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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Pockets Full of Pinot
There are strong historical, economic and weather-related factors to explain the parceling-out of vineyards and the multiplicity of bottlings, which are hallmarks of 20th and 21st century red Burgundy. That multi-vineyard bottling model also forms a visible pattern among California's Pinot producers, but not necessarily for the same reasons.
The distinctive nature of the grape, grown here or elsewhere, is a common factor of course. Pinot Noir responds to subtle differences in soil and climate in a way that tends to limit both vineyard size and potential crop yield. This is in no country a grape that is friendly to the idea of mass-production.
The first California Pinot makers to embrace the multiple vineyard model were Bert Williams and Ed Selyem. They worked with the best vineyards they could find, searching through a tiny field of top-flight properties for the best choices. W & S made both vineyard-designates and blends, expanding the number of the former and the production of the later, as new local vineyards were developed.
Since 1990, the combination of new Pinot appellations and the availability of appropriate Pinot clones has fueled an extraordinary expansion of planting up and down our state. At the same time, improved fruit handling technology has made the necessity of using exclusively "local" grapes a thing of the past. The result is that our winemakers are now able to tap into grape sources of enormous diversity. They have done so with enthusiasm.
Siduri was an early and highly successful exploiter of this new opportunity, with a vineyard portfolio that stretched from Santa Barbara to Oregon. Siduri is now just "one of the boys," in what is a very crowded field. Chasseur, Tandem, Papapietro Perry, Kosta Brown, Brewer Clifton and many others have made brilliant vineyard-designated Pinots from purchased grapes; while Calera, Sea Smoke, Melville and others have done the same with "home-grown" vineyard-designates.
We have seen brilliant examples, just in the last few weeks, from Paul Mathew (Ruxton & TNT vineyards in the RRV area); Pali Wine Company (Turner vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills); Morgan (3 bottlings from the Santa Lucia Highlands) and Russian Hill (three from RRV).
Roessler, who last year made the best Sandford & Benedict vineyard (Santa Rita Hills) bottling I had tasted since the 1980s, has just released a delicious Savoy vineyard bottling from Anderson Valley, 500 miles north!
Of course, owners of those "designated vineyards" might also want to play, and some have put on "winery hats" to show what they can do with their own fruit. Santa Lucia's Gary Pisoni was a famous early example; while Peter Cargasacchi ( a more recent entrant from Santa Barbara) has just released his wonderful 2005, a wine that compares extremely well to Siduri's version. Last week a winery sign went up in front of the (typically Landmark Winery bottled) Kastania vineyard (Sonoma Coast). I can't wait to try their stuff.
Is it all too much for the market to absorb? Well I have been selling Pinot for 30+ years and have never seen it sell so fast to so many people.