CALIFORNIA PINOT NOIRS

Having its home in both Burgundy and Champagne, Pinot Noir has been in California for many years, probably since the late 1800s.  It is a fussy and finicky grape variety, prone to genetic changes which means there are many "clones" of Pinot Noir. 

The grape tends to produce wines which have much less color than Cabernet or Zinfandel, for example.  I have seen, in many tastings, wines which are color-poor, but, curiously,  have the most intense fragrance.  Tasters are frequently swayed by the color and appearance of a wine and cannot credit a weakly colored wine with having more intensity to its "nose" than deeper colored/less fragrant wines. 

Years ago, it was not uncommon for California winemakers to "fortify" their Pinot Noirs with something such as Petite Sirah.  The wines had great color and, perhaps, a bit more body and tannin, but the peppery Petite Sirah detracted or overwhelmed the subtle and delicate cherry-like Pinot Noir fruit.  

Curiously, in France's Burgundy, it was said vintners or negociants routinely beefed up their wines with some deeper red from the south of France (or Algeria!).   A Burgundy house was recently discovered to have been selling wines illegally blended with stronger red wine from outside the appellation.  The temptation is great to make beefier wines.

I am certain some local vintners still adulterate (or enhance, depending upon one's perspective) their Pinot Noirs with darker varieties.  One prominent winery owner chided me for even asking such a question, though he would not declare that his wines were 100% Pinot Noir!

It seems that Pinot Noir varies according to clone, soil, exposure, climate and we haven't even discussed vinification.  Some producers will tell you the juice should be kept at a cold temperature (which inhibits fermentation) and macerated on the skins for a week before fermentation is initiated.  Other winemakers say this is a recipe for disaster.  Some winemakers claim to ferment with the stems, while others say this is not the way to make good Pinot Noir. 

As you can understand, controversy abounds!

The aromas of Pinot Noir vary as a result of so many of the factors enumerated above.  We prefer to find bright fruit aromas, reminiscent of cherry or strawberry.   We like a bit of vanillin from the oak.  Some Pinots have a gamey quality to them.  In his book entitled "BURGUNDY" by Anthony Hanson, this expert writes "Great Burgundy smells of shit.  It is most surprising, but something the French recognized long ago, a sent la merde and a sent le purin being common expressions on the Cte.  Not always, of course;  but frequently there is a smell of decaying matter, vegetable or animal, about them.  This is nothing new."  Uh, well, we prefer the cherry and berry notes, thank you!

Years ago it was felt that California was too hot for Pinot Noir.  Oregon enjoyed some notoriety as experts wrangled over which area was producing the best West Coast Pinots.  An east coast tasting, written about in the New York Times (some years ago, now) said the favored wines were Oregon and Burgundy when tasted with the labels exposed.   When the wines were poured for a blind-tasting, California won. 

Today's wine critics are having an impact on Pinot Noir production.  Since the dynamics of most blind tastings (and tastings that are not "blind") is to find the biggest and most intense wines, Pinot Noirs of elegance and refinement are marked down as thin and light, while wines with Syrah colors and Cabernet tannins are now often garnering high scores.  

Pinot Noir winemakers are, it seems, interested in picking Pinot Noir as ripe as possible.  One vintner told me the trend is to harvest the fruit when it's close to 16 to 18 percent "potential alcohol."  Then water is added to the juice and the fermentation ensues.  I am not sure what benefits are obtained by picking at this high level of sugar, but it seems to be popular amongst the young winemaking crowd.

The high ratings encourages consumers to buy these sorts of wines and it encourages winemakers to produce this style of Pinot.   

We have noticed the alcohol levels of Pinot Noir are often pushing 14% to 15%, sometimes even more!  We have had some Pinots which were made from such over-ripe fruit, the wines resemble late-picked Zinfandel.  One even has scored in the mid-90s from a prominent critic despite the wine having little in common with Pinot Noir.

Anyone who claims to be a Pinot aficionado and who tastes California wines such as Etude, Patz & Hall, Harrington and Dehlinger, and who puts down these wines, simply doesn't understand the subject.  I think you might even add the Siduri and Au Bon Climat and The Ojai Vineyard labels to this list.

SOME PINOTS WE LIKE:

ALMA ROSA

Richard Sanford is one of the pioneers in Santa Barbara County wine history.

He teamed with a fellow named Michael Benedict back in the 1970s and planted vineyards in the region that's today known as "Santa Rita Hills."  The pair started a winery called Sanford & Benedict, which later morphed into the Sanford Winery.  I don't know what became of Benedict, but Sanford ran his own place for many years.   In 2005 he and his wife were fired by the import and wine distribution company which invested in the Sanford Winery.

