Kutch Verticals--Chard, Falstaff and Graveyard, with Jamie Kutch

My House
Tasted Sunday, March 2, 2025 by Frank Murray III with 133 views

Flight 1 (7 Notes)

  • 2014 Kutch Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    This wine presses on, enduring time and beating it with a youthful quality that is impressive. Still stony and elegant, with a lemony tone and cut apple. The color of the wine is starting to darken a bit as it sits next to the 2021s we had in the flight, but the flavors are humming right along. Retasted the following day from the leftovers, such as beautiful wine. The wet stone and savory acid are marrying really well. Gorgeous.

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  • 2021 Kutch Chardonnay Bohan Salt Point Block Sonoma Coast

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    Two perspectives here. From yesterday, my notes say gravel and lemon flesh. There is a gamy/meaty character than I can't put a better name too...maybe clay? Spicy with a long finish. Retasting a day later at room temp (68f) with a fresh palate, the spiciness is evident, along with a creamy lime that lengthens the finish. Man, this wine has really evolved well since I first had it on release. Delicious.

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  • 2021 Kutch Chardonnay Trout Gulch Vineyard

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Tasted twice from the same bottle. Yesterday, this had a yellow apple and passion fruit core, with some oak on the aroma that later blew off with air. Flinty mineral finish with lime and spice. I wrote 'gorgeous' in my note. Restasted the following morning at 68f, don't sense the wood from yesterday. This is more fleshy, a more generous palate than the 2021 Salt Point. The citrus is bright and present, almost like a lime flesh into the finish. Plenty of acid here so take note if you are thinking of how to pair this with food.

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  • 2022 Kutch Chardonnay Bohan Salt Point Block Sonoma Coast

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    Yesterday, I got some light oak on the nose. I also sensed a white pepper, and the same kind of gamy/savory impression that was also in the 2021 (in that wine, I called it clay). Lemony, and what Mike Grammar called 'ginger'. Retasting the following day at 68f, very flinty nose. This wine feels complete to me--juicy, spicy, moderate acid, and a slate-like finish with lemon peel. With as much air as this has seen, it seems ready to drink.

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  • 2022 Kutch Chardonnay Trout Gulch Vineyard

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Opened yesterday. My first impression I wrote was lots of acid with some toasted oak on the nose and vanilla. Spicy, lime and mineral and seeming quite primary in expression. Saved leftovers in the bottle, retasting at 68f the following day. Alongside the 2022 Salt Point, this seems like a fuller palate. I don't want to call it rich, instead say it's fleshy. The acidity is here, plenty of citrus, and like the Salt Point, this too seems more ready to me than the 2021s.

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  • 2023 Kutch Chardonnay Bohan Salt Point Block Sonoma Coast

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    Started with this bottle yesterday, during the larger tasting we held. Aromas of metal shaving and white flower, with flint. Plump, green apple, lemony and again, the same savory signature that I found in the 2021 and 2022. Finishes with citrus peel. Retasted again the following day at 68f, same flinty note. The wine today matches pretty well what I wrote yesterday. Mouth filling, citrus peel, very juicy.

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  • 2023 Kutch Chardonnay Trout Gulch Vineyard

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Opened yesterday, lots of apple and passion fruit, much like I found in the 2021. Tangerine and lime zest, with a mineral finish. Retasted the following day from the bottle leftovers at 68 f, the fruit here, the palate definition, at this stage it surpasses the 2023 Salt Point. There is just better intensity and depth, concentration. The citrus goes in a lemon oil direction. We'll have to see if Salt Point catches up but right now, Trout Gulch in 2023 is the winner.

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Flight 2 (5 Notes)

  • 2014 Kutch Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    The stem inclusion still seasons the wine, very much in the aromatic, a kind of dusty herbal, along with perfume. Hard cherry candy, menthol, some blackberry, pine and tangy.

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  • 2017 Kutch Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    The aromatics here are for me much less stemmy than the 2014--it's more about the aroma of cracked spices. As with the 2017 for me of the many past bottles, good concentration here. Spicy, juicy with herbal cherry. My sense is that the 2017 is finally transitioning into a wine where the years are adjusting how the wine shows, so more mature and developed.

