Pinot Days 2010 - Best of Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast and Carneros Seminar
Fort Mason, San Francisco, California
Tasted Saturday, June 26, 2010 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 784 views
Introduction
The final Pinot Days seminar on Saturday was devoted to Northern Coast Pinots, from Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. A version of this seminar has been a standing feature of Pinot Days for at least the past 4 years that I've been attending the seminars. This seminar focused largely on the 2008 vintage, although three of the wines were from other vintages. There were some very good wines in this seminar, and a couple that were among the worst I've ever tasted in a Pinot Days seminar.
Once again, we tasted through 16 wines, in four blind flights of four, by theme (e.g., Carneros), with 8 to 10 minutes alloted for tasting through a flight before the wines are revealed, the winemaker/representative for each particular wine is called up to speak briefly, and the seminar volunteers start pouring the wines for the next flight.
The North Coast suffered the same early and late frosts, drought, storms and the effects of fires in the vicinity as most other California wine growing regions in '08. Some areas, of course, were harder hit than others. We were told that Carneros had an unusually high 29 frost watch days in '08. As I've been mentioning in prior posts, the '08 Pinots in California seem lighter bodied, and higher in acidity than other recent vintages, with a lot more green notes and smoke characteristics (from vineyards affected by ash and smoke) than in prior years. Nonetheless, many of those who succeeded in making wines in '08 produced some very nice wines indeed. I do think, however, that even some of the better wines in '08 will be fairly short lived compared to more structured and tannic vintages like 2007 and 2005.
For this seminar, I again sat with Rusty Gaffney, the Prince of Pinot, and Sojourn's (and Audelssa's) Erich Bradley. Erich did an amazing job of accurately deducing which wine was which in the first three flights, and his Sojourn partner Craig Haserot (a drinking buddy of mine) nailed the last flight. My favorites in this tasting were the '08 Fulcrum Gap's Crown, '08 Sojourn Sangiacomo, and '08 MacMurray Ranch Winemaker's Block Selection. For more comments on particular wines, see the notes and flight summaries below.
Flight 1 - Carneros Flight (4 Notes)
In revealing this flight, our emcee (and event co-organizer) Lisa Rigisich asked the crowd to raise their hands for their favorite wine in the flight. Wines one, three and four all got votes, but the second wine, which I thought was dreadful, got none. Lisa nonetheless made her usual comments about everyone having different tastes, and that's what makes these tasting events interesting, but the representative from Ca' Momi, a Pinot that sells for under $20, seemed a little wounded by the lack of votes, so asked on his way up to the podium whether anyone actually really disliked the wine. Since I care too much about fine wine in general (and Pinot in particular) not to be completely honest as to what I'm tasting and experiencing, I had to respond to this direct question by raising my hand. When called on, I explained that I did not like the wine at all, and thought it was reeking of sulfite and poorly made. After giving his spiel, the Ca' Momi representative exited the seminar (and Lisa never again asked for a show of hands on favorite wine of the flight). I'm sorry if he was offended, but that's what you get for asking a direct question that can only truthfully be answered, "Yes, I hate your wine." (And I'd tasted it the day before at the Pinot Days trade tasting and given it a similar score, so I didn't really think the problem was just a faulty bottle.) Well, enough about an under $20 bottle of wine from a brand new producer that arguably shouldn't have been slated in a seminar billed as the "best" of the Northern Coast to begin with. Both the '08 Buena Vista Ramal and '06 Adastra Proximus were very good in this flight. 
Flight 2 - Sonoma Coast Flight (4 Notes)
Very nice wines from Fulcrum and Sojourn in this flight, and a good showing by Landmark too. These promise to be some of the best '08s out there. The Chronicle was a shocker, however, as it's hard to imagine how winemaker Ted Lemon could be responsible for something as heavily sulfured and poor as this '07 showed. I'm still dumbfounded at how bad this wine, from a Pinot making icon like Ted, managed to be. I'd love more info on what went wrong here, but we got nothing in the comments from the proprietor, Mike Hengehold, registering that there was any problem with the wine whatsoever.
Fulcrum winemaker David Rossi
Sojourn's Erich Bradley
Flight 3 - Russian River Valley Flight (4 Notes)
This was a good flight overall, with the Merry Edwards and Thomas George showing the best. 
Merry Edwards' Ken Coopersmith
Flight 4 - Mixed Flight (4 Notes)
MacMurray Ranch winemaker Susan Doyle
The MacMurray Ranch was the winner of this flight, another very strong '08. The only disappointment, and surprise, was the Swan Cuvée de Trois (now made from grapes from four different vineyards instead of three), which I've enjoyed in prior vintages. This one, recently released, was light brick red in the glass and smelled and tasted rather oxidized. When I asked owner and winemaker Rod Bergland about it, he indicated that the wine might have been pretty shaken up in transit, but didn't otherwise have an explanation as to the color or oxidative nature of the wine. Maybe just a faulty bottle or case, but I wasn't the only one who noticed that the color was remarkably more mature than anything else in the seminar, and that it smelled and tasted oxidized. I did try it again the next day at the Grand Tasting, and that bottle was somewhat better.
2008 Buena Vista Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard Series Ramal Vineyard 91 Points
USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
Medium dark cherry red color with pale meniscus; roses, tart cherry, tart strawberry nose; rich, lush, ripe black cherry, berry, raspberry puree palate with a little heat; medium-plus finish (hand harvested at night)
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2008 Ca' Momi Pinot Noir 77 Points
USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
Medium red color with pale meniscus; sulfite, weedy, earthy, dill nose; stemmy, murky, tobacco palate; medium finish
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2007 Bouchaine Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard Carneros 89 Points
USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
Dark cherry red color; high pitched raspberry, cherry, oak nose; tight, tart raspberry, tart cherry palate with grip; medium-plus finish
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2006 Adastra Pinot Noir Proximus 91 Points
USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
Medium dark red color; nice, poised, strawberry, mineral nose; tasty but tight yet, tart cherry, red fruit, mineral palate with poise; medium-plus finish 91+ pts.
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