We understand there were major disagreements concerning Sanford's insistence upon organic farming.  His steadfastness to this ideal did not, apparently, sit well with the Terlato/Paterno folks.

Sanford now has launched a new brand called Alma Rosa.  We had their first two Pinot Noirs in a blind-tasting and the wines finished 1st and 2nd!  I especially liked the La Encantada Vineyard bottling and we have that in the shop.

This wine shows nice cherry fruit and a hint of tobacco.  It's a medium-bodied Pinot and identifiable as such.  You won't mistake this for a Syrah, for example.  Sanford uses screw cap closures for his wines, saying he's "tired" of corked bottles.  This is a lovely wine for drinking tonight.

Currently in stock:  2004 ALMA ROSA "Santa Rita Hills"  La Encantada Vineyard  SALE $39.99 

 

ACACIA WINERY

Back in the Dark Ages, Mike Richmond worked at a little winery in the Napa Valley called Freemark Abbey.  They made Riesling, Chardonnay, Petite Sirah and Cabernet.  Mike jumped ship and in the late 1970s launched a new boat called "Acacia."

This little enterprise featured Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Carneros region.   Anybody who was "somebody" had to have Acacia wines in their shop or on their wine list.

They made some good wines, producing basic bottlings as well as single vineyard offerings.  Less than ten years later, the winery was purchased by the Chalone Wine Group and Mike was then shipped over to another winery, a Sonoma Valley estate called Carmenet.  Acacia, a few years later, was swallowed up by the big drinks giant, Diageo.  That's where it remains today.  Mike departed a long time ago, not fitting in well with "corporate" bean counters who did not understand a damned thing about wine.  (He today manages Bouchaine winery, a neighbor of Acacia.)

Though many brands in the Diageo empire seem to be made with an eye on marketing-driven winemaking, the wines in the Acacia portfolio remain good quality and capable of appealing to the seasoned wine-drinker.

They make a number of high-priced, single vineyard wines.  With the economic resources of Diageo, they can pay high prices for Pinot Noir and play around with relatively small production bottlings.  In tasting these, I can't say I'd pay the hefty prices for these limited bottlings.  We can order them for you, but we stock only their basic Carneros Pinot.

The 2007 Carneros Pinot Noir displays medium garnet color and a lovely strawberry/cherry fragrance on the nose.  The wine is dry, fairly supple on the palate and an easy-to-drink red wine.  It's a nice, chillable red, showing a whiff of wood along with nice Pinot Noir fruit.  We expect this to be at its best in its youth, but it might be interesting to stash a bottle of this to see how it tastes when it's 5 to 8 years old.

 

Currently in stock:  2007 ACACIA Carneros PINOT NOIR  (winery Price $28) SALE PRICE $19.99

 

ANCIEN WINES

Winemaker Ken Bernards spent a number of years at Domaine Chandon studying both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  Following that, he was the winemaker for Truchard in Carneros.  Now he and Mrs. Bernards have their own label, Ancien.  Ken also consults for a few other brands, Destino and Whitford being two we know of.
He's quite passionate about his winemaking and it shows in the wines he turns out.  There was a huge write-up in the local paper about his obsession with Pinot Noir, telling the story of his trip to Burgundy to harvest and bring back grapes picked in some vineyard in Morey-Saint-Denis!

The Toyon Pinot is comprised of a clone of Pinot attributed to the late, great Pinot Noir winemaker, Joe Swan.  The other clone is is a Dijon clone, #115.  Ken says this French clone contributes notes of cola, violets and spice, while the Swan clone offers blackberry, black cherry and a hint of cocoa.  

The 2006 is currently in the shop.  We appreciate the finesse of this wine.  It's unmistakably Pinot Noir and it's not a wine "on steroids" (which seem to be especially popular with The Critics).  If you enjoy being able to drink more than one glass of a supple, elegant Pinot, check out a bottle of this!

Currently in stock:  2006 Carneros Pinot Noir SALE $29.99

ARISTA

This was a new discovery for us.  A fellow who used to be a pilot in the military before working for some eye care production firm was bitten by the wine bug and then employed by Jess Jackson (Baron of the Kendall Jackson wine empire) working with grape growers.  John Copeland then got together with his brother-in-law, Dr. Al McWilliams, a prominent Texas orthodontist, to start this new little venture producing some dynamite Pinot Noirs.

They initially purchased a vineyard near Cloverdale in northern Sonoma County.  This past year the acquired 36 acres in the Russian River Valley.

