Mount Eden Retrospective with Jeffrey Patterson: The '90s

The Plumed Horse Restaurant, Saratoga, California
Tasted Friday, December 2, 2011 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 1,386 views

Introduction

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Jeffrey Patterson with Plumed Horse Chef Peter Armellino

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Flight 1 - 1990s Chardonnays (10 Notes)

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This was an incredible flight (we actually did it in three flights, with food courses) of elegant Chardonnays. My favorites were the 1990, 1992 and 1997. I gathered that these were Jeffrey's favorites as well.

Jeffrey related that 1990 was a normal harvest in terms of timing, but a smaller harvest in terms of yields, with lots of density. It is drinking fabulously now. It was selected as wine of the year by California Grapevine, and everyone wanted some. Mount Eden Chardonnays have continued to sell well since this vintage.

Jeffrey said 1991 was an extremely late harvest, the latest he had seen working at Mount Eden. It was also a very large harvest, and Jeffrey was very worried about it being good, because it was so big. But he reported that everyone loved it and it has aged well. The alcohol level for both 1990 and 1991 was 13.2%.

1992 was a very early harvest. 1993 was normal. The ’94 and ’95 have aged prematurely, according to Jeffrey. He attributes this partly to the fact that he used to stir the lees. There were also problems with brett in ’95 and ’96. Jeffrey reacted to these vintages by making the wines without any filtration, all natural yeasts and all natural malolactic fermentations. He also increased SO2 levels, from about 25 parts per million free SO2 pre-1997 to about 40 ppm now. He reports there's been no problem with brett since.

Jeffrey reported that in 1997, it was 80 degrees every day. They had early bud break and even growth. Naturally harvest was early. Jeffrey didn't have high hopes for the Chardonnay (unlike the Cabernet, which did very well with the heat in 1997). He explained that when you have a big harvest you worry about the lack of concentration. But he reported that it has "aged very comfortably and elegantly, like a great wine should." I quite agree.

1998 because of the El Nino conditions was very small. Our bottle, unfortunately, was corked. In ’99, it snowed in April. They had a relatively large harvest but extremely late. It doesn’t have quite the concentration of the great vintages.

Flight 2 - 1990s Pinot Noirs (10 Notes)

See the detail on vintages with respect to the Chardonnays above, as the same conditions impacted the Pinot Noirs we tasted. The greatest of these for me were the 1994 and the 1997 Vieilles Vignes, a one-time separate bottling from grapes taken from the vines Martin Ray originally planted, before those vineyards were replanted in 1997 and 1998.

In ’92, Jeffrey told us he decided not to spray with sulfur during the bloom. He therefore missed an interval during the spring, which he now sees as a big mistake. Mount Eden had a huge problem with mildew. Jeffrey told us that mildew in Pinot Noir really affects the wine. In ’92 Pinot Noirs he tastes today, he finds a certain bitterness, tannin quality, and "just a bad, bad flavor." He bottled a little of the ’92 under a separate label called Madame Pinot, which he brought for our tasting. It bore out his concerns about what mildew had done to the vintage.

In 1994, Jeffrey reported they had a lot of heat in August that drove the harvest forward. The color is still strong and the wine is very aromatic. Jeffrey told us, "Pinot is funny, it can kind of gain weight—start out simple and light, and then with a decade of aging, get deeper in color and character. It’s a really unusual wine in that respect." 1994 is an example of this, which still shows as a youthful wine with good color. Jeffrey loves it.

All of the Pinots we tasted from the 1990s had a certain percentage of stems—12 to 25%--as discussed above.
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  • 1990 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir 91 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Cloudy, bricking, opaque, dark cherry red color; nice, focused, green fern, light tobacco nose; youthful, stemmy, tart red fruit, tart cranberry, green bean palate; medium-plus finish

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  • 1991 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir Flawed

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Cloudy, bricking, medium dark cherry color; light TCA, tart cherry, subdued nose; TCA, tart red fruit palate with green notes

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  • 1992 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir Madame Pinot 87 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Bricking, dark cherry red color; raspberry, light green notes nose; narrow, pinched, arch, tart green notes, lime palate with medium acidity; medium-plus finish

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  • 1993 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir 91 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Lightly bricking medium cherry red color; a little VA, tart cherry, tart red fruit, lightly savory nose; youthful, concentrated, tart red fruit, tart cherry, tart raspberry, mineral palate with a vein of honey; medium-plus finish 91+ points

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  • 1994 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir 94 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Bricking, medium dark cherry red color; savory, ham, salt cured bacon nose; tasty, tart cherry, tart raspberry, pink grapefruit, mineral palate with depth; long finish

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  • 1995 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir 89 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Bricking medium dark cherry red color; brett, savory nose; brett, savory, very tart red fruit, mineral palate; medium-plus finish

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  • 1996 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir 92 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Bricking, medium dark cherry red color; savory, light brett, baked ham, tart cherry nose; tasty, youthful, tart cherry palate with sweetness and medium acidity; medium-plus finish 92+ points

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  • 1997 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir Cuvée Vieilles Vignes 94 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Medium dark ruby color with pale meniscus; lovely, rich, raspberry, black raspberry nose; concentrated, rich, raspberry, black raspberry, black cherry palate; will go 30 years; long finish

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  • 1998 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir 92 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Dark ruby color; a little VA, light TCA, tart black cherry, black raspberry nose; tasty, youthful, tart black cherry, black raspberry, light cola palate; medium-plus finish 92+ points

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  • 1999 Mount Eden Vineyards Pinot Noir 92 Points

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Medium dark ruby color; tart red fruit, green bean nose with green notes; youthful, tart red fruit, cinnamon, brett palate with green edges; medium-plus finish

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Flight 3 - Cabernet Flight (3 Notes)

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Jeffrey told us that the 1990 Cabernet "caused a lot of commotion." He explained, "It was in tastings and would win them over and over and over. It was the first vintage of Cabernet I made at Mount Eden that was really successful." We didn't try all the Cabernets from the 1990s, as we did with the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, but these three were elegant, youthful wines with balance and delicious flavors that should go for another two decades or more.

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