2011 Marin County Wine Celebration
Escalle Winery, Larkspur, California
Tasted Saturday, June 11, 2011 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 1,353 views
Introduction
photo by Ken Zinns
I've enjoyed wines from Marin County, mainly Pinot Noir, that I've tried over the years. I've wanted to attend this event for the past few years, and was finally able to make it to the 7th Annual Marin County Wine Celebration this year. This tasting of 33 wines from 14 producers confirmed the hypothesis I'd developed from sampling a number of Marin AVA wines in the past: this appellation is a darn good source for delicate, lighter bodied, minerally Pinot Noirs.
Marin County is a relatively tiny appellation, with only about 200 acres currently planted to vines. That's up by about 75 acres in only the past four years, a dramatic increase. Most of those vines are in west Marin, in areas protected from residential and other development through agricultural easements engineered by the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT). MALT is a private, member-supported, non-profit organization that was created in 1980 by a coalition of ranchers and environmentalists to permanently preserve Marin County farmland for agricultural use. The site of this tasting was the historic red brick Escalle Winery in Larkspur, which was established by Frenchman Jean Escalle in the 1890s. It became a popular destination for San Franciscans on weekends at the turn of the century. The cellar's antique wood paneling and worn wooden floor lent the tasting a delightfully old fashioned ambience. The tasting was organized by the Marin County Winegrowers Association, with all proceeds benefitting MALT and DG Education Services.
photo of Escalle Winery by Ken Zinns
Marin is bordered on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and San Pablo Bay. These bodies of water help to temper the climate, keeping it warmer than Napa and Sonoma during the winter months, leading to earlier bud break than those appellations. They also keep it cooler during the summer growing season, which can easily extend well into October. There can also be a fair amount of rain in the spring, which depresses yields. As a result, the wines tend to be lighter in body, lower in alcohol, higher in acidity and fairly delicate compared to the wines of many other California wine regions. Those are particularly appealing qualities in Pinot Noir, and there are some very good Pinots being produced. The vineyard acreage in Marin County is planted predominantly to Pinot Noir, with small amounts also of Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
My favorites at this event, which I scored 90 points or higher, were:
Whites
2010 Pey-Marin Riesling "The Shell Mound" - 90+ points
Pinot Noir
2009 Bailiwick Wines Borderline - 90+ points
2010 Bailiwick Wines Borderline (barrel sample) - 90-92 points
2008 Burning Bench Cellars Moon Hill Vineyard - 90+ points
2009 Couloir Wines Chileno Valley Vineyard - 91 points
2009 Dutton-Goldfield Devil's Gulch - 90 points
2009 Easkoot Corda Vineyard - 90+ points
2008 Kendric Vineyards - 90+ points
2010 Point Reyes Estate - 91 points
2009 Skywalker Vineyards reserve - 90+ points
2008 Vision Cellars Chileno Valley Vineyard - 90+ points
2009 WillowBrook Chileno Vallley Vineyard - 90+ points
My favorite Marin County AVA wines to date, prior to this event, rated 92 points or more:
2005 Pey-Marin Pinot Noir Trois Filles - 92+ points
2001 Corda Pinot Noir - 92 points
For more detail on the producers and my tasting notes, see below.
Flight 1 - Bailiwick (2 Notes)
Bailiwick was launched in 2009 by brothers Bryan and Paul Vais. They've been making wine as hobbyists since the '80s. Their Borderline Pinot is based on fruit from the Chileno Valley and Kendric vineyards lying along the Marin-Sonoma border at the southern edge of the Petaluma wind gap. Those vineyards are planted to a Swan selection, Dijon and Pommard clones. I was impressed by both their inaugural, '09, release, and what they've got in barrel from 2010.
Flight 2 - Burning Bench (3 Notes)
Burning Bench is the new winery name for the Moon Hill Vineyard, a three acre vineyard planted with Dijon clones in 2002. The vineyard is located high on south facing slopes of the ridge separating the Nicasio and San Geronimo valleys. For the first time with the 2008 vintage, the grapes were crushed by foot over a one week period, which may have led to the greater focus and intensity in the 2008 as compared to prior vintages.
Flight 3 - Couloir (1 Note)
Couloir founder and winemaker Jon Grant has previously worked at Turley, PlumpJack, Corison and Robert Mondavi. He's a ski mountaineering enthusiast, and named his label with a term that means "a steep mountainside gorge." The one-third whole cluster he used in his Chileno Valley Pinot definitely shows on the nose and palate, but I think it will integrate in an attractive way with two or three years of age.
Flight 4 - De Loach (4 Notes)
Flight 5 - Dutton-Goldfield (2 Notes)
Longtime friends Steve Dutton and Dan Goldfield started this winery in 1998. The Devil's Gulch Vineyard is on a steep hillside in western Marin, planted to Dijon clones. The 2009 from this vineyard has appealing floral qualities and good balance.
