One of those simply perfect days in Carnaros greeted 15 BAWE’rs as we converged on Acacia Winery for the Oct. installment of the monthly BAWE tasting. The theme this month was Pinot Noir, Old World vs. New World – specifically Santa Rita Hills. Many thanks to Cooker for once again making the arrangements for us to use the facility at Acacia – this year we didn’t even do any barrel tasting, but it seemed hardly to be missed given FOUR flights of Pinot. As always, the food was delicious and plentiful, the company terrific, and the conversation stimulating.

We kicked off the event with a 1988 Smith-Madrone Napa Valley Riesling. This wine has been stored in a passive semi-underground cellar in Alameda since release, and I really had no idea what to expect. Charley Smith at the winery had advised me by phone earlier in the week to approach this as an “experiment” – that it may be drinkable, may be pleasant, may not. Word is, the mid to late 80s Rieslings saw much more skin contact, resulting in a much deeper color (that’s for sure!), but less ageability than those from the early 80s.
Deep dark golden on color, if you are looking for an example of the petrol character that aged Rieslings often take on you could find no better example than this – the petrol components is simply HUGE on the nose, almost overwhelming and the wine doesn’t give off aromas of much else. Certainly past it’s prime, this wine had excellent viscosity and texture, with very light sweetness, some faint citrus notes, but most of the fruit had passed. Certainly an interesting experience however, and not unpleasant.

Here are the wines, along with 1st and 2nd place votes (1st/2nd), with the top two wine noted in bold italics. Following the list are my own notes one the wines. All wines were tasted double blind.

Flight #1, four Old World Pinots
2001 Bouchard Domaine de Clos St. Marc Nuit St. George (3/3)
1997 Pascal Chevigny Vosne-Romanée Les Champs-Perdrix V.V. Réserve (0/0)
1985 Williams Selyem Rochioli Vineyard (ringer) (6/3)
1999 Dominque Laurent Nuit St. George (6/8)

Flight #2, four more Old World Pinots
1999 Bertrand Amboise Nuit St. George (5/5)
2000 Acacia St. Clair Vineyard (ringer) (3/3)
1999 Joseph Roty Marsannay (3/4)
1996 Marquis d’Angerville Volnay Taillepieds (4/2)

Flight #3, enter the New World
2001 Melville Carries (from Winecask futures) (4/4)
2001 Clos Pepe “Friends & Family” (2/0)
2001 Melville Carries (from the winery) (1/3)
2000 Melville Clone 115 (2/0)
2002 Bonnaccorsi Santa Rita Hills (5/5)

Flight #4, More New World…
2001 Seasmoke Botella (6/6)
2002 Melville Estate (0/2)
2001 Seasmoke Botella (4/3)
2001 Siduri Clos Pepe (3/0)
2001 Brewer Clifton Rozac Ranch (1/2)

On to the detailed notes!

Flight #1, four Old World Pinots

2001 Bouchard Domaine de Clos St. Marc Nuit St. George

1997 Pascal Chevigny Vosne-Romanée Les Champs-Perdrix V.V. Réserve NF

1985 Williams Selyem Rochioli Vineyard

1999 Dominque Laurent Nuit St. George

Flight #2, four more Old World Pinots

1999 Bertrand Amboise Nuit St. George

2000 Acacia St. Clair Vineyard

1999 Joseph Roty Marsannay

1996 Marquis d’Angerville Volnay Taillepieds

Flight #3, enter the New World

Before getting started in the notes, it’s worth noting why we ended up with two bottles of the ’01 Melville Carries. Apparently about a year ago there was some controversy over bottle variation of the Carries. The debate apparently ended with the conclusion that the wines offered as futures from the Wine Cask were universally different than the wine that was ultimately offered direct from the winery. Thanks to the generosity of Davidn we were able to put this theory to the test – lo and behold, it appears to be quite true.

2001 Melville Carries Pinot Noir (from Wine Cask futures)

2001 Clos Pepe “Friends & Family” Pinot Noir

2001 Melville Carries (from the winery)

2000 Melville Clone 115

2002 Bonnaccorsi Santa Rita Hills

Flight #4, More New World…

2001 Seasmoke Botella

2002 Melville Estate Pinot

2001 Seasmoke Botella

2001 Siduri Clos Pepe
Short notes on this one – winding down from the lengthy tasting. Excellent nose, ripe fruit, but seems very tannic at this stage. Needs time, give it a couple years.

