Cali, Oregon and Burgundy Pinot Noir Blind Tasting
New Jersey, USA
Tasted January 15, 2018 by oldwines with 381 views
Introduction
We wanted to explore various Pinot's in a "blind" setting with some friends. We had 11 wines from my cellar and a couple others outside of the "blind" setting. Nine of us were present, I tasted blind while everyone else tasted double blind. We also had some great food in a casual "grazing" style including some Sautéed Broccoli Rabe, Hazelnut Cheese and Wild Boar-Truffle Salami, Italian Tomato Pie, Smashed Roasted Potatoes with Duck Fat, Open Wood-fire Grilled Venison Back Strap, and Pan Seared Breast of Duck.
One of the objectives was to see some of the nuances in the 3 different regions and to see if one stood out above the others (surprisingly it didn't). I tried to have wines in general that were of similar QPR and all priced below $100US ...i.e. I did not include any Grand Cru's or the equivalent. It was "Village" to Premier Cru quality throughout by my judgement. The wines ranged from roughly 6-21 years old and were distributed as follows: 3 from Burgundy, 3 from California and 5 from Oregon. In particular we wanted to see what had changed in perception of some of the Oregon wines acquired on our trip to Oregon in August when compared objectively, i.e. blind and among numerous tasters.
All the wines were decanted into identical decanters around 2:30pm and tasted from about 4-9pm.
Flight 1 - Blind Tasting (11 notes)
The Main Event... 11 wines double blind for the group, just blinded for me.
Red
2001 Nichols Winery & Cellars Pinot Noir Paragon Vineyard
USA, California, Central Coast, Edna Valley
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. This wine is a translucent light to medium ruby with significant bricking at the edge. Definitely an older bottle. The nose has chocolate covered cherry, mushroom and pipe tobacco. On the palate it is smooth yet bright with the milk chocolate, cherry and some vanilla. Long and layered with a great finish. My #4 but groups #1 out of 11.
Red
2011 Chehalem Pinot Noir Ridgecrest Vineyards
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. This is a translucent light to medium ruby/crimson color, it looks quite young and primary. The nose has some smoke and cranberry. On the palate it shows high acidity and moderate tannin with tart minerality and red raspberry, cranberry and cherry. I think this is still very young and primary with a long life ahead that should improve markedly with more time in the bottle. My score reflects my impression tonight. I thought this was the 2010 Chassagne Montrachet Rouge. My #9 and Groups #10 out of 11.
Red
1996 Louis Jadot Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Translucent, light to medium ruby with slight bricking. Nose has sous bois, cherry, cranberry and wet stones. It has a rich, smooth mouth feel yet still has some good acidity and tannic structure. I get flavors of light minerals, cedar, cherry, pomegranate and some charcoal on the moderately long finish. This is a perfectly mature and delicious wine that tasted great paired with everything we were having from Grilled Salmon to Seared Duck Breast and Open Wood-fire Grilled Venison Back Strap. My #1 wine and Groups #2 out of 11. Sadly, my last bottle.
Red
2007 Saintsbury Pinot Noir Lee Vineyard
USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Translucent medium ruby. Effusive nose of cherry and wet stones. Medium+ tannin and medium acidity. Palate is cherry, chocolate, leather and minerals. Finish is long and luxurious. Delicious. My #2, Group's #4 (tied) out of 11.
Red
1996 Hanzell Pinot Noir
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Light ruby-rose color with a bricked edge. Looks old. Nose has rose petals, new car leather and vanilla. Palate is soft with cherry, cranberry, chocolate and licorice. The finish is long, earthy and minerally. It was better on first tasting than when later I circled back to try it again. It seemed to have fallen apart after 6pm. My score reflects the earlier view and was my #5, group's #9 out of 11.
Red
2009 Philippe Roty Côte de Nuits Villages
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Côte de Nuits Villages
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Translucent light ruby-crimson color. Nose is earthy and complex. It has a smooth silky mouth feel with low tannin and medium acidity. The palate is earhty, tart and minerally with very light red fruit and medium length on the finish. My #6 (tied), group's #6 out of 11.
