While driving through Santa Barbara County last month, was excited to see a Santa Barbara County Whitcraft pinot on a market shelf.
Ages ago, we heard about Whitcraft from Ed Selyam who happened to have been passing through Anchorage, Alaska, when we lived there. As a result our local wineshop got some in, all '93 vintage and all from the vast Bien Nacido Vineyard. I remember distinctly that they were designated N, S and Q Blocks. Where '93 was a clunker in the rest of California, it was a superb vintage in Santa Barbara County though few knew that since back then everyone relied on the Spectator for vintage information and said rag rated all of California by Napa. Probably still do.
Whitcraft, a strictly non-interventionist style wine (no pumps, crushing by foot) became our favorite Cali pinot period. We actually visited the winery once and took Chris Whitcraft out to dinner. This was before he got some major illness that disabled him for months, and at which time the area winemakers all came together to finish and bottle his wines that year. After that, we really never saw Whitcraft pinots again until last month. What I didn't realize is that Chris eventually got back into it, and that his son has been the winemaker of record for a number of years. Chris passed away last year.
So anyway, lots of baggage there of the kind that creates great anticipation when opening a bottle. Unfortunately, the resonance we hoped for wasn't in the glass. It had the Whitcraft signature iodine notes, but everything else about it was just plain weird. Angular, with odd bitter flavors that were neither ripeness nor underripeness nor TCA or other flaws as I know them. Not the least bit enjoyable.