2019 Chalone Vineyard Pinot Noir Reserve

Community Tasting Notes (2) Avg Score: 82 points

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  2/16/2023 - forceberry wrote: 82 Points

  100% Pinot Noir from Chalone AVA. Aged for 18 months in French oak barrels (60% new). 14,6% alcohol, 0,01 g/l residual sugar (sounds awfully low to me...), 6,4 g/l acidity and pH 3,6. Total production 225 cases.
  
  Youthful, luminous and fully translucent ruby-red color with faint blueish highlights. The nose feels characterful and quite distinctive with notes that range from wild and gamey to very sweet and almost cloying, showing nuances of strawberries, some cloves, a little bit of cherry marmalade, light savory meaty tones, oaky hints of vanilla and caramel, a touch of boysenberry jam and a whiff of nutmeg. The wine feels ripe, sweetly-fruited and a bit soft on the palate with a medium body and quite lush flavors of cherry marmalade, some oaky notes of vanilla and cloves, a little bit of blackberry jam, a hint of wild strawberry and a touch of nutmeg. I feel the wine is lacking a bit in structure, thanks to the somewhat modest medium acidity and very mellow, light tannins. The finish is soft, ripe and at times almost cloying with rich, long and quite sweet-toned flavors of juicy strawberries and raspberry jam, some oaky notes of cloves and vanilla, a little bit of cherry marmalade, light boysenberry tones, a hint of gamey meat and a touch of woody oak spice.
  
  Ugh, this was just way too sweet, soft and sunny for my preference - I prefer my Pinots as bright, fresh and crunchy, whereas the style here was more traditionally "Californian" with its very sweet and solar fruit flavors and rather pronounced, sweet-toned oak aromatics that seemed to push the already ripe fruit flavors to a softer, more jammy territory. Many people in the tasting found the wine very impressive and enjoyable, but I found relatively little enjoyment in the quite oak-driven mulled wine and cherry cola flavors that seemed to dominate the taste and aroma profile here. I guess this can be a terrific wine if you love big, ripe and oaky wines, but this was not in my wheelhouse, not even close. Feels overpriced for the quality at $65.

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  4/30/2022 - mkribar wrote:

  Cherry and plum on the nose, no trace of the new world style cola nose. Some herb and gravel as well. On the palate, light bodied with medium tannin and okay acid.

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