Red
2011 Chehalem Pinot Noir Stoller Vineyard
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Light ruby color with no bricking. Nose has leather, orange peel and cherry. Low to medium tannin and medium acidity. Palate is cherry, spices, white pepper, cranberry and earth. Very long finish. Relatively young and I think a long ager. My #3 and group's #3 out of 11.
Red
2005 Andrew's Vat Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Medium ruby, almost garnet color, young looking ( I guessed Cali not Oregon). Nose is vanilla, cherry and leather. Texture is firm but silky with low tannin and moderate acid. On the palate it is juicy with baking spices, cherry and ripe cranberry with a peppery, moderately long finish. Went well with the grilled salmon. My #11 and group's #7 out of 11.
Red
2011 Shea Wine Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Shea Vineyard
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. This was translucent light ruby, looked quite young. On the nose it had leather, cranberry, cherry and spice. Palate had a little more vanilla and cherry dominant. It has short to medium length somewhat toasty and medicinal finish. My #10 and group's #8 out of 11.
Red
2010 Joseph Drouhin Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Youthful, light to medium ruby-crimson. The nose is very light and floral with mostly rose petals. Low to moderate tannin and medium acidity. Palate is tight and quite feminine, juicy and complex but somewhat reticent with a short red fruit finish. I think it needs a lot more age. My #6 (tied) and group's #11 out of 11.
Red
2001 Chehalem Pinot Noir Three Vineyard
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
Decanted around 2:30pm and tasted through about 9pm. All tasting notes taken while the wines were blinded. Translucent light to medium ruby with just a hint of bricking...I guessed this was less than 10 years old, wrong again. Nose had smokey cherry and game meat. the palate was pretty tight and closed but opened up with some air. Flavors included cranberry, raspberry, graphite and leather with a short to moderate length finish. When opening the bottles I thought it likely this would be at the bottom, given its entry level status, age and tight structure. For me it ended up coming in #6 (tied) and was the group's #4 out of 11.
Flight 2 - A Few Extras (3 notes)
Later in the evening a few of us tried a couple more in addition to the Calera brought earlier.
Red
2016 Walter Scott Pinot Noir La Combe Verte
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
I am a little perplexed by this wine... while it has good fruit (cherry and plum) and decent acid and tannic structure, it is very sulphured and reductive. It took until the next day to really get past that. After a lot of air it is enjoyable but on opening this was very hard to drink. Later it was similar to previous bottles. I know the winemaker, Ken Pahlow is using this style deliberately but this bottle was dominated by the sulphur more that I even remember in the previous bottles. This may age very well as a result, but given that this is an entry level wine that has gotten lots of kudos, I'm not sure it woks so well????
Red
2007 Calera Pinot Noir Reed Vineyard
USA, California, Central Coast, Mount Harlan
Brought by a friend to our Pinot Noir Blind Tasting but not included in the overall tasting rankings and mostly drunk before everyone arrived. Nevertheless tasted blind by everyone else but him. It was light to medium ruby with some bricking throughout so that it clearly looks fairly old (probably a bit older looking than its 10 years would suggest). It is reasonably well structured with low-medium tannin and fairly high acidity. There is lots of earthy cherry, a touch of dried cranberry and some spice (white pepper). It really "popped" with cherry when paired with a dry rubbed grilled salmon.
White
2012 Albert Boxler Pinot Gris Reserve
France, Alsace
Lovely bright and rich medium to dark yellow color. Fresh nose of white flowers and white stone fruit and ripe pear. Unctuous, honied mouth feel. Bright acidity as well. Long fruit flavor and mineral finish. Excellent, delicious and good both alone or with food, like aged cheese and spicy salami.
Closing
To my perception all these wines were good....there were no "Clunkers" and no spoiled or flawed wines among the 11 blinded ones. Curiously for the group as well as myself the top 3 wines of the evening were one each from Burgundy, California and Oregon. For the group It was #1- 2001 Nichols Paragon (CA), #2- 1996 Jadot Les Suchots (Burg of course) and #3- 2011 Chehalem Stoller (OR). For me it was #1- 1996 Jadot Les Suchots, #2- 2007 Saintsberry Lee (CA) and #3- 2011 Chehalem Stoller.
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