Don's Gillette's Wine Blog
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. Read Don's full bio...
Email Don directly with your wine-related questions.
Clubbing Away at the Pinot Noir Grape
Our store offers several wine clubs, some monthly, others quarterly. I have a hand in the administration of most of them and I think about them all the time. In fact, each attractive new sample we taste sends electricity to circuits in my brain set aside for the evaluation of "club wines". I need several such circuits, as each club box tries to meet the expectations of a slightly different group of drinkers.
For a while now I have contemplated writing about the various strategies adopted when picking wines for the different clubs, as customers ask me about this topic regularly. Today I have decided to explain my thinking to our Pinot Club members, with am eye toward dropping a copy of this blog into the July PC box.
When I was younger (about the time Moses joined the choir invisible) and Burgundy was the only choice, Pinot lovers traditionally built their cellars along the following lines:
1 - Buy as many fine-vintage/age-worthy Premier-Cru & Grand-Cru Burgundies as are affordable, preferably with a preponderance of "vineyard-designated" bottlings over less distinguished "village" blends.
2 - Judiciously buy the best examples from less prestigious (cheaper) appellations and like Santenay or Volnay. If not up to dinner at the Ritz, these will be better than a Chambertain with the next veal chop you grill!
3 - Finally, capture the occasional bottle of something truly extravagant, like a Romanee-Conti for instance. This is not only an extremely expensive treat, it is a wine you probably couldn't find by the case anyway, regardless of your current bank balance. It isn't replaceable once its gone, so you cellar it patiently, reserving it for that special dinner with like-minded Pinot-philes.
I try to incorporate the above traditions into our Pinot Club boxes, but with some extra provisions that take into account the extraordinary availability of outstanding Pinot we are now experiencing.
Cause the Hits Just Keep on Comin'
California Pinot Noir planting has expanded exponentially since the late 1980s and that expansion rate remains steady. When a new and exciting vineyard or winery appears; or one reaches a level of maturity that it challenges its competitors for quality; or if a planter or winery literally braves new ground in some unexpected place to produce something of merit: it deserves inclusion in the Pinot box.
The box should also introduce any new vintage of merit, which (in light of the fact that we have just had multiple consecutive brilliant Pinot vintages) means that the box will typically contain the early-release appellation bottlings of a new vintage, along-side the late-release vineyard-designates of one or two previous years.
What should subscribers expect? Something that is a fine value, perhaps from an evolving property that is showing great promise. Something that shows the pedigree of its year or highly regarded produced. Something that drinks beautifully, yet can improve. Something that truly impresses and will clearly repay cellaring. Something read about but never successfully acquired. Something never before seen that will startle with its quality.
Some of the six wines will be easily re-ordable. Some are scarce enough that only the fleet of foot will be able to order more. Some utilize every bottle that NVWE has been able to procure and will likely never be available again. We include those wines because we recognize that our most passionate Pinot customers might otherwise never be exposed to them.
A Quick Word about Pinot Days and the highly anticipated 2007 Vintage
Sunday, June 28th, marked the Grand Tasting of this year's Pinot Days celebration. Here is a brief list of new wines that especially impressed me (excluding most appellation bottlings).
The most clearly outstanding 2007s (in alphabetical order):
2007 Arista Longbow
2007 Arista Perli
2007 August West Rosella's
2007 Benovia Savoy
2007 Benovia Sonoma Coast
2007 Black Kite Redwoods Edge
2007 Black Kite Kites Rest
2007 Chasseur Umino
2007 Chasseur Blank
2007 Dutton-Goldfield Sanchetti
2007 Dutton-Goldfield Freestone Hill
2007 Londer Ferrington
2007 Lucia Garys'
2007 Roessler Sanford & Benedict
2007 Roessler Gaps Crown
2007 Tantara La Colline
2007 Tantara Rio Vista
Others 2007s that looked very impressive but seemed not yet as complete or as focused, as they should be in a few months:
2007 Ancien Mink
2007 Arista Mononi
2007 Arista Toboni
2007 Baton
2007 Benovia Cohn
2007 Benovia Bella Una
2007 Black Kite Stony Terrace
2007 Black Kite Rivers Turn
2007 Cargasacchi SRH
2007 Dutton Estate Manzana
2007 Kastania Proprietor's Reserve
2007 Kendric Marin Estate
2007 Ketcham Estate
2007 Londer Anderson Valley
2007 Londer Parabol
2007 Roessler Savoy
2007 Russian Hill Estate
2007 Tantara Garys'
2008 Bohemian Estate
Apologies to Dutton-Goldfield, Dutton Estate, Freeman, Melville and any others whose tables I failed to fully explore! Apologies to all those who poured delicious 2006s! Special thanks to Lisa & Steve Rigisich and all those who made this wonderfully successful tasting possible!