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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Pinot Noir: Regional Character as the Winemaker's Canvas...part three
If you live on the west coast, a selection of fine to great Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley and its sub-appellation, the Green Valley, seems always at hand. A twenty-five-year long expansion of plantings in the area continues, and with each vintage more brilliant vineyards emerge, each one a reminder that the RRV is our State's most important Pinot region.
What makes it so? All but the humblest RRV Pinots have sufficient fruit definition and zest to offer some appeal, and the character of that fruit is forthcoming and distinctive. Scents of red raspberry, Black cherry, red cherry, Santa Rosa plum, wild strawberry, red current, yellow and red rose, orange peel, sumac, pink peppercorn and the like are all liable to make an appearance, alone or in tandem.
RRV wines are commonly sleek and supple in mouth-feel, with little tendency toward flatness or alcoholic heat. Although their fruitiness and zest are in contrast to their Burgundian cousins, their food-worthiness is not. In focus, they generally equal and often exceed their French counterparts, and that focus holds its course despite the myriad of oak regimens and winemaking strategies our vintners (so prone to experiment) adopt.
The regions very best wines offer precision, power, depth, clarity, early appeal, age-worthiness and seamless elegance. The truly great examples deliver luxurious, yet chiseled mid-palate flavors that are in lock-step with the aromas that introduced them. Their lingering impressions are a summation of everything one hopes for in a Pinot, from anywhere.
Brilliant recent examples include: Chasseur's Umino & Freestone bottlings; Benovia's Cohn and Bella Una; and Dutton-Goldfield's Sanchetti and Freestone. All were stars of the 2006 Harvest.
Brilliant examples are considerably harder to find in Carneros, where corporate ownership has long been a deciding factor and where the wines own virtues are generally subtler. Yet it was apparent early on that Carneros Pinot Noirs could be harmonious, attractive in mouth-feel and age-worthy.
At the outset, its proximity to Napa and initially modest land prices made Carneros an ideal site for expansion-hungry Valley vintners. It was not Louis Martini or Robert Mondavi that built the areas reputation though, but wineries like Carneros Creek, Etude and a core of small growers and producers. Some growers, committed to improvement, ripped out vines when convinced that a previously selected Pinot clone was the wrong one.
For much of the Pinot made in Carneros, harmony is everything. These eminently commercial, but decidedly un-dramatic bottlings are generally rather rich, a bit broad and fairly engaging. Whether intense or subtle, rich or airy, they typically offer supple texture, reasonable length and more-or-less authentic varietal aroma. Local wines that lack these reliable virtues are dull indeed.
The fruit character of the lighter, airier bottlings will often remind me of strawberry-rhubarb pie, with rose tea and earth and a bit of smoke thrown into the mix. More substantial efforts may deliver aromas and flavors of ripe Bing cherry, dark berry, smoke, vanilla, tobacconist-shop spice and dried herbs. If the former are pert and food friendly, the later may never show at best without the accompaniment of fine cuisine. In either case the wines internal harmony elevates the dining experience.
My first thrilling Carneros Pinot was the1985 Etude. After a bit of a lapse in the 1980s, this winery has some new fruit sources and seems to be getting back on track. In the recent past, the areas most consistent bottling has probably been the Domaine Carneros 'Famous Gate'. We also watch out for wines from Talisman, Ancien, Donum and a few others.
Each year, we find a few gems from Carneros: wines with grander aromatics, more focus, greater delicacy, longer finish and the harmony that is so much a part off the local terroir. I just wish there were more of them.
Next week: further south...