Flight 6 - Easkoot (1 Note)
This is the first vintage for Easkoot, which is named after Alfred Derby Easkoot, Marin County’s first land surveyor. Winemaker Shane McManigle did a great job with this wine, from grapes that were entirely destemmed and aged in French oak, 22% of which was new. Shane left Easkoot for a job in Oregon after finishing work on the 2009 vintage. Matt Duffy has taken over as winemaker.
Flight 7 - Kendric (2 Notes)
Stewart Johnson is the owner, farmer and winemaker here. The winery is named after his father Kendric, who passed away as this project was getting started in 2001. This Pinot comes from an 8.5 acre vineyard in Northern Marin near the Sonoma border on which the Johnsons have a long term lease. Stewart planted it in 2002 to Dijon clones 115, 828, 37, 667, 777, Pommard and a mystery clone he obtained from Gloria Ferrer, that might be Martini. Both of these wines had an unusual flavor profile. The 2008 was particularly good.
Flight 8 - Pacheco Ranch (3 Notes)
Pacheco Ranch has been family owned for over 170 years, and claims to be the oldest land grant property engaged in agriculture in California. These are light-medium bodied, cedary, herbaceous, very traditional California Cabs, for those who like that sort of thing. They sell for a very reasonable $25.
Flight 9 - Pey-Marin (2 Notes)
Jonathan and Susan Pey bring impressive resumes to their Marin-based project. Jonathan studied in France and received his BS in Agriculture and MBA in California. He has worked for Domaine Louis Jadot, Chateau de Pommard, Robert Mondavi, Sterling and Penfolds. Early on in her career, Susan became wine director for a large restaurant group based in the Bay Area, and she continues to be one of the leading restaurant wine buyers in the U.S. The grapes for their very good Riesling are sourced from their own 20-year-old vineyard planted to the Neustadt clone. Their "Trois Filles" Pinot Noir, named in honor of their three daughters, is sourced from two sites, including their eight-acre, 18-year-old Pey-Marin Vineyard. It's an assemblage of batches from different Dijon and heritage clones. In 2008, they included 10% whole cluster, and raised it in French oak barrels, 35% new, with no racking but "extensive 'sur lie' stirring." I've enjoyed the prior vintages of this wine, back to 2003, very much. For me, the 2008 is the weakest vintage of this wine, which is no doubt due to the difficulties of that very challenging vintage.
Flight 10 - Point Reyes (3 Notes)
Point Reyes was the first winery and tasting room in Marin County since Prohibition. Their vineyard is located above Tomales Bay, two miles north of Point Reyes Station on Highway 1. They specialize in sparkling Pinot Noir, and produce still Pinot in particularly good years. The sparkling wine in this tasting wasn't bad at all, but the 2007 Pinot Noir was one of the stars of the tasting, complex and delicious.
Flight 11 - Sean Thackrey (2 Notes)
Sean Thackrey pictured right
I've been a fan of Sean Thackrey's idiosyncratic, old vine, ageworthy Rhone blends, especially the Orion, over the years. I was disappointed, however, with these Pinots. Both were bretty, but the latest bottling, the 2008, was dominated by brett.
Flight 12 - Skywalker/Viandante del Cielo (4 Notes)
Skywalker's 21-acre Pinot Noir vineyard was planted in 2007 on MALT protected easements, on a ridge with east and west facing slopes providing full-day sun exposures and cool coastal evenings. They also farm a five-acre Chardonnay vineyard on the valley floor that was planted in 1995. Their first Skywalker Vineyards Pinot release, after years of winemaking trials, was the 2008 Pinot Noir. The 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve follow up was particularly good, although it would merit from a couple years of cellaring.
Flight 13 - Vision Cellars (2 Notes)
Vision Cellars was started by winemaker/owner Mac McDonald in 1995. He claims that his father, who made moonshine in Texas during Prohibition, was considered Texas's finest moonshine maker thanks to the fine grains he used for his corn whisky. Mac's winemaking was inspired, however, by his first taste of Burgundy in 1955. Mac makes Pinot from several appellations. His 2008 Chileno Valley Vineyard is particularly appealing, floral and minerally.
Flight 14 - WillowBrook (2 Notes)
WillowBrook was started by young winemaker Joe Otos in 2001 with partners John Tracy and Ed Sillari. They started by sourcing Pinot Noir from the Russian River and Sonoma AVAs, but added a Marin County Pinot in 2006. The 2009 was particularly good, with silky texture.
2009 Bailiwick Wines Pinot Noir Borderline 90 Points
USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Marin County
Pre-release (summer '11 release) - medium cherry red color with 2 millimeter clear meniscus; appealing, light cherry, tart raspberry nose; light-medium bodied, cherry, raspberry, black raspberry palate; medium-plus finish 90+ points (inaugural release; Swan selection, Dijon and Pommard clones; 16 mos. in French oak, 50% new)
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2010 Bailiwick Wines Pinot Noir Borderline 90 Points
USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Marin County
Barrel sample - medium dark cherry red color with 3 millimeter clear meniscus; nice raspberry, floral, stems nose; tart raspberry, tart cherry palate with light stemminess; medium-plus finish 90-92 points (1/3 whole cluster)
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