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  • 2019 Kutch Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    So with 2019, the whole cluster is being adjusted down by Jamie, to 75%. This shift is helping in my view, and it's really noticeable of the impact when I tasted the 2023, which is at 50%. As for the 2019, floral and perfumey--this is where the adjustment is really expressing the stems differently and I like it. Mainly plummy, with a cocoa-like tannin around the edges of the wine, kind of a powdery tannin. Where the stems impact the flavor is also different here, with a rosemary/creosote and an herbal tinge off the red fruit.

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  • 2023 Kutch Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    Now the whole cluster is down to 50% and this seems like the wisdom of Jamie's evolution and how he approaches winemaking. The aromas are awesome--fragrant, floral, and irony with even some metal shavings. I wrote 'bitchen' in my notes. Like the 2019, shows a plummy fruit, but now there is a blue edge that comes through, juicy with an elegant mouth weight. Juicy and delicious, with a purple-fruited finish. Love the 2023.

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  • 2023 Kutch Pinot Noir Ridge Top Mindego Ridge Vineyard

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    A brand new wine, using the fruit from the ridge at the upper portion of the site. This pours inky, with my first reaction was syrah in color. Has the fragrance of some clustered syrah--think purple flower. The 50% whole cluster is really working well here. The flavors? Oh boy. Crushed rocks, with intense blue fruit and dark raspberry. What this wine reminds me of is the first few years of the syrah Wells made from Brosseau, up near Monterey. I remember his 2010 when he first released it, which I have a deep connection to that wine, the flavors that wine conveyed. The collision of rocks, blueberry and raspberry--BOOM! Mix these up, put them into a wine that is deeply colored, resulting in something last night that for me was just WOW. I can see buying multiple bottles of this in the Fall when it is released. Genius stuff.

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Flight 3 (5 Notes)

  • 2017 Kutch Pinot Noir Graveyard Block Bohan Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    This showed a rustic character for me, even with some of the edges starting to brown, too. The fruit was on the punchy side, a strawberry too. Also this seemed tight. This was my least favorite wine of the Graveyard flight.

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  • 2019 Kutch Pinot Noir Graveyard Block Bohan Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    Plum and cedar nose. The fruit here for 2019 has a purple core, framed in a nice tanginess, which helps as contrast. The finish shows a boys fruit quality, so again purple in tone, cool and tangy. Retasted the following day so plenty of air...there is a spicy quality to the wine today, with a powdery tannin, almost like skin tannin, around the edges of the wine. There is a juicy, dark palate that I didn't sense yesterday. This is now showing more complete. the air really helping.

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  • 2021 Kutch Pinot Noir Graveyard Block Bohan Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    I had the sensation of pine in this wine, and I asked Jamie if there was pine planted around the plot. He told us there is some, but it's not near the vines. Seated near me were two other similar comments--one from Kathy who suggested medicinal, and one from Chris who said menthol. It must just be the vintage as the GY plot is destemmed. Dried raspberry, strawberry, a plum, and like the 2019, this has a purple-toned finish. Retasting the following morning from the bottle leftovers, this seems packed with fruit today, bursting out of the core of the wine. An earthy, loamy note is in the finish, too. I believe this will need some more time to meld together, but I think given the plump fruit that this may be a sooner drinker.

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  • 2022 Kutch Pinot Noir Graveyard Block Bohan Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    This pours in the color of a neon magenta. What a color! This wine is juicy, my notes say even 'very juicy'. Cherry and raspberry, both vivid and evocative of these fruits. The acid punctuates the fruit, which helps temper what I thought was a richer vintage here of GY. Powerful and juicy finish. Restated the following day from the leftovers in the bottle, there is a dark, savory raspberry note in the wine today. Even a little herbal, like the pine I found in the 2021. This is really good, and I feel like I missed the depth and interesting edges this shows today. Excellent version of GY.

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  • 2023 Kutch Pinot Noir Graveyard Block Bohan Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    Grippy and juicy, very much like the 2022. Where 2023 diverges from the 2022 is what I wrote down as an elegance. The weight is medium and the wine feels stony on the palate, and in fact I have stony underscored. The fruit tones? Blue and red, with a gorgeous crushed raspberry, finished with a stony edge. I sense this will be a great version of GY with some age. Retasted the following day so it's had plenty of air. This is so good...it's youthful, yes. But the raw parts are all here--texture, acid, fruit, an earthiness complementing it all. The crushed raspberry and mineral...man, so good. It just seems like to me that Jamie has nailed the 2023s.

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