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And the usual stuff from the Bloody Pulpit:
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Siduri Pinots: I've followed Adam & Diana's Novy Syrahs Syrahs from
the very start; but have only come to his Pinots over the last yr or so;
trying one here and there and liking them a lot. It's no secret here about
the quality of their Pinots. Since my group had ordered all of the Fall
release wines, they were urging me to try them all together, so this tasting.
I was mightly impressed with the wines. First, they all displayed significant
distinctiveness (terroir?), even the two SantaLucia pair from adjacent
Vineyards. They all showed a purity of Pinot fruit that I really liked,
except maybe for the two ripe SantaRitaHills versions. They all showed
a restrained use of the oak; never was it intrusive or obvious. When you
make this many Pinots from such diverse Vineyards, it's easy to become
formulaic in your winemaking, shoehorning all the grapes into the same
winemaking style. Sure didn't feel this was the case here. When they grapes
called for it or could support it, they seemed to tweak up the oak a bit;
if not, they didn't. It was hard for me to identify some common Siduri
winemaking thread thru all the wines, other than everything seemed to be
in very harmonious balance. Not particularly big or extracted Pinots, I
suspect the balance in them will carry these wines for a good many yrs.
An impressive parcel of Pinots.
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Siduri SantaRitaHills Pinots: These wines were both above 15% alcohol.
Some people thought they had a bit of heat to them, but I thought they
carried the alcohol well and didn't notice it. They didn't have the brightness
of cherry/Pinot fruit to them that the others did. The Clos Pepe version
was much different from Wes Hagen's version, which tends to have a very
bright/minerally fruit to them and more of a leanness on the palate. The
Cargasacchi was much more like the Sanford and the Babcock versions I tried
w/ Peter; loaded w/ deep/intense more blackberry-like almost a Syrah-like
fruit to them w/ big concentration. Both very interesting renditions of
PinotNoir.
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SoterPinot: The first btl of this we had several months ago was dreadfully
corked. Replaced by LazyAcres (SantaBarbara), this was second stab at the
wine. Apparently Rivoni liked the wine quite a bit; to me, it tasted a
bit like a Pinot made by a Cabernet producer.
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PatriciaGreen Pinot: Patty Green was formerly winemaker for ToriMor wnry.
She now owns the former Autum Wind vnyd and winery, from where this Pinot
came. I hah had this wine w/ Joel Butler last Sept in SantaFe and liked
it quite a lot. This bottle was rather strange and didn't show the fruit
that that earlier btl showed at first, but then really blossomed in the
decanter.
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A-Cappella: Not at all what I expected.... which was a big/extracted/oaked
Pinot. This wine had a lot of bright Pinot fruit and an elegance to it
that was quite striking.
TomHill
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