Savoury and delicate. Rose hips, black pepper, a bit of bacon on the nose. A stem-like green edge, too. Light on its feet, fragile, built on crisp acidity, tannin is on the lower side. Real pinosity here, in a feminin way, it’s perfumed, intense and complex yet effortless. Drinks well, too. A great wine.
We drank the bottle over a course of two days. Pretty similar to the past bottles with same core of crunchy cranberry still present. It's a mix of something plush around the edges yet still the core of tartness and some tannin that gives the wine contrast. I remain virtually the only one with notes here on the wine so as always one can take my comments with a grain of salt but I do have multiple bottles open now to date and still think the wine is fighting some within its parts.
4th bottle since release, and I like this one the best of them. Opened yesterday, enjoying more of it today. There is a lot of ripe flavor in this bottle, and conversely the whole cluster impact that has been a part of a few of the other bottles is just not here. Yeah, I guess there is some in the aromatic, but it's expressing more a smoky graphite right now. And being open for a full day, this seems pretty approachable to me. Plush and round, plummy, blackberry with some cinnamon red hots, which is surprising to me because I know Jamie keeps his Pinot Noir away from new oak. So not sure what to make of that brown spicy note but I like it here. Finishes with a mix of blueberry, that expresses some density, and cranberry. Overall, this seems like an early drinker vintage of McDougall, at least seen through this bottle.
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Served blind. This showed some stemminess last night. And I was in conversation and had forgot to take any notes. But, the group felt that the whole cluster was more overt in this bottle. Nothing to retaste today and all I have to show for my glass of it last night is a poor note. :(
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Last tasted this in July, when it was a composite sample that Jamie shared with us. So this past weekend, we opened one of the bottles that came in the recent shipment. I really like where this wine is already, a good push of ripeness yet possessing the same red cherry and pomegranate quality from the July composite sample. To me, the cranberry just lingers under the surface to remind you that the wine has some backbone, but then the pomegranate which reminds me a bit of a reduction sauce. Red apple and plum too. The weight here is medium and the wine was best with just a light chill. Like the 2020 Trout Gulch we tasted with it, I do think both wines are showing more open and ready right out of the release chute.
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1/1/2024 - Zoltán Németi Likes this wine: 92 Points
Savoury and delicate. Rose hips, black pepper, a bit of bacon on the nose. A stem-like green edge, too. Light on its feet, fragile, built on crisp acidity, tannin is on the lower side. Real pinosity here, in a feminin way, it’s perfumed, intense and complex yet effortless. Drinks well, too. A great wine.
Read more: https://screwcapped.com/kluch-mcdougall-ranch-pinot-noir-2020/
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11/7/2023 - Frank Murray III wrote:
We drank the bottle over a course of two days. Pretty similar to the past bottles with same core of crunchy cranberry still present. It's a mix of something plush around the edges yet still the core of tartness and some tannin that gives the wine contrast. I remain virtually the only one with notes here on the wine so as always one can take my comments with a grain of salt but I do have multiple bottles open now to date and still think the wine is fighting some within its parts.
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3/5/2023 - Frank Murray III wrote:
4th bottle since release, and I like this one the best of them. Opened yesterday, enjoying more of it today. There is a lot of ripe flavor in this bottle, and conversely the whole cluster impact that has been a part of a few of the other bottles is just not here. Yeah, I guess there is some in the aromatic, but it's expressing more a smoky graphite right now. And being open for a full day, this seems pretty approachable to me. Plush and round, plummy, blackberry with some cinnamon red hots, which is surprising to me because I know Jamie keeps his Pinot Noir away from new oak. So not sure what to make of that brown spicy note but I like it here. Finishes with a mix of blueberry, that expresses some density, and cranberry. Overall, this seems like an early drinker vintage of McDougall, at least seen through this bottle.
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1/12/2023 - Frank Murray III wrote:
Served blind. This showed some stemminess last night. And I was in conversation and had forgot to take any notes. But, the group felt that the whole cluster was more overt in this bottle. Nothing to retaste today and all I have to show for my glass of it last night is a poor note. :(
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11/13/2022 - Frank Murray III wrote:
Last tasted this in July, when it was a composite sample that Jamie shared with us. So this past weekend, we opened one of the bottles that came in the recent shipment. I really like where this wine is already, a good push of ripeness yet possessing the same red cherry and pomegranate quality from the July composite sample. To me, the cranberry just lingers under the surface to remind you that the wine has some backbone, but then the pomegranate which reminds me a bit of a reduction sauce. Red apple and plum too. The weight here is medium and the wine was best with just a light chill. Like the 2020 Trout Gulch we tasted with it, I do think both wines are showing more open and ready right out of the release chute.
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment