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...
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Mendocino in Motion
The wines of Mendocino have always been a very diverse group and for much of the areas history quality has been just as variable. The emergence of Anderson Valley as a center for sparkling wine production and more recently as the hub of the Mendocino Pinot Noir industry, has elevated the regions status dramatically. Yesterday, a diverse offering of Mendocino's viticultural produce was brought south, for display at the Golden Gate Club in San Francisco's Presidio.
As expected, Pinot Noirs were the standouts, with 2006 and 2007 bottlings about equally represented. I have found 2006 to be rather more inconsistent here than elsewhere, with the lesser bottlings seeming wimpy or dull, while some of the better bottlings have been ultra-slow to express themselves. This tasting generally reinforced that opinion.
Shirley Londer's Pinots are a prime example of 2006 reticence. This was my third taste-through of her '06s, which were hard as nails upon release, but were significantly more expressive at this stage. This was especially true of the regular Anderson Valley bottling, which is now becoming a lovely dinner wine. The Anderson Valley Estate is now revealing truly lovely fresh cherry-pomegranate fruit; while the Parabol remains a tightly wound bottling that only now is beginning to soften its hard mineral personality with notes of cherry syrup and dried cranberries. Age is being kind, but patience is still necessary.
The Goldeneye '06 represents the other pole, as it is an unusually forthcoming and delicious Pinot. Goldeneye's Gowan Creek version is oakier, grander and clearly more cellar-worthy, if tighter at this point.
The group of 2007 Pinots were much as I had hoped, with lovely color and the sweet fruit-forward character this extremely charming vintage is exhibiting state-wide. Some of the examples seemed bottle-shocky and in need of more time to fully round into focus, but others were pure pleasure.
If I had to pick a favorite among the '07s, it would probably be Arista's new Perli Vineyard bottling, a wine of picture-perfect clarity in both color and fruit definition. It is an October release that we will jump on. Drew's Fog-Cutter was another fine example, a wine of obvious youth, it already displayed depth, charm and distinctive varietal character. Drew's Savoy was also impressive, if clearly displaying that well-known vineyards need for cellar time.
The Migration '07 was a fruit-forward lovely at a fine price, while Phillips Hill's Oppenlander bottling (from the less recognized Comptche area to the North of Anderson Valley) stood up to the best Pinots from the AV. Only a few bubblies were poured, with the steely-elegant 2002 Roederer L'Ermitage stealing the show. One could hardly envision a better "oyster-wine".
Time constraints kept me from fully covering the red wines in the non-Pinot group, but I did a pretty good job on the whites. I found no Chardonnay that rose above the ordinary, but did very much enjoy one Sauvignon Blanc, finding the 2007 Patianna (organic & bio-dymamic) very expressive and having a fine mouth-feel. I did save time to sample goodies from the various food-perveyors who were in attendance and they were uniformly first rate! Although worth a special trip, Mendocino is very inconvenient to visit, so this local event was a pleasure. I hope it occurs annually.