Older California/Oregon Pinots and French Burgs

Older California/Oregon Pinots and French Burgs
Introduction by Ross B., our tasting organizer
We rarely get to try older Pinot Noirs in our tasting group. Part of the reason is that many of the Pinots that have been made in the past few years are so forward and delicious when young that it makes sense to drink them in the few years after release. In contrast, most good French Burgundy should be cellared for 5-15 years before touching them; they can often taste tight and lean when just released and it takes several years for them to fill out.

There are a few California Pinots which fall into this same category -- Hanzell, Mount Eden, Chalone, Santa Cruz Mountain, and even the occasional Dehlinger come to mind as falling in this category. Not only can some of these Pinots last a couple decades or more, but they become much deeper, more complex wines after a decade or so of aging.

On Thursday, we'll try six top California and Oregon Pinots ranging from 13 to 22 years against two French Burgundies of the same era. Here's the lineup:
1985 Santa Cruz Mountain "Estate" (12%)
1985 Volnay-Champans, Monceau-Boch (12.5%)
1988 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.7%)
1990 Drouhin, Oregon (13.0%)
1990 Coche Dury, Bourgogne (12%)
1992 Dehlinger "Reserve-Unfiltered", Russian River Valley (13.5%)
1992 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.6%)
1994 Domaine Drouhin "Laurene", Oregon (13%)

Not surprisingly, a couple of these were pretty dried out, or totally evolved to tertiary flavors, while others were quite lovely, still possessing fruit along with the complexity one hopes for in older Pinot. The surprise was how divisive the two Burgs were in our scoring, especially the one that I and two other Burgophiles picked as our number one wine, which 10 of our 18 scorers picked for last place. I still don't get it. I tried the group's last place (my first place) again after the voting, and it was still the strongest of the lot to me, with the elegance and complexity of a nice old Burg from a good vintage (which, as it turns out, it was). The two Hanzells, from a winery known for its ageworthy Chards and Pinots, at least in most vintages, also didn't show that well tonight, taking the group's 5th and 6th places, just above the two Burgs the group scored as its bottom two wines (the Hanzells were at the bottom of the 8 for me). Dom. Drouhin's two entries, on the other hand, showed quite well, with the '90 taking first place (#2 for me after the '85 Burg) and the '94 Laurene taking third place. While I picked our '90 Coche-Dury Bourgogne as one of the Burgs in the blindtasting, the other one whose heavy barnyard funk seemed certain to mark it as a Burg turned out to be an '85 Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards Estate Pinot. All in all, a fun and instructive tasting, even if a majority of us scoring tonight turned out to have California Pinot palates.

• 1990 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir 92 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Group's #1 (my #2) – 50 pts; 7 firsts, 4 seconds, 1 third, 0 last place – light brickish red color; lovely, focused sweet strawberry, vanilla oak nose with tangy undertones of dried red fruit; tasty, mature but sweet dried red fruit, strawberry and rhubarb palate; medium-plus finish

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• 1985 Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains 90 Points

  USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

  Group's #2 (my #4) – 55 pts; 5, 3, 4, 0 – nice, funky barnyard and tart red fruit nose; barnyard and tart dried cherry palate, likely a Burg, with high acidity and rose/rose hips emerging toward medium finish 90+ pts.

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• 1994 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Laurène 91 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  Group's #3 (my #3) – 60 pts; 3, 1, 4, 0 – darkest in color—a medium cherry red; focused raspberry, tobacco and savory nose; sweet raspberry and cherry entry with a little chocolate showing mid-palate along with more tart red fruit; medium finish 91+ pts.

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• 1992 Dehlinger Pinot Noir Reserve 87 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley

  Group's #4 (my #6) – 76 pts; 0, 4, 4, 0 – rich, grabby, focused, ripe cherry, black cherry and caramel nose; tight, tart red fruit with tar and dried cranberry, high acidity, a little disjointed and unlikely to resolve; short-medium finish

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• 1988 Hanzell Pinot Noir 81 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #5 (my #8) – 93 pts.; 0, 0, 2, 2 – ethereal dried red fruit and faint tobacco nose tight, fruit nearly gone leaving sharp, high acid, tertiary palate with Balsamic and tomato notes; medium finish

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• 1992 Hanzell Pinot Noir 83 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #6 (my #7) – 102 pts.; 0, 2, 1, 2 – nice, elegant raspberry and dried cherry nose; tight entry, with Balsamic, rose hips and green note undertones, disjointed; short-medium finish

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• 1990 Coche-Dury Bourgogne 88 Points

  France, Burgundy, Bourgogne

  Group's #7 (my #5) – 104 pts.; 0, 2, 3, 4 – lighter in color--light garnet red; funky, possibly TCA on nose, with leather and tobacco; no noticeable TCA on the palate, but mature dried cherry, tomato and Balsamic flavors; medium finish

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• 1985 Domaine Monceau-Boch Volnay 1er Cru Champans 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

  Group's #8 (my #1) – 108 pts.; 3, 2, 0, 10 – lightest in color—light brick red with pale to clear edges; rich, appealing sweet cherry and caramel nose with maturity and a big dried mushroom note; chocolaty, strawberry and dried cherry palate with mature tannins and roses toward medium sweet dried cherry finish

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