I was pleased a while back to have the opportunity to taste through a selection of releases of Sojourn wines with my friend Tom B and some of the other local guys. This is the third year that Tom has opened these up for some of us, and the last two years we have also added in some older vintages from our cellars to see how the wines tend to evolve with time. I know there were a lot of tasting notes out there on the latest Sojourn releases earlier this year, so I’m just adding my voice to the chorus, I suppose.
The official tasting started off with two older bottles—both from 2005. We had tried a bottle of the 2005 Sangiacomo from my cellar at last year’s tasting and it seemed rather reduced and stewy, giving some cause for concern (though the 2006 version of the Sangiacomo was drinking great that same night). However, I am glad to report that this year’s showing of the 2005 Sangiacomo (courtesy of Kyle) was back to its expected lofty heights.
2005 Sojourn Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. This seems to be in a really good spot right now—seemingly at peak for my tastes. There is a bit of an unfiltered cloudy appearance to the wine, but it otherwise looks quite healthy. I really like the nose on it, as it features a lovely mix of sappy cherry, raspberry, wintergreen and allspice aromas that seem thickly ropey and creamy but also fresh and tingly with baking spices. Not at all unlike a fleshed out version of the 2008 Sonoma Coast, this wine is loaded with brown baking spices and barrel char notes that slowly fade into the background and let the pure baked cherry and brambly mountain berry flavors come pouring through. It is a big mouthful of pinot, with fuller body than I would have expected for the appellation wine, and that vibrant fruit stuffing supported by a glycerol mouthfeel giving it an easy flow across the palate.
2005 Sojourn Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast. If anything, the bouquet here is even more vibrant—coating the nostrils in heady scents of dark cherry, mixed berries, mocha powder and some well-integrated toasted stem bits. In the mouth, it has a solid palate presence all the way through—with no let up from entry to finish. Rich flavors of spiced plums, baked cherries and toasty oak combine very nicely and have a lot of life and tension to them. It is good stuff and a relief after last year’s dismal showing. I think it will continue to perform well for a few more years to come.
2009 Sojourn Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. The nose here is full and direct, with some nice cherry and raspberry fruit right up front, along with some leafier elements and soft aromas of toasted spices, vanilla and sawn wood. In the mouth, it seems a bit raw at first, but it slowly fleshes out and takes on a creamier character through the mid-palate as it stays in the glass longer. There are lots of toasted barrel spices all the way through, but also brambly berries in spades. It seems more extracted and serious than the 2008 version, which was more bright and airy at this stage, and I think this one will take just a little while longer to come around.
2009 Sojourn Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast. I find this wine to have a slightly more candied nose than I’ve come to expect from this bottling, with lots of creamed blueberry and bright cherry tart aromas in play. However, it is quite creamy and fairly dense in the mouth, with a sort of sexy, luscious mouthfeel accompanied by graphite and fun spicebox notes to go with the cherry and raspberry fruit that I like a good deal. It has nice lift from tingly acidity and should drink well for a while.
2009 Sojourn Pinot Noir Rodgers Creek Vineyard Sonoma Coast. The nose here is very nice—a bit denser and more richly sweet than most of the others in the line-up, featuring a deep core of dark cherry, raspberry coulis and chocolate armoas lifted up by vibrant and zesty spices and a bit of interesting forest note in the background. It has a nice sappy quality to the smooth and rounded mouthfeel, and delivers a nice mouthful of raspberry, rhubarb, chocolate-covered cherry and foresty earth flavors. It is deeply red-fruited, yet has that savory underbelly and tickle of oak-tinged tannins that make it seem like perhaps the most structured and age-worthy of the Pinots this vintage. My favorite.
2009 Sojourn Pinot Noir Gap’s Crown Vineyard Sonoma Coast. Here one finds exuberant and muscled aromas of cherry liqueur, licorice rope and cocoa powder, pine sap and pencil shavings—with less obvious spice and toast notes but still plenty of vibrancy. It is dense and grippy on the palate—slightly chewy, in fact. It is full-blown, loaded with mocha, cocoa and mixed berry flavors, and certainly leaves a lasting impression. It is the big boy of the Pinot line-up, but I like it.
2008 Sojourn Cabernet Sauvignon Home Ranch Vineyard Sonoma Valley. We also had these two Cabernets from 2008 to try. I find this one full of menthol, smoke and black cherry aromas. In the mouth, it comes across at this young stage of its evolution as a bit furry and somewhat jumbled. There are a fair bit of tannins all the way through, but it is also packed with black currant, blackberry and smoke flavors that seem sleeker on the finish than through the mid-palate. It has solid heft and drive, but needs some rest in the cellar to come together, in my opinion.
2008 Sojourn Cabernet Sauvignon Georges III Vineyard Napa Valley. This is a much earthier wine on the nose, with aromas of tomato plants, baked earth and jalapeno pepper supporting mixed fruits and chocolate notes. It is not as earthy on the palate, but it is more finely-scaled and just generally well put together. Pure crème de cassis and cherry syrup flavors have fine sweetness and seem destined to drink well for a good while.
Afterwards, we enjoyed a few other wines to round out the evening.
2001 Rudd Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Oakville. The Rudd is sexy and sweet on the nose, with full-blown and exotic scents of spiced plums and fruitcake supporting sheets of blueberry and rhubarb fruit. In the mouth, it comes across as a bit warm, though, both in terms of sporting a bit of alcohol on the finish and also in the profile of the slightly baked cherry and melted chocolate flavors. It sports a matte texture that turns a bit chewy on the finish, and while it lasts a good while on the finish, there are definitely some tannins still to resolve.
1975 Chateau Caillou Sauternes Crème de Tete. Although the color looks healthy enough on this bottle, the aromatics are a bit challenging right from the get-go. One encounters some musky armpit scents to go along with an acrid skunky kind of thing that is difficult to enjoy, even though beneath that one can sense some finer notes of peach pit, apricot, burnt orange peel and light caramel. Sadly, on top of all of that, it is also somewhat tinny or metallic at times. In the mouth, it still sports that sort of acrid quality riding atop flavors of apple juice, cane sugar and peach pit—all delivered in a fairly narrow beam of flavor that also seems to lack depth and concentration. On this night, it is just not enjoyable. However, it must be said that the second half of the bottle tried about a week later with a blood orange and olive oil cake dessert was really the ideal accompaniment—with the caramel and burnt orange elements and sharp acids allying with the not-too-sweet cake in a very pleasant way. So, proper pairing could make the difference with a wine like this.
-Michael