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Pinot Fest at Home
Palatine, Il
Tasted November 11, 2007 by borneman with 400 views
Introduction
Not able to make it downtown for the Pinot Fest yesterday, we decided to create our own pinot fest with a chanterelle mushroom, grilled salmon and winter squash meal. Goal was to compare and contrast (blind) 4 wines from 2004: 2 California Pinots from different AVA's and two different Willamette Vally Pinots, and to see how each does with the food.
Flight 1 (4 notes)
Red
2004 Chamisal Vineyards Pinot Noir
91 points
Darkest colored wine of tasting. Nose of red licorice, kirsch, menthol. Very syrah-like. Medium weight palate coated roof of mouth where syrah-like pluminess of fruit continues. Super-long, silky finish. Held up well to roasted fennel, worked well with grilled salmon.
Red
2004 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
89 points
Medium-rose colored, translucent. Initial nose was petrol-like, later more berry and cherry. Needed 30+ minutes of air to come around. Refined fruit in mid-palate, with long elegant and, at times, peppery finish. Good with grilled salmon, did not work with roasted fennel.
Red
2004 White Rose Estate Pinot Noir Dragon's Bluff Durant Vineyard
87 points
Amber and garnet color suggested older wine. Nose initially reticient but then came alive with something different every time: eucalyptus, floral, earthy, stones, sometimes alchohol. Pallette disappointed when none of the interest of the nose came through. Finished short, dry, maybe dusty. Overall lacked complexity of other wines of the tasting. Worked well with mushrooms but not the salmon.
Red
2004 Bergström Pinot Noir Bergström Vineyard
90 points
Silky in the glass. Medium bodied. Nose of truffles and earth. Worked great with chanterelles but not grilled salmon. Very long, silky finish. Much more complex than the White Rose.
Closing
Hard to say if these wines were representative of their AVA. For sure the Central Coast wine was very easy to pick out of the line up. Was interesting that the Cali Pinots both did well with salmon whereas the OR pinots got a metallic taste from it. OR wines went best with mushrooms, but they all went OK with them.