Some blind 2013 Northern California Pinots to ring in the new year
Rich's, Chicago, IL
Tasted January 1, 2016 by KeithAkers with 567 views
Introduction
Rich had sent out an email to a few of us that he was in need of making some buying decisions so as to balance out his cellar. A few of us responded and made sure that this would be a classy Hair of the Dog. All Adrian and I knew going in was that the pinots would be from Northern California and that they would be more IPOB leaning.
Flight 1 - Opening blind white and some bubbles (2 notes)
Taste: Medium bodied with high acidity. The acidity has a sharpness to it, but it isn't too much along with pears, white fruits, floral tones, vanilla beans, and an underlying minerality.
Overall: I guessed this as an 11 Puligny-Montrachet. The lighter color should've been a hint towards Chablis, but either way, I'm rather happy that I was at least able to nail the grape and general region blind.
Taste: Full bodied with medium+ acidity. The palate is rich, yet balanced with the acidity holding things together. The depth and layering continues on the palate with brioche, baked apples, wax notes, nutty tones, peaches, and some baked bread.
Overall: This was from a 2006 disgorgement. There is a refined power to this that has come with age. It is a larger scaled Champagne, but it is extremely well put together that makes you keep yearning for more.
Flight 2 - The Main Event (12 notes)
Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and silky tannins. The structure is a bit much at the moment and somewhat green along with baking spices, bitter chocolate, cloves, and cranberries.
Overall: This was showing off some stemmy qualities that weren't too appealing. There was a nice attack on the palate, but the mid-palate and finish were on the thinner side.
Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and noticeable tannins. The tannins seem to be more stem based while having a chewiness to them along with violets, red cherries, brown sugar, cranberries, and some rhubarb notes.
Overall: This was showing some more flesh than the previous wine. There seemed to be some stem based tones at this time, but there is a nice lively style to it that also favors the red spectrum on the fruits.
Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and silky, yet defined tannins. The structure is certainly there, but there is also a regal quality to the feel along with raspberries, red cherries, rose petals, and creamy notes.
Overall: Once this was revisited after more air, it's real quality shone through for me. At first, I could feel that there was something special here, but it was just grumpy. It never felt like it got out of third gear, but it was opening up even more as we went along. This deserves a lot of time as it certainly seems like great rewards are there. As is right now, air is your friend and air will also be one's reward.
Taste: Medium/full bodied with medium+ acidity and chewier tannins. There is some substance to the structure and feel backed up by raspberries, herbs, cranberries, strawberries, baking spices, and some dark red cherries.
Overall: There is a slightly stemmy side to this while the tones generally favor the red spectrum. This was a pinot that seemed to be somewhat closed up at the moment, but has the stuffing to really improve.
Taste: Full bodied with medium acidity and silky tannins. The feel has a real delicious and plush factor to it with black cherries, baking spices, brown sugar, raspberries, and orange peels.
Overall: I described this as a happy puppy dog licking you in the face. This has a real yum factor to it that makes it enjoyable in a youthful and fun way.
Taste: Medium bodied with high acidity and silky tannins. The structure is certainly youthful along with red cherries, strawberries, raspberries, violets, and bitter chocolate notes.
Overall: This was an extremely pretty and understated pinot. The nose was lively and favoring a more red spectrum at this time.
Taste: Medium bodied with high acidity and noticeable tannins. The structure is certainly there along with roses, violets, earth tones, mushrooms, red cherries, and raspberries.
Overall: This was a more feminine and earthen Pinot. It's clearly young, but there is a lot to like for down the road.
Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and silky tannins. The notes of red fruits, herbs, berries, beets, stemmy tones, cherries, and a touch of cola notes show off well on the attack, but the mid-palate and finish are a bit thin.
Overall: The stem note was persistent, but it wasn't overwhelming. The problem was more on it thinning out on the palate. It's still a good Pinot, but it could really improve if it fleshes out some more.
Taste: Medium bodied with medium acidity and silky tannins. The attack is bigger, but it thins out quickly with red cherries, raspberries, orange peels, cranberries, and some pomegranate.
Overall: The notes are more fruit driven, but the dissipating feel is a bummer. The nose is excellent though possibly giving hope for this to come together down the road.
Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and sneaky tannins. The feel is sexy and silky with red fruits, pomegranate, baking spices, herbs, plums, roses, and wild flowers on the back end. The structure takes hold a bit just to remind you how youthful it is.
Overall: This is a stunner right now with the possibility of even more down the road. Even blind, this was a real winner with all of us taking notice.
Taste: Medium/full bodied with medium+ acidity and chewy tannins. The structure certainly shows off the youth of the wine along with tart red fruits, raspberries, orange peels, rhubarb, cranberries, and some floral notes.
Overall: I wasn't too surprised when this was revealed. I do expect this to show a lot more down the road as the stuffing is there, it just doesn't want to come out and play right now.
Taste: Medium bodied with medium+ acidity and chewy tannins. The structure is taught and youthful with raspberries, rose petals, red cherries, and baking spices.
Overall: This was an excellent and balanced pinot that greatly favors the red spectrum. The feel was a bit lean, but it will be interesting to see where this goes as the structure pulls back.
Closing
This was a fun and fantastic experience. All of the wines had a lot of individuality to them and on the whole they were really good. There was also a lot of good discussion that came about due to the general style wondering if the pendulum has possibly moved back too far in the other direction. In any case, there was a lot of really good Pinot on hand to kick off the year.