The rise of Pinot Noir is amazing. The movie, Sideways, elevated the image and awareness of this special grape. But with every gift there is a catch. The pure economics of supply and demand come into play. Demand rose, supplies were short, and prices rose to very high levels. This was great for wineries who sold out their wines at top dollar. I could barely fill a Pinot tasting 2 years ago. Everyone was out of Pinot before I asked for it. Consumers didn't care about price. They wanted top quality Pinot regardless. Fast forward to 2009. The market is in the tank. Due to the tough economic times, wine consumers have become more selective as to how they spend their hard earned dollars. There is plenty of high end Pinots to go around. I can tell you that 60+ were submitted for our April tastings. We tackled them in flights. This post will be a summary of the main blind tasting. The next post will be a summary of the winners from the various mini flights we did over the last month or so.
Which Pinots won the tasting and warrant your hard earned dollars? We tried 14 wines in this tasting and recommended 13 of them. As you can see, the quality level was pretty high. Five wines scored Very Good+ and received 90+ scores. Let's get right into it.
Our clear winner of this tasting was from Oregon. It was the 2007 Elk Cove “Five Mountain” Pinot Noir for $48. The panel scored this wine Very Good+ and awarded it 92 points. It opens with a smoky cherry bouquet with notes of tobacco. On the palate, this wine is medium-bodied, very nicely balanced, and velvety. It displays savory, dusty raspberry flavors with hints of cinnamon. There was also infused oak and tobacco as well. This sophisticated Pinot is very food-friendly and would pair quite well with salmon, squab, or osso bucco. Unfortunately, there were only a 153 cases of this gem made. So call the winery and get your hands on this wine soon. It won't last very long.
Our runner up was not far behind. The 2007 Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir from the Hemel en Aarde Valley in South Africa was very impressive and similar to our winner. It comes in at $44 per bottle. The panel gave it 91 points. It opened with a smoky, light oak infused, black cherry bouquet with hints of leather. It is medium-bodied, nicely balanced, and savory with slightly sweet cherry flavors. There was a nice amount of oak blended in as well. The panel felt this wine would pair very well with smoked pork tenderloin or coq au vin.
In third place was the 2006 Freestone Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast. This wine is a second label from the Joseph Phelps family of wines. It costs $75 and received 90 points from the panel. It is medium-bodied, evenly balanced, and shows nice structure. The flavor profile is a savory raspberry and plum blend. The panel would pair this attractive wine with duck or a ribeye with a garlic butter sauce.
On the heels of the Freestone was the 2006 Dutton Goldfield “McDougall Vineyard” Pinot Noir for $55. This wine from the Sonoma Coast also scored 90 points. As you will see, Dutton Goldfield's Pinots did very well in our tastings this month. This particular Pinot was medium bodied and balanced with a blend of sweet raspberry and chalky black cherry flavors. Notes of vanilla were detected as well. I personally felt this Pinot had the best finish of the evening. The panel thought this wine would pair well with stuffed game hens or with pasta smothered in a Bolognese sauce.Â
The Merry Edwards entry in this tasting finished in fifth place with a score of 90 points. As a matter of fact, all of Merry's entries have scored near the top of each of their flights. The 2006 “Meredith Estate” Pinot Noir for $54 was very well received by the panel. Like all of Merry's Pinots, this wine hails from the Russian River Valley. It is medium-bodied, very smooth, a touch flinty, and well balanced. Its flavors are a blend of raspberry and strawberries with a dash of pepper and spice mixed in. The panel felt this Pinot would pair nicely with shrimp cocktail or a seared tuna steak.
Two wines that just missed the 90 point mark were the 2006 Goldeneye 2006 “Gowan Creek Vineyard” Pinot Noir for $75 and the 2006 Siduri “Shaw Mountain Vineyard” Pinot Noir for $39. The Goldeneye is from Anderson Valley, CA and the Siduri is from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. We scored the Goldeneye Gowan Very Good and gave it 89.375 points. The Siduri Shaw was awarded with 89.25 points. The Gowan was balanced and creamy. It displayed sweet cherry flavors with notes of clove mixed in. The Shaw opened with an old oak infused pipe tobacco and cherry like bouquet. On the palate it was medium-bodied, balanced, warm, and silky. The panel felt this entry would be an ideal match for mushroom risotto.
Finally, this next wine was clearly one of the best deals of the tasting. The 2006 Navarro Vineyards “Methode a L'Anciente” Pinot Noir costs only $29. When you consider that the panel scored this wine 89 points, it was quite a bargain. It opens with an attractive strawberry bouquet with a hint of spice mixed in. It was very nicely balanced and smooth with delicious strawberry flavors. They would pair it with salmon or lobster.
Other recommended Pinot Noirs:
9.) Chehalem 2006 Pinot Noir “Stoller Vineyard” (Dundee Hills, OR) $44 (88.125)
10.) Byron 2006 Pinot Noir “Sierra Madre Vineyard” (Santa Maria Valley, CA) $40 (88)
11.) Adobe Road 2006 Pinot Noir “O'Neel Vineyard” (Russian River Valley, CA) $48 (VG 88)
12.) Hartford 2006 Pinot Noir “Fog Dance Vineyards” (Green Valley, CA) $45 (87.75)
13.) Michel Picard 2006 Pinot Noir “Recolte du Domaine Voarick”(Givry, France) $28 (87.38)
As you can see all these wines are Very Good or Better. It was one of our best tastings this year. These Pinots and the ones in the next post, all warrant your attention. We you hope enjoy them as much as we did.Â
Cheers,
Ken
Thank you ever so much. I will definitely try out some of these. Keep up with the good posts!