Last night we opened a Flowers pinot noir as a response to what's going on in the stock market, tantamount to putting flowers on the grave of our investments. It was a worthy choice. The other options had been a wait-and-see approach with a WA cab called Passing Time (actually a football reference, QB Dan Marino is one of the owners), a fatalistic 'Some Days Are Stones' from II Vintners, or a flat-out kick in the crotch with a wine from BC winery Church and State called 'Batsh!t Insane'.
At five years out, the 2015 Flowers Russian River is in a fantastic place and demonstrates handily why in general I prefer California pinots to Oregon. I just love the focussed cherry-plum fruit of the RR and all that spice, especially as translated by a winery so good at pulling every drop of elegance possible out of each vintage. Even more substantive than a bottle last November without losing it's mid-weight cool, this pinot is in a lovely, ready place but will probably become more interesting in the next 3-5 years as secondary nuances settle in.