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.
The Paradoxes of Perfection: Part two of two
Last year, I was lucky enough to barrel-taste a substantial number of 2007 Pinots from the Russian River Valley and a good smattering of others from the Santa Lucia Highlands. I had occasional looks at wines from Carneros, Anderson Valley, the Santa Rita Hills and Edna Valley.
What I saw was pretty consistent. Wines that were impressive for: bright focus; engaging zest; pristine varietal and regional accuracy; fruit intensity that easily dominated barrel character; generous, supple mouth-feel; polished, but gripping tannins; and fine length. In other words, it looked to be a nearly ideal vintage.
Nothing I have seen in bottle challenges the assumption I made back then that 2007 was going to be a terrific vintage. 2007 is not only brilliant, but reliably so throughout the state. This has not happened since 2002 and 1994 and no previous vintage has produced as many successful Pinots. That happy result reflects both the largesse of Mother Nature and twenty years of continual planting of new vineyards.
As a retailer, and Pinot lover, I should be happy with this situation. Certainly I am. The wines have been easy to sell, despite the economy, and everything about the vintage seems like "smooth sailing". 2007 is proving a challenging year in only one respect: describing the wines!
Usually, wines (good ones) are fruitier in barrel. They more clearly reveal tannin, acidity, oak influence and overall structure after they are bottled. Flaws become more obvious. What puzzles me is that many '07s are doing the opposite!
Some Self-Indulgent Complaining
In barrel, 2007 Roar Garys' Pinot from the SLH, had backbone, tannic grip, hard fruit acids and loads of structure. Of course it had wonderful fruit as well. I imagined it in barrel, as a clone of the brilliant 2004 Roar Garys'. The 2004 is now recognized as a brilliant wine, although it was mean as a snake upon release.
The 2007 Roar Garys' turned out to be, upon release, a total fruit bomb! The skeletal parts of the wine had become invisible and it was as easy-drinking as Hawaiian Punch. I don't for a minute think that the structure is gone (it has no where to go), but the wine has now been reviewed as though it will be mature in six months to a year. There is the clear and present danger that it will be dismissed as a lightweight by Pinot collectors.
My notes on a final tank sample of the 2007 Chamisal Califa Pinot Noir from Edna Valley describe a wine where ferocious tannic grip and cutting acidity coil intense, but extremely youthful fruit into a tightly wound ball. I made the wine a component of our summer Pinot Noir Club six pack, and the notes I included advised customers to be extremely patient with it. Six weeks after I wrote those notes, I re-tasted the wine. It is now behaving like a more zesty equivalent of the Roar. I continue to believe that the Califa '07 is the best and most age-worthy Edna Pinot ever made, but I am now telling my customers to try it while it can still be reordered!
Last Thursday, I had the 2007 Fort Ross Fort Ross Vineyard Pinot, from what may be the coldest part of the Sonoma Coast. This is typically a mineral-dominated, tightly-wound, fruit-shy bottling, that in its youth often behaves like a particularly austere mid/low-priced Burgudy. In 2007, it has not become a fruit bomb, but the vintage has elevated it considerably beyond its usual limitations. It is graceful and sweet-natured, yet retains its obvious Burgundian personality. When you actually try to reproduce Burgundy in California, you usually get tart, austere wine. This time you get a Premier Cru.
I just tasted all nine (yes, they made 9 Reserve bottlings) of Chasseur's 2007 Vineyard Designated Pinots. How to explain that each was tightly-wound and shockingly oaky when opened, yet most were vividly fruity after 8 hours of airing and that each was distinctively different. When my notes were finished my hand ached and I felt like Marcel Proust!
That's enough complaints from me, but I hope my message gets across: Don't under estimate the 2007s, they are special.