mouton45

Tasting Notes

• 2021 Leefield Station Pinot Noir Leefield Station

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  4/9/2024 - mouton45 Likes this wine: 90 Points

  First of 6 bottles, Very easy drinking and enjoyable with a variety of foods. Cathy and I drank this bottle over the last two nights with Mississippi roast. Great QPR @ $19 from LBW, We've been drinking several NZ pinots this year, and a long-awaited trip to Kiwi-land in the near future is at the top of our bucket list.

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• 2020 Schramsberg Vineyards Brut Rosé

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  3/29/2024 - mouton45 wrote: 90 Points

  IMHO, the 2020 lagged well behind the 2019, which I rated 93 on Feb. 28. Schramsberg is one of my top 5 favorite California sparkllng wine makers.. It always has and always will produce a very good sparkler, and this 2020 was definitely drinkable with our impromptu dinner of organic pork and chicken mousse pate from Whole Foods and Costco's Kirkland double cream brie imported from Normandy.
  
  The 2020 exhiibited a volcanic eruption-like of bubbles in the glass from the first pour to the last sip. It offered a variety of floral notes and fruity flavors, and went well with the pate and cheese.
  
  I respect WS and WE for the 93s they awards to the 202. But to me, it wasn't as good as the 1999, and I wondered why.
  
  My guess why comes from Antonio Galloni's Viintage Chart for 2020 Sonoma PN (Schramsberg's grapes for its rose are sourced from North Coast vineyards from Mendocino to Marin counties, and in the case of the 2020. (which is 72% PN and 28% chard, according to the producer's website), 67% on the pinot came from Sonoma.
  
  Here's what Galloni said about Sonoma PN for that vintage :
  
  Year: 2020
  Score: 78
  Recommendation: Drink Now
  
  Two-thousand twenty is an especially difficult vintage for Pinot Noir. Rampant wildfires and smoke presented huge challenges. Some wines were completely lost to smoke taint and were not bottled at all. In other cases, winemakers were able to accelerate harvest and salvage some of the crop. The dramatic conditions of the year resulted in highly variable wines. It is a vintage that requires extreme selection. I would not push my luck on aging. (08/23, AG).
  
  FWIW: Vinous hasn't issued a rating on the 2020 Sonoma pinots as yet. It rated the 2019's as 93. Not wishing to get into any discussion on the validity of scores in general and professional reviewers in particular, I'm OK the two pro assessments of the 2020 Schramsberg But Rose posted so far. Everyone has a right to their opinion.
  
  Right or wrong, I just saying that to ME it tasted distinctly different from the 2019, which is not uncommon with all the varietals.
  
  WS rated the 2020 North Coast pinot vintage at 87 and said: "A year to forget for many Northern California producers, with a number of them not releasing wines because of challenging weather conditions, capped by wildfires during harvest leading to issues of smoke taint."
  
  WA scored N.C. pinots 80 I - I for "irregular, even among the best wines."
  
  Sounds pretty consistent to me, I guess.
  
  Last word on this from me (thank God, right!): I bought 3 bottles of the 2020 rose a few months ago. Despite the caveat-emptor alerts from V, WS and WA, I plan to roll the dice and hold on to the other two bottles to drink other the next couple years. My score of 90 FW is not a terrible one, and other tasters already have or may see it differently, which is perfectly fine.
  
  And considering the terrible wildfires that hit many vineyards and wineries, Schramsberg made, as usual, the best sparkler they could with what they had to work with. Bravo for their efforts. That's one reason they remain in my top 5.

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• 2016 Lutum Pinot Noir La Rinconada Vineyard

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  3/23/2024 - mouton45 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Paired great with CJ's recipe for pan-seared pork tenderloin encased in sliced organic baby bellas and Dijon mustard and then oven-roasted in heavy cream.
  
  As for the 2016 La Rinconada, it's still holding up well on the plateau of maturity. Don't see it getting better with more aging. But I think (and hope, with 9 bottles still in my Transtherm) that it'll still be very enjoyable to drink with food over the next few years.
  
  Very balanced and PnP drinkable out of my cellar; nice complexity, medium length, favor of red pitted fruit and still very fresh tasting, A winner, IMO
  
  Wine-Searcher Pro shows Lutums are still available in 6 U.S. stores, mostly in the NYC area, SF and LA. FWIW, CT's drink-by pro guesstimates range from 2026 to 2030. For point-chasers, the 2015 S&B received 96 from V (AG), 95 from WA (LPB) and 93 from JB (himself) back in 2017, when these wines were practically newborns.
  
  I l have loved drinking Lutum pinots since 2018, when I first tasted its single-vineyard pinots from great grape sources -- such as Sanford & Benedict, La Rinconada, Bien Nacido, Durrell, Rita's Crown, Gap's Crown and more-- from the 2014, 2015 and 2016 vintages, thanks to great deals from LBW; to get PNs from these type of iconic vineyards from $32 to $39 (for the SBs) was IMO a steal.
  
  Most of my Lutums were purchased in 2020, a year after owner Bill Price and winemaker Gavin Chanin decided to focus on their own projects and LBW swooped in to grab a great wine to sale at a very enticing price.
  
  Bill Price III owns Three Sticks Wines (his boyhood nickname) and vineyards such as Durrell, Gap's Crown and several others, as well as ownership interests in Kistler and Gary Farrell and before that 6 years ws chairman of Kosta Browne. Apparently he knows something about producing great pinots, and now Three Sticks also produces chardonnay mostly sourced from his Durrell Vineyard), pinot blanc, rose and some red and white blends.
  
  I didn't know about 80% about his background until today when I googled Lutum and Three Sticks (being an award-winning journalist for 30 years, now retired, researching is part of my DNA} FWIW, never met the guy and probably never will. I just think his wines speak for themselves.
  
  Gavin Chanin is also garnering his share of national accolades: Forbes "30 Under 30" for his wine talents, SF Chronicle for "Winemakers to Watch" and a protege of he late Jim Clendenen.

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