Tasting at Inman:
2008 Inman Family Pinot Gris
Very tasty with a core of ripe apple and white fruited flavours and gentle vanilla and floral accents. Quite rich and velvety textured with plenty of depth, nice acidity keeping it fresh and good length. Really nice.
2008 Inman Family Pinot Noir Rosé "Endless Crush"
Kathleen says this is from the Olivet Grange Vineyard, and is picked early intentionally in order to make a Southern French-styled rosé. Really elegant and refreshing with delicate melon, pomegranate and strawberry flavours lifted by bright acids, beautifully balanced and long. Delicious!
2007 Inman Family Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
From the Olivet Grange and Thorn Ridge Vineyards. Really delicious stuff full of gorgeous cherry and raspberry fruit accented with gentle spicy and floral notes. Very silken and elegant in the mouth, there's a sense of real freshness and polish to the fruit with fine grained tannins noticeable on the back end.
2007 Inman Family Thorn Ridge Ranch Pinot Noir
Deeper-complexioned than the other Pinots; there's a rich black cherry and plummy core here with savoury earthy accents. This also feels a little denser and chewier in texture than the other wines with firmer tannins and a long but slightly warm finish.
2007 Inman Family Olivet Grange Vineyard Pinot Noir
Gorgeous stuff! This is pretty much everything I'd want in a young Pinot; really pure, fresh and complex red fruited flavours combining seamlessly with floral and mineral notes. Very light on its feet and beautifully balanced with bright acids, a sense of incredible finesse and serious length. (13.5% alcohol too!)
Kathleen also mentioned that all her wines are under screwcap, as she's aiming for a lighter, more aromatic style of Pinot and felt that screwcaps preserve that better than corks. (No complaints from me!) As her vineyard is organically farmed, she uses a little less sulfur than most other PN producers, and there were no signs of reduction at all in the wines.
Tasting at Benovia:
I came with pretty high expectations, as I had visited Benovia a couple of years ago when visiting Sonoma, tasted a lot of the 07s out of barrels and had been really impressed by the wines (particularly their Chardonnay). This was a great lineup - the Pinots are a little richer/fuller bodied than Inman's, but beautifully balanced with almost all the wines showing classic Pinot flavours with polish and elegance (and aside from one bottle that came across a little woody, no signs of excessive oak or ripeness).
2008 Benovia Chardonnay La Pommeraie Vineyard
Stunning stuff, one of the best Chardonnays I have tasted in a long time. Bright apple, pear and white fruited flavours accented with gentle nutty and floral notes. Fantastic depth and balance; the oak is very subtle and nicely integrated, the fruit's ripe but doesn't verge near the tropical end of the spectrum and this feels very fresh and elegant with a glossy, polished texture and really nice acidity. Great wine (and I wish more Chardonnay tasted like this).
2009 Benovia Pinot Noir Rosé Russian River Valley
Fresh, juicy strawberry and raspberry fruit in a very light and refreshing package. Yum!
2007 Benovia Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard Anderson Valley
Essence of black cherries lightly seasoned with cinnamon and earth. Delicious. There's plenty of power and concentration here, at the same time it feels very fresh and light on its feet with wonderful balance and a sense of polish and seamlessness.
2008 Benovia Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
Black cherries, raspberries and plums over damp earthy notes, but there's a little woodiness apparent on the back end. It doesn't have the same elegance, polish and freshness as the other wines, the only disappointment in the lineup for me.
2008 Benovia Pinot Noir La Pommeraie
Intense stuff. Full of red berries, cherries and plums with spicy and herbal notes on top, ripe and powerful in the mouth but really well balanced with good acidity giving it freshness and firm tannins lurking beneath the rich fruit. Really primary right now, but given the balance and structure I imagine this will be fantastic with time.
2009 Benovia Chardonnay La Pommeraie Vineyard (Barrel sample)
Really primary, showing many of the same elements as the '08 Chardonnay but still a little grapey and loose-knit right now. It's still absolutely delicious though with plenty of depth and structure showing already, and I would love to taste this when it's a finished wine.
2009 Benovia Pinot Noir Bella Una (Barrel sample)
From Manzana Vineyard. "Fresh" is the first thing I wrote down - this is like having a mouthful of cherries and strawberries that had just been picked a moment ago. Amazing purity and elegance already with fine grained tannins and bright acids keeping it very fresh and lively. Really lovely.
2009 Benovia Pinot Noir Cohn Vineyard (Barrel sample)
Red fruits tinged with rose petals and violets, Bob says this is a more feminine style of Pinot - the flavours certainly seem a little lighter and more floral (though still a little deeper/richer than the wines we'd tasted earlier at Inman) and there's really good structure and balance here again. Still a little grapey, but again I'd love to taste this when it's a complete, finished wine.
A fun day out in RRV, and very enjoyable tasting through some very good Pinot in two rather different styles that were both very enjoyable. Returned to Petaluma after (with some Chardonnay among my purchases
), and all of us had a bit of the Laphroaig 18 year old Islay Single Malt. I'm normally not a huge Scotch fan, but this had me going 'wow' from the aromatics alone. All sorts of wild scents here, really vivid smoke, burned leaves and ashy flavours, like standing in front of a dying campfire, and softer peaty, salty and nutty elements. Very rich and velvety-textured, expansive in the mouth with amazing presence - impressive.