Blind Tasting of 2017 (and one '18) Pinot Noir

We got the wine group together to do a single blind tasting of 5 Pinots from my collection. I selected 1 Burg and then 2 each of my favorite producers from Oregon and California. All wines were double-decanted about 3 hours prior to tasting and bagged up.

Wines are in the order we tasted them.

• 2017 Goodfellow Family Cellars Pinot Noir Heritage No. 9 Durant Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  Double decanted and tasted single blind ~3 hours later. Quite a pale ruby/garnet blend. Nose was fairly shut at first; aggressive swirl coaxes out a little bit of fruit. However, the palate immediately has a blast of deep, rich fruit, quite good intensity into the finish. Lovely palate here. Intensity on the finish is still there 3 hours later. Air helps this, still very young. Decant aggressivle or wait. I'd buy tons of this for the price and lay it down for the years ahead. My # 3/5, Group # 4/5.

  Read 1 Comment / Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2018 Aubert Pinot Noir UV-SL Vineyard 90 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Double decanted and tasted single blind ~3 hours later: Medium purple. Initially smells a bit glossy, almost a paint thinner element. On the palate there is an explosion of lightly sweet dark blackberry fruit, brown sugar, dark anise, quite smooth. Later, bit of a raisin/oxidative type finish. Certainly more weight and more ripeness versus most of the rest of the peer group. My # 5/5, Group # 5/5.
  
  (Really interesting this tonight; I love Aubert Pinots, this clearly is a different style/profile to everything else we tasted and didn't show as well on a relative basis, could be a matter of palate preference or just being steered down one lane and then trying this).

  Post a Comment / 3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No

• 2017 The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir South Block 93 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Double decanted and tasted single blind ~ 3 hours later. Pale garnet. Initial impressions are earthy/savory, sage and mushroom on the nose. Almost medium in body, pretty and delicate flowers and crunchy red berries. Nice persistence. With more the air the nose jumps out of the glass, with that savory and earthy note, nice complexity. Palate becomes more mineral-driven, but also more red-fruited for the overt fruit that is showing. Very nice. My # 1/5, Group # 3/5.
  
  Night 2: Nose is still nice, showing more reductive notes; palate showing a lot of depth, mineral-driven with fruit intensity that builds into the finish.
  
  (People had this rated at the top or the bottom of the tasting; those putting it at the bottom seemed put off by the nose, which I really enjoyed).

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2017 Faiveley Mazis-Chambertin 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru

  Double decanted and tasted single blind ~3 hours later: Light to medium garnet. Light-ish red fruit, trace of smoke. Very weightless texture, with vibrant acidity into the finish. Comes off as juicy red raspberry. After additional air, the entry becomes more seamless, the wine shows more weight and this has more structure than any other wine in the tasting. This bottle had a certain class to it that most of the tasting group picked up on. My # 2/5, Group # 1/5.

  Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No

• 2017 Ceritas Pinot Noir Elliott Vineyard 91 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Double decanted and tasted single blind ~3 hours later. Pale to medium garnet. Nose is floral, fresh rain, wet grass. Quite a pretty and delicate nose. Juicy entry into an almost medium weight frame, very in balance this; firm red plum skin. Feels very natural and not messed with. Love the nose on Ceritas Pinots, can't always get there on the palate. My # 4/5, Group # 2/5.
  
  Night 2: Something of a contradiction in that there are bit more oxidative notes coming through, but still a lot of acidity keeping it fresh. Tea is now a standout component on the nose.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

This was a fun night and an interesting experiment. On this night and over this few hour window the Eyrie South Block and the Faiveley Mazis really stood out the most to me.

The group did a great job as a majority of us were able to call every wine after completing the tasting. To me the Aubert and Ceritas were the easiest to call (the robustness and color of the Aubert giving it away; the pretty nose of the Ceritas giving it away); I guessed the Mazis by taking clues from the structure; after that it was almost a toss up as to which was Goodfellow and which was Eyrie, although they showed quite differently with the latter being more expressive on this evening.