ramwines
Posts: 700
Joined: 10/29/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Old Doug
The drink 'em young or drink 'em old question is an interesting one. Personally, I think it's fun to do both - there are a lot of red Burgs that are really good at both ends of the age spectrum.
2009 Ken Wright Pinot Noir Willamette Valley - had this one recently, and to me it seemed like it was in a sweet spot between young and old, and also between "new world" and "old world" styles. It's still very young, of course, but it did not hit me at all like the more "normal" fruit-forward, unrestrained effect of many California Pinot Noirs.
Mindmuse and I tasted over 20 PN's from 2002 a while back, half from France, half from California. No idea what it tasted like when it was a baby, but there was one of the French ones that was in the perfect spot, and most people picked it as their overall favorite. Smoky leather and mushroom - that's what I remember now, and you just knew you were both drinking a "really good wine" as well as one that was properly aged to get to that point.
It would be cool to have a time machine and be able, at that instant, to go back and taste that same wine year-by-year, say, to see the evolution. Some people have such prodigious sensory and memory capabilities :: cough cough Paul S. cough cough :: that they can mentally peg wines over time in that way; but I'd like the time machine.
Recently also had two different California PN's, quite young, with a varied group of people - wine beginners to quite knowledgeable, and some who prefer dry wines to sweet, and vice-versa, and some who prefer "old" wines over "young," and vice-versa there too. By near-universal acclamation, both wines were deemed very good and pleasurable to drink right now. Not cloyingly sweet or fruity, but still massively "new world" and young, and yet everybody liked them.
Well you're hitting on my biggest obstacle with my Burgundy Project. Finding a selection of older Burgundies, at a reasonable price, to make comparisons to. Living in northern Nevada, the predominant wines locally are from west coast. The local shops really don't have the selection that other parts of the country do. That may not be true in the San Francisco or LA area, but there is a much larger, and probably more sophisticated, wine clientele there.
As far as New World Pinots go, I have a fairly large cellar of about 440 from CA. Of which about 8% is 2005 or older and 50% 2008 or older. Many of my Pinots age very well, Rochioli, Dehlinger and Williams Selyem for example. Don't know if you are familiar with Pinots from Rochioli and Dehlinger, but they are made in a true Burgundy fashion. They're not just big fruit bomb.
Then there are the Pinots like Kosta Browne which are big, high alcohol, luscious wines made to be drank in the first 5 years or so. Personally, I think there is a place for those Pinots too. They are really good, although maybe not recognizable as burgundy in France. Full disclosure, about 30% of my Pinots are Kosta Browne. Did I say I like their style?
Ken Wright is a personal friend of a friend of mind here in NV. In fact my friend has a cellar full of Oregon Pinots to match my CA cellar. So I drink a good amount of OR Pinots alongside my CA wines. In general, my preference leans toward CA. I find the earthy barnyard features in many OR Pinots just a little too much to get around.
I'm rambling and not really sure what my original point was. Guess I'll just have to keep at my little project through the winter and see were I'm at next Spring.
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Richard in Canton, OH and La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico. Formally from Reno, NV.
The only problem with living in Mexico, my wine cellar is in Ohio.
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My Burgundy Project - First Five Summary - 
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