WTN: 2 nice $20 ish Pinot Noirs (CA & Burgundy)

A former student of Betsy's was in NYC, and wanted a lesson. Betsy invited her and her friend to dinner last night, and roasted a couple of chickens- Ming Tsai recipe for miso-citrus chicken with roast vegetables. He suggested California PN, I brought out a CA and a Burg

2005 Copain "L'automne" Pinot Noir
Now this is my style of California Pinot. Light and lively, bright California fruit balanced by good acidity. Raspberries and cherries, a little earth. Clearly a drink now style, nice balance, nice wine.B+

2002 Pavelot Savigny-les-Beaune
I was a little worried this might have shut down as so many 2002s have, but while initially a little reticient it quickly blossomed in glass. Red cherry and plum fruit, violets and a bit of earth. Good finish, with smooth light tannins and nice acidity. More of a future than the Copain, but still quite nice right now. B+/A-

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

2002 Pavelot Savigny-les-Beaune
I was a little worried this might have shut down as so many 2002s have. . . .

Dale--
Any thoughts on how long the '02s (or 1er or Grand Cru Burgs in general, to the extent it's possible to generalize) will need before waking up?

Clinton,
It would take someone brighter and more experienced than I to give a firm opinion. For one thing, 2002 is a ripe enough vintage that even the shutdown ones are not the tight acidic beasts some 1996s (and 1993s) are. I plan on trying the regional and village level wines in 2-3 years, most 1ers in 5, most GCs in 10. But that's subject to change according to chatter. One of the great things about the internet is being able to access so many people's opinions of how wnes are doing.

[Jenise]

Dale, agreed about the L'Automne which I discovered in a prior vintage. Didn't realize it had been a Copain product until recent experience with the premium Copains had me looking over the Copain website.

And that Pavelot--I bought a case of this for $3.99 a bottle in California last April. We slurped our way through quite a few bottles before common sense about the quality overcame price considerations and persuaded us to hold the rest for further development. Pretty big fruit and overall good structure for a Savigny.

Wow, $3.99 a bottle! This is normally a $20-25 bottling, but there was some dumping last year for $10-12. I never saw $4. I would assume there was some issue- maybe a distributor switch? Certainly the bottles I got were sound.

[Jenise]

Yes, most likely a distributor dump considering all the other wines that were showing up around L.A. at that time. It was at a low-low end chain store that strangely benefits from such events and at which most of us wouldn't be caught dead at any other time. I was lucky to be in L.A. just then and lucky to stop in at an Orange County location that had this. My L.A. based friends never saw this one though they got other amazing bargains (one friend added over 400 other bottles to her cellar, she didn't miss much!) I also picked up some Montpertuis for the same price.

Jenise, if you get another chance to get Montpertuis for 3.99 a bottle, would you just buy me a truckload. Wow....

[Jenise]

Oliver, I KNOW. Unfortunately there were only two bottles of Montpertuis left by the time I showed up, but at least there were two bottles. Point is that's just another example of the level of deals they were getting down there. Many of which walked out of these stores in the unsuspecting hands of people who can't afford to spend one more dime than 3.99 and who are used to wines that actually SHOULD cost 3.99--or less. I'll bet there were some surprised folks around the dinner table the night the Montpertuis went home.

Those are some serious closeouts. I guess the store normally deals in high volume and needs to move things in and out..

Many of the stores I frequent (Chambers, Dee Vine, KLWM) only give moderate closeout discounts, and are not afraid to leave things in the closeout bin for quite some time (in the case of Dee Vine, over a year!)..

Jenise, if you get another chance to get Montpertuis for 3.99 a bottle, would you just buy me a truckload. Wow....

Some of us up here in your sister state(!!!), can only dream of prices like that.

Dale, agreed about the L'Automne which I discovered in a prior vintage. Didn't realize it had been a Copain product until recent experience with the premium Copains had me looking over the Copain website.

Copain also does a nice job with syrah in L'Hiver.

Diane, I somehow didn't get that they also had this label. I guess I was only reading up on the pinots. Do you speak French; what, if you know, does L'Hiver mean? Offhand, it sounds Armenian....

Do you speak French; what, if you know, does L'Hiver mean? Offhand, it sounds Armenian....

I don't know if this is an inside joke I'm not getting, but, L'Hiver means winter in French..

[Jenise]

No inside joke there, Rahsaan--I used to know an Armenian guy named Hive, that's all. Thanks for the translation.