2013 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Las Alturas Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (140) Avg Score: 90.6 points

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  9/22/2023 - Scott Burg Likes this wine:

  Drinking great but drink now. Really enjoyed this wine

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  5/27/2023 - OneOfTheBasicFoodGroups Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Still good, but needs to be drunk soon.

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  12/2/2022 - Josch48 wrote: 85 Points

  Completely opaque black cherry, almost squid's ink color in the glass, with matching color on the tip of the cork. This is visually the most extracted Pinot Noir I have encountered, questionable, especially since the fruit etiology is located in a fairly high elevation, with a proposed growing season average daytime high temperature just under 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
  The nose is redolent of thick and viscous aromas of jammy, and clumsy overripe blue-black fruit, and boysenberry syrup, with no appreciable bouquet or resemblance to Pinot Noir.
  The overtly sweet, raisiny, and cloying mouthfeel is accompanied by a tart acidity and oddly woody tannins. The fruit component of the wine reveals flavors more in common with a Syrah, Merlot or a highly over ripe Cabernet Franc.
  My experience with tasting the Wagner (and affiliated wine making staff) family’s Pinot Noir offerings has inexorably led me to place these wines in a categorization (or relegation) of exotic and almost unnatural expressions of this varietal. Granted, there are endearing qualities in most well made Pinot Noir regardless of the fruit sourcing area, microclimate, and stylistic proclivities of the wine maker, regardless of the price point or the level of complexity and respective resultant expression of this difficult to grow and even more difficult to vinify varietal.
  I am neither an expert nor a bias laden wine snob.
  My mystification with this wine is being able to identify and classify it as a Pinot Noir.
  Regardless of the clone or clones used in this wine, the winemaker’s statement of “The high winds also result in smaller berries with very thick skins, giving us more color concentration,” is confounding at the very least.
  The skin of the Pinot Noir grape is relatively thin, and is easily broken by callous handling when harvested, and the skin’s tannins comprise only about 1.7 % of the grape’s weight. This is compared to 3% to 6% in most other red varieties, and the Pinot’s anthocyanins, the soluble pigments that impart most red wines their color, are only half that in a Syrah grape. How is this wine so heavily extracted?
  I won’t belabor the elegance that can be achieved from this varietal, but elegance is not a superlative I would associate with this particular wine. If this were another varietal, say a Paso Robles Syrah, I would score this wine as 90, but my score reflecting this wine’s identity as a Pinot Noir is a generous 85.
  I realize many wine drinkers appreciate this manifestation of Pinot Noir, and I am the last person to subjectively dismiss and diminish this choice. I merely state my personal disappointment and express my thanks for the thoughts and insights of my fellow wine lovers in this safe and respectful forum.

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  11/24/2022 - bradfriedlander Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Nose is Eucalyptus and fall woods. Slightly smoky. Taste is strawberry preserves and bramble berry. A little leather in the chew. A little tar on the finish. Sustained finish. Excellent with roast turkey and side dishes. Short bottle barely lasted through dinner.
  
  This may be our favorite Belle Glos Pinot Noir.

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  10/30/2022 - Dbabtd Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Absolutely spectacular. Typical California fruit forward!

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