This past weekend Teri and I had the great pleasure of again attending the Clos Pepe annual allocation BBQ, With Chef Rik doing the cooking, the term BBQ is a misnomer if ever there was one – the food was extraordinary, plentiful, and elegant. Wes and family went out of their way again this year to make everyone feel welcome and ensuring a memorable and tremendously enjoyable event.

Now, the wines. With one table of whites, one table of reds, and the table with about 30 Premier Cru and Grand Cru Burgundy to choose from there was no shortage of great wines to taste. Beside pouring the excellent 2002 Clos Pepe wines, Wes also generously dug deep into his cellar and broke out library wines from each Clos Pepe vintage so far – including the pre-commercial 1999 Pinot! As you’ve heard before, 2002 is a Pinot Vintage you are not going to want to miss. On to some tasting notes:

2002 Clos Pepe Chardonnay, (barrel sample)
Clear straw color, the nose is a reluctant but with some coaxing delivers lovely fig and citrus notes. Creamy with good length and balance. (88-90).

2000 Clos Pepe Chardonnay, Neutral French Oak
Maturing nicely, this wine is starting to come into it’s own and still going strong. Good grip on the palate, terrific nose showing baked apple, citrus, and mineral notes. Should drink well over the next 2-4 years, 89 points.

2000 Clos Pepe Chardonnay, unoaked
Excellent nose showing apple, grapefruit, and vanilla (odd, since it’s unoaked). Textured and very well balanced, long, rich, and vibrant – 90 points, drink now-2006.

2001 Clos Pepe Chardonnay, Neutral Oak
Still quite young and tight, strong mineral notes along with citrus. Nicely textured, with zippy acidity, needs some time yet – 88 points, try in 2005.

2001 Clos Pepe Chardonnay, Unoaked – no real notes taken, just that it’s quite nice, drink 2004-2007.

2000 Ojai Clos Pepe Chardonnay
Creamy and rich, fig, pear, vanilla, and toast notes. Fairly viscous, but seems a lacking focus. 86 points.

1998 Brewer-Clifton Chardonnay
I was surprisingly disappointed in this wine – seemed austere and thin to me, lacking much distinction. I usually love BC wines, so this was a bit puzzling to me.

2002 Clos Pepe “Final Blend” Pinot Noir (Barrel sample)
Dark garnet in golor with a tremendous powerful nose of black cherries and spice. Long and rich on the palate, firmly tannic, with depth and concentration and a long, lingering finish. (91-93)

2002 Clos Pepe “Vigneron Select” Pinot Noir (Barrel sample)
Wow, intense depth and concentration – the “final blend” on steroids. Spicy, with loads of bright sweet fruit yet elegant on the palate. (92-94)

1999 Clos Pepe Pinot Noir (not a commercial release)
A soft, very pretty pinot – very nice wine and drinking really nicely now.

2000 Clos Pepe “Friends & Family” Pinot Noir
This wine was made without any modern winemaking conveniences whatsoever – grapes were hand picked, and crushed by foot. Natural yeast fermentation, hand pumping, the whole thing. Never designed for commercial release, Clos Pepe is unable to sell this wine but offered it up one bottle to anyone taking their whole allocation. Glad I’ve got one . Not a wine built for the long haul, but drinking beautifully now – rich, with light spice notes, concentrated, and smooth round tannins. Drink over the next two years with friends or family.

2002 Loring Clos Pepe (Barrel sample)
Brian hits another home run with this one, if you think the previous releases have been good – brace yourself. Excellent concentration, with layers of dark cherries, plums, blackberries, and spice. Terrific structure and balance, can’t wait for the final product. (92-94)

2002 Loring Brosseau (Barrel sample)
Ok, so Brian slipped Davidn a couple small barrel samples of the Brosseau which we enjoyed that evening over dinner. One was the single clone (667 I believe) and the other was the final blend. Brian knows his blending! These were both excellent, but the blend was the more complete wine, and quite likely the finest Loring wine I have yet had the pleasure of tasting. (93-95).

The Burgundy table was a bit daunting – about 30 Premier Cru and Grand Cru Burgundies! I did my best, but only got through a handful and only made very brief notes. Wines were tasted blind, and once the bottles were revealed it became very difficult to scribe everything – thus there are holes in my notes that I hope to fill later.

(Vintage!?!?) Camus Pere & Fils Latricieres-Chambertin
Significant bricking, with a good nose of strawberries and flowers. Fairly thin on the palate.

1990 Thevenot Corton
Light bricking around a light red core. Good fruit with earth and forest notes, nicely balanced, very pleasant.

1993 Roumier Chambolle Musigny
Significant bricking and throwing a fair amount of sediment. Excellent on the nose, with sweet cherry and rose petal aromas. Smooth fine tannins deliver an velvety mouth feel, while there is depth and concentration to the elegant frame. One of my favs of the table.

1997 Laurent Gevry Chambertin
A bit of a stinky nose, showing some chemical notes I just couldn’t get past.

(Vintage?!?!) Calera Jensen Vineyard
I think this was a 1996, but could be mistaken. The nose screams juniper berries to me, while on the palate there is good sweet fruit and an odd bitter edge.

1996 Giradin Santenay
Very nice nose of sweet cherries and vanilla. Soft round tannins provide a smooth, rich feel in the mouth. Very tasty.

1993 Bitouzet Savigny Les Beaune “Les Lavieres”
Nice sweet nose of raspberries and earth. A bit thin on the palate, but quite pleasant and enjoyable.

1990 Tardy Nuit St.-George
Dark cloudy red robe, with a beautiful big nose of violets, strawberries, earth, and minerals. Elegant, with fine smooth tannins, terrific balance and complexity. A winner for me (and a Village wine to boot!)

(Vintage?!?!) DuFouleur Fixin “Clos du Chapitire”
Good dark red color, with a nose that typifies Pinot. Strawberries, cherries, and light earthy mineral notes. Rich and pure on the palate, very nice.

1990 Angerville Volnay Champains
Light bricking at the edge, a simply lovely nose that exudes elegance. Soft strawberries, raspberries, cherries and floral aromas dominate, while the palate is rich and voluptuous showing depth and complexity. One of the top wines on the table for me.

1988 Albert Morot Beaune-Bressandes
Medium bricking, with a very earthy nose along with a bit of stink and underbrush. Better on the palate, but remains mostly undistinguished.

Eric...

Fantastic notes!!!
Do you have a team of writers who do this for you???

Great notes Eric. Glad to see that the '02 Clos Pepe is rounding into form. The Loring '02 Brosseau and Clos Pepe were my 2 favorites when I barrel tasted all his '02's. I agree with your point assessments on those wines.

jb

Impressive scores for Loring. Very nice. And, good job Brian. A star on a rise, indeed (with scores like that).

Cannot wait for the Mailer!!!

Quote:

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One was the single clone (667 I believe) and the other was the final blend.

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The single clone was the 115.

I told Brian that he should bottle the 115 by itself a couple of months ago. It was so juicy all by itself. But I will admit this blend he has done with 50% 115 is a real winner. I loose (again).

Eric-- Always a pleasure to read your write-ups.