So I get home and decide I have enough time to set up a little blind tasting and I had been wanting to try the 05 WesMar Balletto (Sonoma Coast). I have very much preferred the RRV bottlings by WesMar but I wanted to give this one a shot. I would pop the 05 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast next to it for a bit of contrast. When I checked my fridge I only had the KB RRV so that is what I went with. Probably a wasted to do it blind since it took me about 1 second to identify the wines…oh well…still fun to impress the wife.
So to the notes…followed by comparison thoughts.
2005 WesMar Pinot Noir Balletto Vineyard (Sonoma Coast)
Day 1: Aaahhh…the smell of WesMar. A beauty. Sweet cherry, a touch of smoke and flowers. A slight green note that seems to give it precision. The flavors follow with a touch of olive on the finish. The palate was not in the same league as the nose. Still nice texture and good acidity. Sweet but not compared to the KB. As the evening went on the wine became much greener. Not something that bothers me but I could tell this would turn some away.
Day 2: Similar aromatics with a stronger green presence. Somewhat candied on the finish. In the end, I didn’t like the balance of this wine. My wife on the other hand preferred this wine to the KB on day 2.
2005 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir RRV
Day 1: For the first hours this was just a muddled wine. Cleary outshined by the WesMar…a consensus vote by my wife and me. But this was at opening I wanted to taste the wine throughout the evening. By the time we started eating the wine started to harmonize. Clearly a sweeter wine than the WesMar and more cloying but it was still tasty. A bit to my surprise, the KB worked better with the food. It had slightly less acid but the purity of the fruit made up for it.
Day 2: Not a lot of noticeable change. Nice. I still preferred this on day 2.
Conclusions: Both wines are young. I that I think the greenness on the WesMar was too much for me to take. The fact that it didn’t work as well with the food was a knock against it. I have no idea if this will improve. The KB is a big somewhat sweet pinot but it certainly needs some time. I hope that the purity will remain but that time will give it greater complexity and develop more than primary flavors. Overall I wasn’t crazy about either of these wines. I have more of the KB so I will re-visit in about 2 years.
Jason