2018 Ampelos Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills

Community Tasting Notes (2) Avg Score: 91 points

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  5/29/2020 - timewithwine wrote:

  For generating interest and income in their wines, Ampelos offered a Virtural Barrel Sample Tasting and Blending event. Each bottle was 375ml. We tasted each wine separately and then poured a couple blends.
  Pommard by itself - Perfumed with spice, violet, cherry and strwawberry. Very light cherry in color; not what you expect California Pinot to be.
  
  Clone 115 by itself - Much deeper in color with purple. Very sharp tannins. Rebecca calls it their “blending note” Pinot adding coloa, strawberry and lavendar and “snappy fruit”.
  
  Clone 667 in New Oak by itself - A fair amount of smoke, Asian 5 spice (on the nose) and cola ) palate, but not nose).
  
  Blend 1 - One ounce of each wine - Much deeper in color with dominate cherry, oak, cinnamon and cardamon. Very short finish.
  
  Blend 2 - one ounce of Pommard and Clone 667 with New Oak, and 2 ounces of Clon e 115 - A huge uptick in quality and enjoyment with pretty tea, smoke, spice, and cola. Much more depth of flavor and length to the finish.
  
  05.29.20. No Recommendation since these are barrel samples and not a finished wine. But so much fun!

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  4/3/2020 - timewithwine wrote:

  This is Ampelos’ entry level Pinot and it shows: a bit thin and certainly lighter than the Rho. But as Peter and Rebecca explained, they try for more Burgundian style than the big, exuberant California style. (Without mentioning him, they even took a shot at Brian Loring - or at least winemakers like him who make big Pinots.) Notes of cherry, cola and cinnamon. No sediment. 35 barrels made. 14% alc. With Ampelos’ first virtual tasting where over 70 people logged on (including one from the UK where it was 1:00 am Saturday morning!) as we sat and listened to Peter and Rebecca discuss their Ampelos dream and vision. We then finished the balance of the bottle with dinner of left over beef tenderloin that DDB had pulled from the freezer, and did a side by side comparison with a Loring Peake Ranch Pinot from the same vintage. Recommended.

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