What happens when you turn a couple hundred rabid pinot fans loose on a room filled with foil-covered, color-coded bottles of the liquid that lures like no other?
Pinot pandemonium, that’s what.
Add to that the excitement of pitting men’s palates against women’s and seeing who prefers what. When you taste upwards of 32 pinots in one session, it’s easy to get blurry-tongued, and the colors start to blend together, especially when you have two tables of 32 wines, each bearing the some color codes, but the wines are different. It was a sobriety test, if nothing else.
To turn in your ballot, on which you marked your top three faves, and checked whether you are male or female, you had to get past the taste profile guy, Tim Hanni. He slapped a sticker with Sweet, Hyper-Sensitive, Sensitive or Tolerant on the ballot, making the determination based on your answers to questions such as:
> How do you drink your coffee? Do you add cream? Sugar?
> Do you like salt? Pepper?
> How do you feel about artificial sweeteners?
> Whiskey: scotch or bourbon?
> Do you remove the tags from your garments?
Kind of interesting. Which one do you think you’d be? I drink my coffee with cream, no sugar, I love my artisan salt and I start cutting the tags out of clothing before I am even sure they fit. That qualifies me as hyper-sensitive.
What does this mean? I think I’m most likely to admire an acid-driven pinot noir where the oak barely shows its face. In fact, Chamisal had an unoaked 2009 pinot that was done totally in steel. It’s aimed at Millennials as well as those who don’t have a pre-conceived notion of what pinot should be. It’s joyously exuberant, with watermelon and strawberry soda flavors, reminiscent of a Beaujolais nouveau.
I don’t have the final results from the Pinot Summit yet. My guess is that we have more than one winner from Santa Lucia Highlands/Monterey. Apparently, the 2008 Estate McIntyre pinot was the No. 2 vote-getter among the male tasters. It was No. 4 on my list, out of 32. Number 1 rated wine by the male judges was the 2008 Estate Chamisal from the Edna Valley: rich, lush, ripe raspberry fruit. I’m surprised that it wasn’t the top choice of female palates. If you saw the winemaker, young Kiwi Fintan du Fresne, you’d know why. 
Number 3 on the male judges balloting was 2007 pinot noir from MJA Cellars: it comes from the Regan Vineyard in the Corralitos region of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It produces some might tasty stuff. Come check out even more Santa Cruz Mtns pinots at Pinot Paradise, Sunday, March 27, 2pm til 5pm, at Villa Ragusa in Campbell. Tickets: scmwa.com It’s a great event! 44 producers in one place. Not blind and lots of food, plus a fun silent auction and an exciting live auction featuring large format bottles. Very fun!
And further speaking of pinot, Dave Coventry, formerly of Chalone, and most recently winemaker for De Tierra Wines, named “Winery of the Year” for 2010, will be taking over winemaking duties at Manzoni, in the Santa Lucia Highlands. This looks to be a virtuous partnership for both, and we’re looking forward to the fruitful results.
Coventry told me that this vineyard has immense potential, and he’s going to watch every vine and every barrel, aiming for greatness.
“The first duty of a wine is not to be white or red, but to be good!” he says. “It has to engage your mind. The greatest wines come from the coolest places possible to ripen fruit. This is what gives them great tannins and intensity. My job is to showcase a wine’s personality.”
Speaking of great wines from cool places, make sure you get your tickets for “Que Syrah,” a celebration of cool-climate SLH syrahs, from noon to 4:30 p.m. March 19 at Wrath Wines, 35801 Foothill Road (at River Road) in Soledad.
Coventry will be there pouring Manzoni syrah, and maybe he’ll bring a few goodies from his stash. The 2005 De Tierra syrah was a blockbuster, made from five different syrah clones that were co-fermented. Coventry calls it “a mineral-driven monstrosity.” It won double golds in nearly every competition. If you are lucky to have one, uncork it and salute this talented winemaker’s new shot at success.
Small-format sample bottles are intriguing. Have you checked out www.TastingRoom.com? The idea is to try just a taste of a wine before you buy a whole bottle. For a very minimal investment, you can try a flight of Sonoma zins, or pinots from six different regions, or perhaps you could buy six different cabs with the flick of your credit card, to whisk you away to exotic regions. Explore wines from around the world without a passport and the hassle of customs. They come in 50-ml. bottles, usually six to a pack, and are accompanied by tasting notes and information on each wine. For example, there’s a Napa Valley sampler for $28: you get to try a Ma(i)sonry marsanne, Whitehall sauv blanc, Grgich chard, Luna sangiovese, Peju cab, and Swanson merlot. You get a pretty good deal when ordering the big bottles from the site, or you can order direct from the producer, or go look them up at the local wine shop.
I got a sample pack of Bordeaux varieties from Yorkville Cellars, near Boonville, and loved sipping cinsault, malbec, petit verdot, plus the usual suspects (cab sauv, cab franc and merlot) side by side. It’s supposedly the only vineyard in the world where all 6 are co-planted. Their unique personalities jumped out and partied like NFL players after the Super Bowl. Only the bottles were small.
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