2017 Drew Family Cellars Pinot Noir Joshua's Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 90 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Deux Chevaux's profile
  • Report Issue

  7/1/2022 - Deux Chevaux wrote:

  Darn, should have read my prior note, and saved this for another year or so. Still, very enjoyable — and essentially the same as the previous bottle. Note to self: Pay attention to my notes, and let’s save the remaining bottle!

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Deux Chevaux's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/3/2022 - Deux Chevaux wrote:

  Partially inspired by the notes below, we opened one of our three. Not going to contest/ argue about bing cherries — that does indeed seem to be a characteristic. Altogether we found this slightly less structured than anticipated based on the prior notes, and overall quite friendly. Seems to have typical Drew salinity, but maybe lacking another typical typical overt and pleasant characteristic — essence of pineneedles. Certainly it has nice acid backbone. Maybe a bit less friendly compared with the 18, but we found this quite enjoyable over three nights, gaining to the end. We will try to wait a few years before opening the next.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View z_willus_d's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/8/2022 - z_willus_d wrote: 90 Points

  In my left hand, I'm holding a full 10oz jar of dried red cherries, the fancy kind. In my right, I have a day-2 glass from a bottle of this wine. While there certainly are floral Pinot components to the nose of this wine, what it screams the most is mouthful of Bing cherries. I might have said more dark red cherries yesterday. On the other hand, the jar of actual cherries smells more like sour apples or slightly oxidized apples along with a dried fruit (could be cherries could be raisins could be prunes) component. To be fair, these dried cherries are apple juice infused per the label, but they might have done better to infuse them with this wine. The cherries follow through on the palate where you really do feel you have a mouthful of them, but there's also, yes, sour apple and a strong sense of grape tannins. This wine comes across to me as one of the more uni-dimensional Pinots I've tried from Drew, but I the trajectory is towards complexity (Day1->2), and I have to believe this is begging for another half-decade aging to clear out some of the sour tannins, which I don't mind, and add some additional facets to the otherwise very well proportioned, albeit monolithic, presentation. The wine drinks fresh, linear, and shows on the masculine side of Pinot-feminine. It reminds me of a strong Cru Beaujolais minus any hint of Gamay. I wonder if we'll see a '19 release from Drew? Seems unlikely at this point. Right now, this is probably my least favorite of the Cru Drew Pinots, though I am still enjoying it aplenty.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View air guitar & pinot noir's profile
  • Report Issue

  9/8/2020 - air guitar & pinot noir Likes this wine: 91 Points

  I think my score here is more representative of my lack of patience versus the ultimate assessment of this wine. I grabbed this hurriedly and did not bother to validate my previous note that recommended patience and additional time for this bottle. Darker fruit with a bit of tannin showing now- I am confident this will continue to smooth out and integrate. This is a case of the shoemaker's kids having no shoes. I failed to take my own advice and now can only rely on others to come back and say, "told you so".

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View air guitar & pinot noir's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/10/2020 - air guitar & pinot noir Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Agree that this needs additional time. My wife had this on day one and said it was good. I had it on day two, which rarely happens. I found flavors of dark and tart bing cherry redolent throughout. Fairly linear and mono-dimensional at this juncture. Great depth of fruit hidden underneath the oaken influence. This will develop over time and I believe has a definite upside for those patient enough to wait.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 6 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.