2001 Brewer Clifton Rozac Ranch
Again, short notes – maybe it was palate fatigue kicking in, but this also seemed quite tannic in need of some serious cellar time. Slightly lighter in color than the rest of this dark lineup, with nice spice notes. Tightly wound, some rest is in order – try again in 2 years.

All in all, I think it is safe to say that the Santa Rita Hills Pinots blew the doors off the Old World wines. Because they are bigger, more extracted, and these sorts of wines always show better in such tastings? Perhaps. Or perhaps these bigger, fruitier wines simply taste better. Each can decide for themselves, but one thing is certain – it’s easy to pick out a terrific bottle of Pinot from the Central Coast – I fear the same cannot be said for Burgundy…
Great tasting, looking forward to next Month!

Eric, I want to thank you for taking the time to put together these detailed and very informative notes. Wish I was there as that is quite a fantastic array of Pinots.

jb

Other than price, do you think the Burgundies poured were of commeasurate reputation to the New World Pinots? Reserve and well selected New World bottlings (85 WS Rochiolis don't grow on trees) versus primarily village level Burgundies from NSG and (particularly) Marsannay does not strike me as the most evenly matched contest.

I thought that as well Jones. But in order to get qualitative equality with the Burgs would have meant $100+ 1er and grand crus and much more time in the bottle.

The tasting might have been different if one was comparing Leroy Richebourg to Byron Pinot Noir. But I am starting to realize that my palate is shifting more to the Old World style.

jb

Jones and j_b,

I first thought they were not of equal "class" but then I thought as j_b indicates: dollar for dollar CA wins. And when the WOTN is $21 to $25...

Thanks Eric, and Teri (Teri really worked hard) for putting this all together.
And Thanks to all the wonderful guys and gals that made the evening. Good grunts too.

Despite so much bitching to the contrary, dollar for dollar at the medium to upper end California usually wins. For $75 do I want a Marcassin Estate Pinot or a Premier Cru Burgundy. For $335, do I want a 2000 Mouton or a Harlan Estate 2001, a Kistler Cuvee Cathleen Chard, plus $20 to pay for parking? For $20 do I want a Melville Pinot Estate or a Cotes de Nuits Villages from Ambroise? However, looked at solely from a relative quality basis (forget about price) Burgundy did not have a chance in the BAWE match up. Course cheap (i.e. less than $50) red Burgundy usually gets killed by well selected New World Pinots regardless.

It's already been said, but Jones you raise an excellent point - it was certainly not an even match up in terms of reputation, but as far as price is concerned - I think pretty close. Dollar for dollar, Burgundy doesn't stand a chance - purely on a qualitative basis however, the match would have been much more interesting (though price prohibitive for the way our BAWE tasting currently go).

BTW JB, you are quite welcome - anytime you are out our way be sure to let us know and we'll stage a special event in honor of your visit

Thanks for posting the notes...this is great. There is no way I would have been able to decipher my scribble.

Eric, many thanks for all the detailed notes. Efforts such as this are GREATLY APPRECIATED! Now, I am sadly low on Pinot at the moment, which is a travesty. And it was fun reading through all the TNs and so on.

Plus, to the rest of you, great follow-on conversation.

TJ...

This thread and the TNs were certainly worth the price of admission!
Great job Eric and the rest of the BAWE!!!

Mahalo as always for your notes Eric. I look forward to drinking with you again some time soon.

Good notes Eric, thank you for your time on these.

Great notes Eric. I know how time consuming it can be to link and cross link, but I think the results are well worth it.

Mike

aww shucks y'all, thanks. It's a labor of love

One more huge thanks from a Pinot lover. Now I understand why it took you a while to respond to my TN request on the '02 Melville Estate....

I also enjoyed reading the notes. I've found great Burgundy to be a rarity. Imo, CA produces more consistently fine PN than does Burgundy, but the top Burgundies (ie Grand Crus from a great vintage) are the best wines in the world, and they arenever cheap. Next to Italy, the most disappointments I've had have been from Burgundy.

Eric-- Curious, were these wines all opened at about the same time, or did they get opened in sequence? Were any of them decanted?

Back about a year ago, we did a Pinot themed dinner at the Green Gables in LBI, arranged by jb, and the wines that tended to show the best were the ones that were drunk last (all were opened and decanted at about the same time).

TJ. How critical was your palate by the end of that evening?

TJ -

The first two flights saw no decanting whatsoever, and were poured straight from the bottle. The 3rd flight saw approx. 2 hours decanting, and the 4th flight about an hour (or a bit less).