The winemaker for the project is Daniel Moore, former Gewürztraminer-meister under the "Z Moore" label in a previous lifetime.  Daniel also is a partner with Jeff Morgan making SoloRosa rosé wine and a  delicious Napa Cabernet called Covenant.  He's quite passionate about Pinot Noir and the first vintage of the Arista wines shows he's on the right track.

The initial releases are delicious, forward, cherryish Pinots with complimentary levels of oak.

The winery raised its prices quite dramatically and we missed a vintage of their wine.  We're pleased to note they've adjusted the pricing to more sensible levels and we have a 2006 "Longbow" bottling in stock.

The Longbow is a blend of several Russian River Valley vineyards.  The Arista style features maturation in particularly toasty French oak barrels, which gives the cherryish fruit a nice vanillin tone.  Easily identifiable as Pinot Noir, too.  You won't mistake this for a Syrah or Cabernet!

 

Currently in stock: 
2006 "Longbow" Russian River PINOT NOIR $44.99

 

 

BELLE GLOS

Maybe you're a fan of Caymus Cabernets and have wondered what Caymus Pinot Noir would taste like.

Well, I can tell you Caymus used to make Pinot Noir from Rutherford-grown fruit many years ago.  They even made a Pinot Noir Blanc called "Eye of the Partridge."  What fruit they didn't use themselves was sold off to Inglenook. 

 Nobody paid much attention to Pinot back then.  Pinot Noir grown in Rutherford!  Never mind that the fruit had short hang time and ripened quickly...all people paid attention to was "Brix" (a measure of the sugar content of the grapes).  

Chuck Wagner must have never gotten rid of the "bug" to make Pinot Noir.  He has about 150 acres in Santa Maria, just north of Santa Barbara.  He's also working on a Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir "project."

The Pinot Noir appears not under his Caymus or Mer Soleil labels, but as "Belle Glos."  This is named after Chuck's Mom, Lorna Belle Glos-Wagner.  One of her grandfathers was a grape grower who had a vineyard on Howell Mountain, while the other was a winemaker at Inglenook in the early 1900's!  She's still living on the Caymus property.

The early releases were okay, but seem to lack a bit of polish and brightness.  I suspect they're on a learning curve and will soon need to decide how much cellar treatment is needed for their wines. 

We've had requests for the new releases from 2007 and so a few bottles are available, apparently, tightly allocated by the distributor and/or, the winery.  

We have a Santa Maria Valley Pinot in stock from a vineyard planted in the early 1970s with the Louis Martini "clone."  The wine shows some sweet spice notes and a bit of red fruit.  Cherries and cherry pie-like tones are in evidence here.  I can't say it's particularly "Burgundian" in style, but it is a nice California Pinot.

 

Currently in stock:  2007 Belle Glos "Clark & Telephone" Pinot Noir  SALE $49.99

 

ONE THOUSAND ONE

Hard to believe Kent Ramussen is now an "old timer" in the wine business, but he is!

Kent planted Pinot Noir in the Carneros region back in the late 1970s and started making wine in the mid-1980s.  He and Mrs. Rasmussen have a second label using her maiden name, Ramsay.    

Now they've launched another label, this "One Thousand One" project which features, at the moment, three North Coast Pinot Noirs.  Of the three, I found the Mendocino bottling to be the most typical and interesting.  

The wine comes from fruit grown in Mendocino's Potter Valley.   Kent points out the temperature swing from the warm days to the downright cold nights is what contributes to the success of Pinot Noir in this appellation.  "There's a 50 degree swing.  This is what grapes crave to develop top flavor and quality.warm sunny days and cold nights."

I find a nice cherry fruit on the nose and a hint of a rose petal character to the finish of the wine on the palate.  It's rather nice served lightly cooled to cellar temp.  The wine is smooth and bright and dangerously easy to drink.  I've described it as being a Pinot Noir with a hint of Gewürztraminer.   Nice wine.

Currently in stock:  2006 ONE THOUSAND ONE Mendocino PINOT NOIR $19.99

 

CARREFOUR VINEYARDS

I was a bit apprehensive in seeing a Napa Valley vintner with the name of a huge French "Costco"-like store as its brand name.
I wondered it the Carrefour stores in France had opened a winery here in California.

Happily, no.

Carrefour is the name chosen by the husband and wife team of Greg and Marilyn Nitz, owners of a small vineyard at a crossroad (that's what Carrefour means in French) in southern Napa Valley.  After years of selling fruit to Rombauer and Duckhorn, the Nitz's pick and vinify some of their own.  

But their vineyard is too warm for Pinot Noir, so they purchase fruit from the Truchards in the cooler Carneros region.

