara greenery, and yet I have not had any Anderson Valley pinots six years out that looked and tasted so young, that had this kind of wattage. It's probably close to peak judging by how instantly ready it is to drink on first pour, but judging by it's acidity and behavior over two hours in the glass--the flavors continued to blend and intensify--it could hold here for a looong time. Not that I'll be able to leave it alone.

I haven't had a Copain Pinot, only the Syrahs, which I have liked, but have not been wowed. However, I have been `off' Syrah for a while, at least New World Syrah, for its heavy handedness, so my view is a bit tainted.

Your `exuberant' description makes this wine sound very New World (i.e., fruit dominant), though you do note the acidity near the end of your note. I'm finding more and more the importance of acidity, or maybe it's just balance, in Pinot as being so important to whether I'm gaga or not over a wine.

Thanks for the note. I think the Hein fruit is very good stuff. I haven't had much Copain but the times I have had it they either seemed over ripe or just way too young. Glad to see the answer may be the latter.

Jason

My first bottle of this wine. I was initially taken aback by how sweet/ripe this wine is (much more so than the Hacienda Secoya which I opened a few weeks ago--same vintage and appellation), but it only took a few sips to get completely seduced: . . .

I never got past that initial confected stuff. Nothing like the Dennison Vnyd. pinots that Wells has done from the Anderson Valley. Too bad the Dennison is no longer in his line-up.
My thought on the Hein was to leave it for a very long time (maybe ten years) to see if it would shed that sweetness. But then, who knows if I'll actually do it.
Best, Jim

[Jenise]

Jim, you're right about the relationship between 'exuberance' and 'acidity' in my description. Likewise the word 'wattage', though that's also related to the volume of the fruit. However feminine, this wine is not sedate--think Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. What's unusual here, and so compelling, is that in California pinots 'sweet' is usually also heavy and/or high in alcohol. Not the case here. No, there is definitely a lot going on in this wine besides fruit.

Jason and Florida Jim, interesting to hear, and not surprising at all, that this wine presented as confected and too ripe in its youth. It's certainly ripe and unBurgundian, but it's not jammy at all and in fact that initial sweet wave calms down in the glass. I'm glad you both said what you did, it's convinced me to pace the remaining three bottles. I don't want to miss the boat--the axiom that if you think a wine can't possibly be better than this it probably won't get better could be at work here, but it has the acidity for further upside potential and it would be a shame to miss the ride, no?