Pinot Days are Here Again
June 30, 2010
Well, well, well…what will we California Pinot-lovers do after the supply of 2007, the state’s most prolific and widely available great vintage ever, is exhausted? Are our cellars now full to capacity and our appetites sated, or has that vintage created so many new fans and media advocates that the Pinot market is do for an expansion?
Heaven knows. I suspect that if the country was a bit more prosperous and the wine marketplace in less confusion, the later possibility would be assured. Beyond economic uncertainties, it is hard to imagine a non-optimistic scenario as one ponders what is in store for buyers in the immediate future. The 2008 California Pinot Noirs are just around the corner and Heaven knows (as do many in the trade) that a great many of them will be wonderful.
2007 will be remembered for its wonderful quality, but even more for its remarkable reliability through every appellation in the state. It was a year when failure was almost always a “winemaker’s failure”. In my opinion, when Mother Nature chooses to supply perfect apples, it is almost certainly the baker’s fault if you don’t enjoy the pie.
2007 should have been a tough act to follow, yet it is now abundantly clear that 2008 will also be a great vintage. I have suspected that this might prove to be the case for months now as, despite reports of ’08s lack of uniformity, many of the samples I first encountered (in barrel and in bottle) were stunners. My more recent tastings have convinced me that the number of outstanding ’08s will be very great indeed.
What makes the new Pinots distinctive? The best wines from the new vintage not only have varietal clarity on a par with ’07, but some of them have even more concentration! Crop size may be partly responsible. Small crop size can affect both ripeness and depth, and in vineyards where the weather was equally kind to both vintages, 2008 often gave growers the smaller crop. If it is very clear that the 2008s will not have the uniform quality that made ’07 so distinctive, it is also apparent that in some instances the ’08s will be even better.
Examples have been cropping up since last fall. Two Brewer-Clifton bottlings illustrate the point. The 2007 Brewer-Clifton Mount Carmel Vineyard Pinot is a majestic wine that could outlive BCs slightly less perfect 2008 Mount Carmel by five years. In contrast, the truly delicious 2007 Brewer-Clifton Melville Vineyard Pinot is just no match for Brewer-Clifton’s fabulous 2008 Melville.
Unlike ’07, there are highs and lows everywhere in ’08, yet most of my favorite producers have at least one stunning success and a few may have ’07 uniformity. I just tasted the 2008 Chasseur Blank and Sexton Vineyard bottlings and found both potentially superior to Chassuer’s wonderful 2007 versions.
On Sunday, June 27th, my co-worker Midori and I attended “Pinot Days 2010″, held at Fort Mason Center, in San Francisco. This was our first opportunity to sample a large group of 2008s (as well as some late-release 2007s) at one tasting.
Here are my own Pinot Days favorites, listed in alphabetical order. The asterisks indicate my first impressions of relative quality. A wine I give one * to is a very good wine at the least and wines earning ** or *** are cause for progressively greater excitement. Many of these wines may prove better than I expect, but I think very few will disappoint.
2008 Ancient Oaks RRV * (Fine Value)
2008 Arista Long Bow **
2008 Arista Mononi ***
2008 Arista RRV **
2008 Arista Toboni **
2008 August West Rosella’s **
2008 August West SLH *
2008 Auteur Sonoma Coast **
2008 Belle Glos Taylor Lane **
2007 Calera De Villiers *
2008 Cartograph Split Rock *
2008 Coho RRV *
2008 Coterie Saralees *
2008 Dutton Estate Manzana *
2008 Dutton Estate Thomas Road **
2008 Dutton Goldfield Devils Gulch **
2008 Dutton Goldfield Sanchetti ***
2007 Evening Land Occidental ***
2007 Faila Occidental *
2008 Freeman Akiko’s **
2008 Freeman Sonoma Coast **
2008 Fulcrum Anderson Valley (Hein & Hayley) **
2008 Fulcrum Gaps Crown **
2008 Goldeneye Anderson Valley **
2008 Inception Central Coast * (Fine Value)
2008 Inception Santa Barbara County Cuvee * (Fine Value)
2007 Kosuge Shop **
2008 Mary Edwards Meredith Estate ***
2007 Morgan Rosella’s
2008 Rebecca K Sonoma Coast (Maboroshi) **
2007 Russian Hill Leras **
2008 Sand Hill Durrel **
2007 Thorne *
Wines I had previously sampled, but re-tasted:
2007 Halleck Hallberg **
2007 Halleck Hillside **
2007 Russian Hill Tara **
Wines I did not re-taste at Pinot Days, but have enjoyed at other venues:
2008 Benovia Bella Una **
2008 Benovia Sonoma Coast **
2007 Halleck 3 Sons *
2007 Halleck The Farm **
2007 Hirsch San Andreas ***
2007 Ketcham RRV *
2007 Ketcham Estate **
2008 La Follette Manchester Ridge **
2008 La Follette Sangiacomo **
2008 La Follette Sonoma Coast *
2007 Londer Parabal **
2008 Melville Estate SRH **
2008 Melville Carrie’s ***
2007 Morgan Gary’s ***
2007 Morgan Double L **
2007 Pelerin Rosella’s **
2008 Peter Paul Mill Station *
If I failed to include some new wineries that deserved attention, I apologize. The time and my own energies were too brief to make visiting every table a possibility. I undoubtedly missed many exciting wines and I probably have some good friends mad at me for not stopping. I hope to get a chance to make up for that. A special sorry goes to: Kastania, Londer, Pali, Pisoni, Roessler, Sojourn, Talisman, Talley, Tantara, Testarossa and TR Elliot. All are fine producers whom I was unable to get to.
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