Notes from our Pinot Noir from around the World get-together on Wednesday. First, let me go on record that none of those present are big pinot noir drinkers. Some of us just have very limited experience with it, and others have tried to develop a relationship but just never “got it”. Hence the reason for our gathering.
Keeping in mind that we were trying to do this on a relatively inexpensive scale, I wanted to make sure that we had at least one “classic” example so I purchased a 2002 Nuits St. Georges, thinking that when we tasted it we would all be utterly stunned by the experience and rate it well above the others. Not so. Turns out almost everyone preferred the 2005 Laetitia Estate from California, with the exception of yours truly who preferred the 2004 Clos du Bois. We all overwhelmingly agreed that among these “food-friendliest” of wines, the 2005 Mark West ruled when it came to really complimenting (and being complimented by) the various appetizers we had, which included artichoke dip, salmon & cream cheese wheels w/ dill, brie, dried apricots, strawberries and carrots w/ a dill flavored dip. The only exception was the really rich chocolate cake (which was phenomenal but killed everything good in the wine), which we all kind of expected anyway.
·2004 Gruet from New Mexico: This had the classic pale garnet color. The overwhelming first impression of aroma was sherry, which makes me think I picked up a bad bottle. Some of us were able to detect cherries. The mouthfeel was boring, although very acidic, and the basic overall impression was not favorable.
·2002 Philippe et Vincent Nuits St. Georges: A bit deeper and more brickish in color w/ an orangey rim, we all smelled tobacco, mushrooms and earthy, wet leaves. It had a much fuller, rounder mouthfeel than the first, but we still didn’t sense any complex fruit flavors.
·2005 Laetitia Estate: This was much deeper in color, almost purplish, which clued us in right away that it wasn’t going to be representative of the grape variety. Black cherry and vanilla aromas. Pretty full bodied, and we all tasted spice (pepper in particular). When tasted immediately after eating the salmon w/ dill, notes of dill in the wine really stood out. As I mentioned above, this turned out to be everyone’s favorite.
·2005 Clos du Bois: Medium intensity and somewhat bricky in appearance, various people noted smokiness and pepper, while I primarly smelled vague vegetation. Then on the palate most others noted more woody, vegetal notes, while I tasted mostly black fruit. Go figure, I must just be a contrarian.
·2004 Avia from Slovenia: This was a very dark red color. We all sensed something nebulous yet distinct, and finally settled on cedar, cucumber and “the 70’s”. Basically, it smelled like a hot-tub (but in a good way!). This wine had surprisingly high tannin levels (everyone’s notes read “puckery”). Although this wasn’t one of the top favorites, we were really surprised to find out that it was purchased for about $5…and when compared to what some of us paid for $25, we were convinced that you don’t always get what you pay for.
·2005 Mark West (Sonoma): This had the more typical pinot noir appearance of clear ruby. Strangely enough, the aroma descriptors that seemed to have been used the most were “asparagus pee”, “apricots”, and “cut grass” (I found the last one really strange, as I only associate that with sauvignon blanc). This was the wine that went fabulously with every food we had on hand, but the overall everyone seemed to describe it as “sweeter and syrupier”.
·2005 La Crema (Sonoma): Deep ruby, although for some reason at this point the term turbid flew around the room as a descriptor…although I think at this point the fact that we were not spitting had colored our perception and we were more amused by the various offerings as to what the definition of turbid actually was versus whether or not it was appropriate for the wine. Cherries and tobacco on the nose, the only notes on the palate at this point is that it seemed pretty acidic.
·2005 Tohu, New Zealand: Deep but clear hue, smokey aroma coupled with baked fruit, young tannins.
·2005 Witness Tree: Never noted appearance, but finally someone came up with an aroma descriptor that made me sit up and “witness”: barnyard. Lisa has been around stables all her life (I think Regan has had some experience there, too) and once the suggestion was out there, everyone totally jumped on board with the horse poop, hay and old cut grass descriptors. Seems our palates were pretty much toast by this time, so the best we could come up with on the palate was green apple(??? and medium tannins. Regardless, I was really excited that someone finally recognized this “barnyard” descriptor that I’ve read about so much, and was pleased to have the opportunity to taste a wine that followed that description.
· OK, so we had a guest pop in somewhat last minute with his own contribution, which he bagged and we served as our last wine of the night…#10…good lord, 10 wines in 3 hours with no spitting (for shame!)…what sort of notes did you expect??? At any rate, here are the notes: Very deep garnet color, and most of the notes as to aroma indicate rust and cherry…and then there’s one whose description reads “horseshit”. And that person would be the one who called “barnyard” for wine #9. And can anyone guess what wine #10 was??? Yep – Gary duplicated wine #9 exactly·2005 Witness Tree: , and only one of us detected something similar…Lisa.
So I'm going to wrap this up now, anyone from our group who would like to sign on and comment is welcome (at least I think...these WLDG people seem pretty friendly so far:). Thanks for listening, and as always, comments and suggestions are welcome!