We were delighted with Carrefour's 2004 and the 2005 is a delightful successor.  What we like about these Pinots is that they smell and  taste like Pinot Noir.  You won't mistake them for Syrah or Zinfandel.

The fruit comes from two vineyard sites.  One is a mix of Dijon, Pommard and Swan clones.  The other site is planted exclusively with the Martini clone of Pinot Noir.  Though it's been matured in a high percentage of new French oak barrels, wood is not the focus here.  The wine offers a delightful cherry pie-sort of fragrance and those elements shine nicely on the palate.  It's a light-bodied red wine with fine aromatics and an element of delicacy on the palate.  That's why we like it!  It doesn't remind us of anything but Pinot Noir.

Currently in stock:  2005 CARREFOUR Carneros PINOT NOIR $28.99






HARRINGTON

You know Bryan Harrington is a fanatic!  The guy has been working in a San Francisco watering hole and/or a restaurant as his "day" job.  But the guy also has a viticulture "project" in The City.  He's go something like five dozen Pinot Noir vines he tends in two different sites.  One is Bernal Heights and the other on Potrero Hill.

I don't know if he makes any wine from these vines, but we do have a couple of delicious Pinots that he made in a small facility in Berkeley.  Bryan and Sasha Verhage (Eno Wines) bought the old Grape Leaf Cellars.

What we've liked of this fellow's wines is that they taste like Pinot Noir and they nicely reflect the vineyards from which they come.  We've now had close to a handful of vintages of Harrington's wines and we're thrilled to taste such elegant and refined wines.  So many winemakers seek numerical point scores and so they work to make beefy, big wines.  

Harrington's typically have finesse, something many California Pinots lack.

Currently in stock are two delicious 2006s.

The 2006 "Iund Vineyard" comes from the Carneros region.  This is a four or five barrel production that's beautifully balanced and very drinkable.  Lots of cherry notes and a touch of oak make for a lovely bottle of wine.

A bit more brooding and still needing some time is Harrington's 2006 "Brousseau" vineyard wine from the Chalone appellation in Monterey County.  You can really taste the minerally, almost stony notes from the limestone-rich soils.  

The Gaps Crown wine comes from the 2007 vintage.  Quite good...dark cherry notes and a light bit of wood. Very fine.

 

Currently in stock:  Harrington 2006 Carneros "Iund Vineyard" Pinot Noir  $39.99
Harrington 2006 Chalone "Brosseau" Pinot Noir $49.99
HARRINGTON 2007 "Gaps Crown" Pinot Noir Special Pricing Presently: $39.99

 

 

 

 

MAHONEY VINEYARDS

Frank Mahoney (I've known him since people called him "Frank," though today you'll be required to address his honor as "Monsieur Francis Mahoney) got bit by the wine bug ages ago.  He had been affiliated with a nice wine store in San Francisco called "Connoisseur Imports" and he got a taste of the best wines of those days from France and Germany.  

In the early 1970s he established a vineyard in Napa's Carneros region and was one of the early producers of Pinot Noir from that area.  He also dabbled in Amador Zinfandel, as we recall.  Only Louis Martini and BV's Andre Tchelistcheff had really been exploring this old cattle ranching area as a possible vineyard site.  Mahoney planted dozens of clones of Pinot Noir and is one of the most knowledgeable practitioners of the art these days.

The brand name was Carneros Creek and it was the "cool" Pinot Noir everyone "had to have" in the mid-1970s.

The fact that today nobody under 35 years of age, who drinks wine, knows this brand ought to be a lesson to those young vintners who are today a "hot commodity."   

Mahoney sold the brand a few years ago and today he makes wine which bears his own name.  

We had tasted a rather nice white wine made by Mahoney, a wine made from the Vermentino grape.  Having been featuring that wine in the shop, we had a taste of Mahoney's Pinot Noir and have been pleased with it as a good value and nice wine.

It's a 2006 vintage wine and comes from the Mahoney Ranch and the  Las Brisas Vineyard.  It's not a stand-in for California Syrah, so you won't find deep and dark color to the wine, nor will you find huge tannins.  In fact, it's delightfully drinkable now.  We like the mild cherry fruit and there's a faint suggestion of oak to this wine.  It's best served at cool cellar temp.

 

Currently in stock:  2006 MAHONEY Carneros PINOT NOIR $21.99

PATZ & HALL

The Patz & Hall story began in the mid-1980s when Donald Patz was a marketing guy at Flora Springs and James Hall was assistant winemaker there.  The two eventually went their separate ways, but were pals who decided a collaborative effort would be a challenge.

