“Poetic Cellars”

You could say I am besotted with Pinot. It is without doubt, for me, like the Holy Grail of varietals. I know it’s out there: the perfect, Platonic ideal of Pinot. Keats wrote about it when he said “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” I’ve had so many Pinots, so many forgettable. So many overwrought, overrated, overextracted, overoaked, overripe: over and over and over. It’s like a woman whose lips have been botoxed to clowndom.

That’s the problem. Why do so many winemakers think they need to take this lithe and wonderful grape and beat it into extracted submission? Leave it the heck alone. The still, small, unadulterated voice of Pinot is what I long to hear, but it’s been drowned out by too much oak, too much extraction and too much handling. Ok, you guys who like that style are well-served, in fact, over-served. There’s more of it on the market than ever. And I’m here to tell you there’s quite a bit of it coming out of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where you’d think the opposite style would be predominant.

Nope. At a recent blind tasting of Pinots held at Burrell School Vineyards high in the Summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, there were three styles of Pinot most in evidence:

1. Close to ethereal, with brightness and grace, driven by deft, often bracing acidity and distinct minerality
2. Deep, dark, intense and black fruit-driven
3. Swiss style: neutral & right in the middle, offering that pleasant mix of fruit, approachability and easy drinkability

Oh yeah, there’s another category: completely undrinkable. Sadly, these still exist. Sadly, they should not.

So 41 Pinots were tasted blind by a panel of 13 wine industry professionals, including winemakers, wine journalists and viticulture experts. There were 4 flights, grouped loosely by vintage, although this was a bit muddled. Thankfully, the first flight offered a lot of consistency among the wines, and got us off to a happy, congenial start. There is nothing worse than starting a daunting task with a brutal, punishing flight of crap. Interestingly enough, this flight had the most ties for votes.

Flight 1:All 2008 vintages

First Place: Beauregard (Santa Cruz Mountains)  (Style 2) & Bargetto (Regan Vyd, Corralitos area) (Style 1)

Second Place: Thomas Fogarty (Estate, Rapley Trail) (Style 2), Mountain Winery (new, Estate vyd) (Style 1) , Regale (Estate, Summit Rd) (Style 2)

Third Place: Poetic Cellars (Regan Vineyard) (Style 3)

Flight 2: Mostly 2008 Vintage

First Place: Pleasant Valley Vineyards (Lester Family Vineyards, Corralitos) (Style 2)

Second Place: Soquel Vineyards (Lester Family Vineyards, Corralitos) (Style 2)

Third Place: Vino Tabi (Lester Family Vineyards) (Style 2/3)

Wow! an impressive showing for Lester Family Vineyards fruit, managed by Prudy Foxx.

Flight 3: A Mix of Vintages, o6 thru 09

First Place: 2007 Storrs, Santa Cruz Mtns (Style 2)

Second Place: 2006 Muns Vineyard (Style 2/3)

Third Place: 2009 Villa del Monte, Regan Vineyard (Style 1)

Flight 4: Mostly 2007 Vintage (*)

First Place: 2007 Burrell School Estate (Style 2)

Second Place: 2007 Sarah’s Vineyard (Style 3)

Third Place: 2007 Clos La Chance (Style 2)

(*) some wineries firmly believe that their wines really deserve to be bottle aged for at least a year or two before being released. There’s a flood on the market of 2009’s from vintners that make an early drinking style, and who have already run out of the previous supplies. You will still find 2006 on many winery tasting lists in the Santa Cruz Mountains: the bigger wines really do need a couple of years to come around. Hey, does that sound like Burgundy?

My Personal favorites:

2007 DaVine Cellars (MJA) – from Regan Vineyard fruit, made by Michael Sones of Bargetto. (Style 1)

2007 Clos Tita, Branciforte Ridge Vyd.  (Style 1)

2008 Sonnet, Muns Vyd. (Style 3)

2008 Bargetto, Regan Vyd (Style 1)

2008 Windy Oaks, Blake’s Block. (Style 1)

2008 Mountain Winery, Estate (Style 1 – made by Jeffrey Patterson of Mt Eden)

2008 Black Ridge Estate. (Style 3)

2008 Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, Branciforte Creek (Style 2)

2009 Downhill, Santa Cruz Mountains (Style 1)

2008 Big Basin Vineyards, Alfaro Vineyard (Style 1) (made by Bradley Brown, above left)

Fortunately, no matter what style you prefer, you can taste all these amazing wines, all in one place, at Pinot Paradise, on Sunday, March 27, at Villa Ragusa in Campbell.

If  you’re curious about what makes this region’s Pinots special, attend the Technical Session from 9am til noon, where the topic will be, “Take the Acid Test!” Professor Roger Boulton from UC Davis, and renowned winemaker and Pinot expert, Greg La Follette (Tandem, Flowers, La Follette Cellars), will lend their expertise and opinions to a rousing panel discussion and tasting, hosted by Nick Guerrero of Vine Hill Winery (pictured here with winemaker John Schumacher of Hallcrest) , and local viticulture expert extraordinaire, Prudy Foxx, shown above right.

Get tickets at www.scmwa.com

SEE YOU IN PARADISE!

Tagged as: "Poetic Cellars", Bargetto, Big Basin Vineyards, Bradley Brown, Burrell School, Clos Tita, Downhill Winery, Greg La Follette, Jeffrey Patterson, Lester Family Vineyards, MJA Cellars, Muns Vineyard, Nick Guererro, pinot paradise, Prudy Foxx, Sal Godinez, Santa Cruz Mountains, Soquel Vineyards, Widy Oaks

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