WTN: Sancerre and Marin County Pinot with Japanese (Sushi)

A rare (for me) mid-week bachannal, but it was my birthday, and my favorite sushi bar comped me my sashimi! Four friends helped me experience these bottles:

2005 Apud Sariacum (Phillipe Rambault) Sancerre: Straw yellow color. Nice, lean nose-no heat here! Very light sipping wine indeed. Not flavorless by any means, just very subtle and very, very elegant. Not grassy-nice light citrus and a hint of tropical fruit. No cat pee, either. What won my heart was the touch of savory-and the quite unique and elegant mineral finsh, I feel like I was drinking polished liquid limestone. The bottle label shows a really cool fossilized snail from the limestone in the vineyards. ****-especially for $20!

2002 Pey-Marin Trois Filles Pinot Noir: Nice earthy/mushroomy nose. One of the darkest Pinot wines I have seen-almost deep purple, but still with the pinot ruby color. The palette also showed big, but not syrupy or over the top hot. Some mushroom and earth and savoryness, definitely. This dissipated over the hour, and the black cherry "pinosity" became more dominant.

I still definitely prefer Chianti, Bordeaux and Rhone varieties, but this was a lovely Pinot Noir and at $35 "reasonably" priced. One of my favorite California bottlings ***1/2

[David M. Bueker]

Nice notes Brian. Interesting that the Peay is a 2002. That's older than most folks drink Cali Pinot.

Thanks for the notes on both the Sancerre and the Pinot Noir. I will be drinking quite a few Sancerre whites this summer along with some Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand.

In an effort to prevent too much confusion, I wanted to point out that the Pinot of which Mr. Miller speaks is actually Pey-Marin. Peay is a grower/vintner up the Sonoma Coast near Annapolis. They're not the same.
cheers

I thought Annapolis was in Maryland. Must be another in California.

In an effort to prevent too much confusion, I wanted to point out that the Pinot of which Mr. Miller speaks is actually Pey-Marin. Peay is a grower/vintner up the Sonoma Coast near Annapolis. They're not the same.
cheers

I am so embarrased. Steve is absolutely right. I put the wrong name in my bottlecount database.

That Sancerre sounds like a fabulous match for the sushi. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

I would not have thought to go with a big Pinot Noir, however. Since you didn't mention this, I assume it did not overpower the sushi.

-- Clark

PS: Happy Birthday

It helped that we also had tonkatsu, and teriyaki that stood up pretty well.

The Sancerre was very nice-I love the minerals! I still like American and New Zealand S.B., too, but they are different!

[Jenise]

Brian, I know the wine, recently reported on the 04, so I took the liberty of correcting your spelling of it before I realized others had noted it as well. Anyway, it's right now in your base note. Nice to read a note on a more aged bottle--gives me strength to leave my remaining bottle alone. Or...acquire more!

Happy birthday, btw. And this is number....?

44.

[Jenise]

Happy 44, then!