Don's Gillette's Weekly Wine Blog
Weekly musings from our store's resident wine guru
Don has over thirty years experience in the wine industry. For the last eighteen years his attention has been focused on the growing local industry. Don has a large following of customers who search out his opinions (never in short supply!) on new releases and on what's currently most distinctive on our shelves. Others seek his insights on wineries and trends that are still under the radar. Check back here each week for Don's latest thoughts on various wine-related topics. Read Don's full bio...
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2007 Sonoma Pinot Noir: In search of a great harvest [Part Three]
I believe our store was the first to sell Chasseur wines, when we debuted Bill Hunter's (Chasseur is French, for hunter) 1994 Dutton Ranch Chardonnay. He produced 48 cases and we, by dint of our obvious enthusiasm and easy proximity to his cellar, talked him out of 13. We have sold Chasseur Chardonnays and Pinots without a lapse ever since, and have learned important things about Bill over the years.
His home has always been in the cellar. Until recently, we had seen scant evidence that he had a life outside of the barrel room, but Bill is fanatical about how he makes wine. He shows little patience with what he sees as the quality compromises and marketing ploys of some producers: large tank fermentations, or Pinot Noirs with residual sugar, for instance.
Bill hates "declassifying" expensive fruit (he practically grinds his teeth as he says the word), but has consistently done so for years, in order to protect the quality reputation of Chasseur. In the 1990s he marketed a number of "second labels" to move lesser barrels, actually producing very little Pinot under the Chasseur label before 2000.
His problem in the early days was that virtually every outstanding Pinot vineyard was under contract to others. Bill became one of the first vintners to exploit the many new Russian River and Sonoma Coast plantings that became available at the Century's end. He used his RRV and SC appellation bottlings as a testing laboratory for those new vineyards, ultimately discarding some and elevating others to vineyard designated status after they demonstrated their merit.
We are all seeing the rewards now, as the quality of fruit he now receives is consistently high enough to at least qualify for Chasseur's appellation bottlings. Bill thinks he will never have to market a second label again. When, as in 1996, he chooses not to produce some of the vineyard designates, it costs him money, but it actually serves to enrich the blends, to the benefit of his customers and his reputation.
I will discuss Bill's brilliant 2006 and 2007 Chardonnays another day, as the topic here is Pinot. We tasted his three 2006 vineyard designated Pinots, all now in bottle. I found the Blank Road wildly floral and packed with sweet herbs and juicy cherry and currant fruit. The Freestone (from the fine Cleary Ranch, near the south-west edge of the RRV) is a bright, structured, vividly focused, intense and clearly age-worthy bottling, with red currant, raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate, yellow rose, coriander seed, roasted grain, pink peppercorn, etc in lock-step formation. It seems like a slightly leaner clone of the 2004 or 2005.
2006 introduces the Umino Vineyard, and it is a real discovery, located a bit south-east of the Cleary property. The 2006 is blast of fruit and the picture of harmony. It is a palate-coating wave of Amarena cherry, sweet red plum, boysenberry, dried orange peel, roasted grain, pink peppercorn, sumac, fresh rose, smoke and hunters broth. Truly yummy, and just a puppy!
2007 in barrel
Bill's Sexton Road bottling comes from the Cornerstone vineyard, east of Freestone, and we tasted 3 barrels representing clones 777, 828 and 114. The first two showed earthy/gamey/bouillon notes in support of rich Bing cherry fruit, while the 114 was a blast of Amarena cherry, sweet plum, yellow rose and pink peppercorn, floating on a rich wave of roasted grain.
We tried only one barrel from Bill's new Ferguson vineyard, a property just west of the Cleary Ranch. The wine was focused, very rich and quietly zesty, with red plum, sweet red cherry, orange peel and white and black peppercorn scents and flavors, with a slightly citric shift at the finish.
Ray Hill is another new west-end RRV property, located between Cornerstone and Cleary. The barrel we tasted was a beauty, with loads of boysenberry, sweet cherry, red plum, dried orange, roasted grain and coriander seed scents and flavors, backed by a distinctive sweet-earthiness. It carried a brilliant combination of sweet-savory and rich-elegant impressions that seemed to jump from the glass.
We tried two barrels of the Holder vineyard Pinot. This new one is from a vineyard on Graton Road, north of Cleary Ranch. Clone 115 had restrained aromatics, but great length. Clone 667 was deep and spicy on the mid-palate, with white pepper, sweet red cherry, red plum, boysenberry, smoke, roasted grain and hints of Oolong tea. I can't wait to see what they will be like, when blended together.
Sylvia's vineyard is a Dutton ranch property located considerably north-east of Bill's other sources, and it produces his most requested Pinot. The sole barrel we tasted was almost syrupy-ripe, with aromas of spiced plum, dried cherry, dried cranberry, candied orange peel, etc. It was super forward and almost too rich and obvious for a Chasseur Pinot, yet it had a sappy mouth-feel and tannins to balance its richness, and It certainly was delicious.
We tried four barrels of Umino, which gets my vote as the most captivating property from Chasseur's dramatic new vineyard list. Clone 115 was deep and classy in aroma, bright at the mid-palate, and lingering. The profile was of red plum, red licorice, pink peppercorn, red raspberry and roasted grain. I found clone 667 super-forward, deep, sappy, long and altogether distinctive. Mr. Lincoln rose, beet, powdered sumac, Amarena cherry, baking spice, leather, roasted grain, coriander and raspberry syrup all appeared in my comments on this spectacular barrel.
Umino clone 459 seemed a perfect compliment to the 667, offering grandly rich, ultra-long flavors of cherry, dried orange, grain, red plum, leather, pink peppercorn and roasted meat. The 777 was super sinewy-grippy, with guts and structure, but a river of flavor. Its boysenberry, red cherry, pomegranate, red raspberry, red rose, smoke, white pepper and roasted grain panorama was only slightly reined-in by its firm spine of tannin.
Two barrels of Blank Road were offered, from clone 777 and clone 115. The former was a surprisingly complete package of sweetly fruity and richly savory flavors. With red plum, sweet red cherry, boysenberry and violet; seamlessly layered with leather, smoke, white pepper, mineral and grain elements. The later was overtly riper, showing raspberry syrup, red currant liqueur, dried orange peel, Maraschino cherry, leather, grain and coriander seed.
Freestone is always the most structured Chasseur Pinot and is typically the most pristinely focused. No vintage has yet reached full maturity, but I believe it is Bill's signature wine, the one he will ultimately be proudest of. Clone 115 was dead-on, with orange peel, red raspberry, red plum, boysenberry, pink peppercorn, coriander, grain, Maraschino cherry and strong mineral accents in a tightly coiled and classy package.
The 777 was more opulent, with Amarena cherry, raspberry, pink peppercorn, yellow rose, leather and mineral notes of great length, and a mid-palate mouth-feel that was wonderfully sinewy. The finish was super-long, focused and structured. This should be the fourth great Freestone in a row, but Lord knows when it will be fully mature.
Next week: Part Four
Benovia and Kastania
Posted by Don on April 7, 2008 10:27 AM | Permalink
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