WCC CALIFORNIA PINOT NOIR BLIND TASTING
at Provence Restaurant, Albany, NY (9/3/2009)

After a fairly disappointing Oregon Pinot Noir tasting, the WCC decided to try California PN. The general agreement based on these 2 tasting is that Cali Pinot is much better.

All wines were served blind. One person knew all the wines and organized the flights. The rest of us knew only the wine we brought, but not which one it was.

The wines were divided into 3 flights, each one served with a course of food.

Flight 1

• 1990 Wild Horse Pinot Noir Cheval Sauvage - USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
  Lovely earthy cherry nose. Tart Cherry palate. Fading fast, though oddly a second glass a half hour later has a nose of cream soda, but a finish of very sour cherries. An odd wine. (88 pts.)
• 1991 Calera Pinot Noir - USA, California, Central Coast
  Poopy nose. Sour bitter crap. Perhaps it's way over the hill or maybe it was never any good. (66 pts.)
• 1991 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County
  Earthy, mature cherry mint nose. Rich, balanced. Quite nice. WOTF. (90 pts.)

Flight 2

• 2007 Kutch Pinot Noir McDougall Ranch - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
  The color is more ruby than all the other wines in this flight. Has a stunning nose of strawberry and spice. Smooth, silky, lush. Sweet young and delicious. I will wait a year to try another. 92-?? points. (92 pts.)
• 2007 Siduri Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
  Gorgeous nose of ripe jammy cherries. Very tasty but finish is marred by something green. (89 pts.)
• 2003 Mahoney Vineyards Pinot Noir Barriques de Carneros Carneros - USA, California, Napa Valley, Carneros
  Mint and something sour in the nose. Rich, but has a lot of VA on the palate. NR. NR (flawed)
• 2004 Etude Pinot Noir - USA, California, Napa Valley, Carneros
  Muted but very appealing nose. Rich, delicious, and complex. Long, mildly tannic finish. This is a great bottle of wine. A true meditation wine. WOTN for me. (95 pts.)
• 2005 Hanzell Pinot Noir - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
  A more spicy red fruit nose. Really delicious. Lots of rocks and fruit. The most "Burgundian" wine so far. Excellent stuff. (93 pts.)

Flight 3

• 1996 Kistler Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
  Dark, warm, rich, and sweet. Quite extracted. This is definitely not Burgundy, but it is quite appealing. (92 pts.)
• 1997 Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir Valhalla Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley
  Minty with sweet red fruit. This is quite nice and quite ready to drink. I could mistake this for Burgundy. (91 pts.)
• 2001 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Vista Verde - USA, California, Central Coast, San Benito County
  Rich sweet complex, but there's something a bit off in it. (89 pts.)
• 2002 DuMOL Pinot Noir Russian River Valley - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
  Nice nose of ripe red fruits. Rich, sweet (in a good way), and delicious. A really harmonious wine. (93 pts.)
• 2006 Aubert Pinot Noir Reuling Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
  Big sweet long, but sweet with a not too pleasant bite on the finish. Group WOTN, but I didn't like it as much as the others. (91 pts.)

Afterwards, we had a Dessert Course: Fig Tart with French Vanilla Crème Fraiche.

All original content © Ken Vastola