Kutch Verticals--Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and Chardonnay

It's the first time we've done a comprehensive look at Jamie's wines. Because of the breadth and scope of his work, we had to make some logical decisions about how much to do in this first session. So we selected just the appellation wines which are the Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. The exception is the 2014 Chardonnay when the fruit came from two different sites in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In our next session will be tackling some of the single vineyard Pinot Noir and also the Trout Gulch Chardonnay.

• 2014 Kutch Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains

  USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

  This showed very well, and in fact I believe it was the top white on most of the lists of those who were tasting it during the event. This bottle showed the smoky reduction that has been so intriguing about it with past bottles. There is even a kind of petrol note in the aroma, too. Honeyed pear, moderately spicy, orange and a flinty, citrusy finish that has real good length and persistence. This wine is getting closer to 10 years old and continues to be a complex, cool wine to luckily have a few more bottles of for the future.

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• 2015 Kutch Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  The aromatics on this reminded me of smoky, vanilla bean and citrus. Pretty cool. Concentrated and powerful with lemon curd, lime zest, spicy pear, anise and green banana. Finish of crunchy green apple, spiced pear and wet stone. For me, this completes with the 2014 for quality.

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• 2016 Kutch Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  As compared to the 2014 and 2015, this 2016 is more softly built, open textured, delicious, more ready to go. Juicy, same spicy notes as the 2015, just not as powerful. Well composed and balanced, I'd drink this vintage now.

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• 2017 Kutch Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Orange blossom flower aroma. Citrusy and spicy, with toast, pear, apple and a lemon drop hard candy note. Like the 2016, this has the spiciness of the 2015, but not the concentration of the 2015. Instead, this is a leaner, high acid finish, which one person in the group called sauvignon blanc-like.

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• 2018 Kutch Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Spicy, lemony and intense. Good coil and concentration. Lightly creamy with a spicy, gingery finish with fresh cut green apple and banana, even a mango impression that I got, too. The finish is well-structured around a core of flint. Reminds me some of the 2015, with the same intensity, presence and quality. Very good.

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• 2019 Kutch Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  The toasty, anise scented nose is here. Lemony, wet stone/flint but much less concentration than the 2018, a more subtle wine here with the 2019. Apple pie, tangerines, lemon and golden apple fill in the flavor profile. Like the 2016, I would drink the 2019 sooner than later too. Delicious now.

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• 2020 Kutch Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  When we first poured this, the wine seemed rough to me, not yet knitted together. Lemony, spicy and spearmint. But, there is a diluted palate feel to me. Decided to retaste this again later in the evening to edit my notes and see if the wine had changed and it had. The concentration was much better with the diluted feel now gone. The spearmint and lemon persisted, making this what I would more expect from the SC Chardonnay. I have 4 of these in the cellar and will plan to do another soon to revisit my perceptions.

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• 2011 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Damn the 2011 is in a good place. I remember early on, when the wine was younger that the stems were more prominent but that has now worked its way into the wine much better. Pours a little cloudy, with brown spice and spicy cherry nose. Jolly Rancher hard candy note, juicy in tone with cinnamon and plenty of focused energy. I had held onto this bottle since 2013, and glad we got to enjoy it yesterday, as it's a good testament to Jamie's work in the early years.

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• 2012 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Wow, almost six years since I had one of these. We had it yesterday as part of our Kutch vertical. Pours dark, with the same power and density as I recall the 2012 Falstaff from past bottles. Fruit punch, strawberry, bright and generous. The stems show up in the finish giving this an herbal quality, like a rosemary. Even after 4 hrs this is a big wine, robust and stuffed. I prefer the 2011 for sure right now, as the 2012 vintage from Jamie seems to consistently reflect bigger wines, not the more lithe and berry driven quality and acidity of his later years of work (think 2017, 2019).

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• 2013 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  The color here returns to a more rose colored wine, as opposed to the very dark 2012. Nose of metal shaving, cinnamon and brown spice. This is a spicy wine, along with an influence of cedar into the flavor. Even a cola note seemed to slip into the wine, too. I also found this needed air, as I found the wine not in balance when we first were trying it but later the evening it had found the balance I would want to see.

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• 2014 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Lightly whole cluster influenced aroma, along with what Andrew called something tea-like, which for me on hearing that remark (a good one, too) that I thought of earl grey and licorice. This is a blue fruited core, with some edges of red, juicy and concentrated. The blue fruit here is cool, different than the earlier vintages of this wine. I could even say the wine had a syrupy quality, but that sounds negative. So, instead take my inference here to mean a concentrated blueberry finish, which I enjoyed.

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• 2015 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Aromas of stem, cracked spice and whole cluster. Sweet cherry, cedar, juicy. Tight and astringent which for me is cloaking/affecting the fruit and balance. Later on in the evening I went back to taste this again and it remained tangy, with some Indian spices in the finish.

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• 2016 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  This vintage reminds me some of the 2015, with the inference of the whole cluster. But, where I find I ike the 2016 more is that the astringence of the 2015 is not present here in the 2016. It's more savory, soil, red fruited with juicy cherry. As much as this wine was hard as nails a few years ago, it has begun to soften and come together, a good sign for the vintage.

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• 2017 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  This had a dusty and lightly stemmy aroma. Crunchy cherry fruit, and some tangy strawberry along with some blue tones. Juicy and plenty of structure with cedary tannin. Good kick of acid and energy here and when I went back to revisit it a few hours later it was more intense and spicy with kind of a red fruit jam in the finish.

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• 2018 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  This vintage had quite a bit of fine tannin, reminding me a little bit of what I might get out of a new barrel and yet I know that these wines don't see much new wood but there is a woodsy tannin. Like the 2017, this shows a nice mix of strawberry and blueberry and a real juicy quality. As this gets more air it flushes out and becomes spicy and the blue and red fruit increases in intensity. I have enjoyed the single vineyard 2018s before and so it's no surprise that I like this composite blend of those wines too.

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• 2021 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Since Brian went ahead and put his note in on this wine, I'm going to go ahead and do the same but the caveat is that the composite blend that we tasted for this note was built for us special, to be included as part of a larger Kutch tasting that we were doing. As to whether Jamie will ultimately build the composite blend for the final 2021 bottling to look like this, I'm not sure what those ratios wiil be but we have some level of confidence that some of this fruit, if not a lot of it, will be in that final blended 2021 that gets released. Our blend shows a distinct purple fruit, kind of a mix of blue and black. Juicy, intense and even little jammy, there's a length and a purity to it that several of us really enjoyed. If the raw materials that we tasted in this composite are an indication of what all the other 2021s will be like, then we're in for a great vintage for Jamie's wines.

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