Add to the mix, Anne Moses (she turns water into wine) and Heather Patz (the glue that holds the place together) and you have a couple of dynamic duos.

They've been making really fine Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays for well more than a decade.  They bottle some regional wines, along with a number of single vineyard offerings.  

Impressively, the wines have been consistently good.  I don't know if they're attentive in the vineyard and cellar or if they sell off wine in bulk which doesn't make the cut.  But what they choose to put their label on has been reliably fine.

 

Winemaker James Hall.


We have three Pinots in stock presently.


The 2007 Sonoma Coast is a delightful wine.  It's from a number of famous-named vineyards...Dutton, Martinelli, etc. Lots of nice cherry and berry notes with some brown spice tones such as nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.  The wine is smooth, supple and easy to drink.  It's best at cool cellar temp, of course.  Probably best in its youth, too.

Bigger and deeper is the Pisoni Vineyard bottling from Monterey County's wild & crazy Gary Pisoni.  It's got sweet cherry fruit and a nice vanillin fragrance and flavor.  There's a berry pie aspect to the 2006, a fairly hefty Pinot which shows the power of this vineyard site.  We've heard from several customers that Patz & Hall's is their favorite bottling from the Pisoni Vineyard.

There's a Hyde vineyard bottling of Pinot these days...we've long been fans of the Hyde bottling of Chardonnay.  From the Carneros region, the 2006 displays loads of strawberry fragrances and flavors.  It's wonderfully perfumy, too.  Exotic.  

Currently in stock: 2007 PATZ & HALL Sonoma Coast PINOT NOIR  SALE $39.99
2006 PATZ & HALL Santa Lucia Highlands "PISONI" PINOT NOIR  $84.99
2006 PATZ & HALL Carneros "HYDE" PINOT NOIR $59.99




PEY-MARIN

We've known Jonathan Pey and his wife Susan for decades!  He worked for a major U.S. wine importer and marketing company until they wore him out.  Susan has been affiliated with a restaurant group for many years.

In our younger days, they lived in The City and, with no kids, were able to venture down the Peninsula and have some vittles and vino.  Jonathan used to bring a "mystery" wine.  The first time I think I guessed the wine as "Loire Valley Chenin Blanc" in a nanosecond.  It was some sort of Monmousseau Vouvray, if I recall correctly.  

This frustrated the heck out of Jonathan and the next visit he poured the wine from a humungous grocery bag...and I took a sniff, mid-service, guessed it to be a Cabernet Franc and returned to the kitchen to fetch more plates.

"Damn!"  It was a Chinon or Cab Franc red from the Loire.

Some years later the couple settled in Marin and they cultivate (organically, we understand) a few acres in this cool climate and challenging region.

They make a Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot, too, but we prefer the Marin County bottling.  The 2006 comes from three vineyard sites and is dubbed "Trois FIlles"  (they have three daughters).  It's made in a reasonably low-tech manner and we appreciate its "Burgundian-like" acidity.  The wine shows a nice touch of oak, but the wood is more in the background, allowing the cherryish Pinot Noir to take center stage.  It's delicious now and we suspect it will develop a bit more with two to three years of bottle aging.  

They only made 15 barrels' worth of this wine.

 

Currently in stock:  2006 PEY-MARIN "Trois Filles" PINOT NOIR $34.99






MARGUERITE RYAN CELLARS

She came to California in the early 1990s and enrolled in some enology classes.  Ryan landed a job at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars doing lab work.  

The Ryan Cellars label was born in 1996 and it's grown from a mere 70 cases of wine to several hundred.  Knowing she tries to make balanced and refined wines, I suppose Mr. Winiarski influence has had a major impact on her winemaking philosophies.  

The Ryan Cellars label encompasses Pinot Noirs from several top, famed vineyard sources.  Peay Vineyard in the Sonoma Coast appellation is one.  Another is the famed Pisoni Vineyard, along with other Santa Lucia Highlands sites.  There's also Pinot Noir from a vineyard in Napa's Wild Horse Valley (where Winiarski used to source Riesling, once upon a time).  And there's been a Pisoni vineyard bottling, too.

We tasted a trio of 2006 Pinots from Ryan and felt the best of the three was from Monterey's Silacci Vineyard.  This is a modest-sized property near the town of Gonzales.  We understand it's farmed organically and the budwood for the Pinot Noir came from the Pisoni vineyard.  The 2006 is a classic Pinot with nice cherry aromas and the grape is in the spotlight, not the oak barrel in which it was matured.

Currently in stock:  2006 RYAN CELLARS "Monterey" Silacci Vineyard Pinot Noir $47.99

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Last modified:  March 10, 2010