I confess: I love Pinot Noir. Even before the 2004 film Sideways catapulted it to fame with Virginia Madsen’s seductive description of the grape’s virtues to Paul Giamatti. Although I loved that movie. And I’ve been on the self-guided Sideways Wine Tour. So, it didn’t take much to get me to the event.
This wine is food-friendly, and goes great with salmon. Yes, red wine with fish. It works. Unfortunately, at Pinot Days – as with most wine events – there was little food, just some cheese and bread.
Event Organization
The event was held at Barker Hanger, allowing lots of room for meandering. Cost was $60, plus $10 for parking; not too bad. Maybe next year I’ll get a “press discount.” Some 90 wineries were represented, mostly by their winemakers. This lent a very personal touch, and is far preferable to distributors because you’re directly exposed to the creative energy (like talking to a god rather than a church director). There were plenty of choices, although with hundreds of other West Coast Pinot Noir producers, some of my favorites were missing.
The wineries were organized alphabetically starting at the entry and then snaking around the room, which made them easier to find from the list, but far more challenging to compare the taste profiles of different wine-growing regions. Pinot Noir is a hard grape to grow, and prefers cool morning/nighttime breezes, which relegates it to specific growing regions in California and Oregon. Among these are Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Napa’s Carneros region (which is near the coast and south of Sonoma County), the Sonoma Coast, Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley, Monterey’s Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Rita Hills (of Sideways fame).
What a Difference a Region Can Make
Each region tends to have its own taste profile, although the winemaker has a major influence (as does the specific vineyard). The organizers recognized this by offering (for an extra $40) early birds an opportunity to be guided through the vintners from a region of their choice. Perhaps next year, they will arrange the wineries by region, which will give visitors an easy way to compare and choose a preference.
Generally speaking, Willamette Valley produces bigger, bolder and earthier wines, Santa Rita Hills produces more fruit-forward wines, while Sonoma Coast and Santa Lucia Highlands tend to provide lighter wines with a good balance between fruit and wine. That being said, the winemaker’s technique (such as leaving on the stems) and the specific vineyard can create a lot of variation. Some wineries will offer a bigger style of wine as well as one dubbed “Burgundian” (for Burgundy, THE home of Pinot Noir), which tend to be lighter, lower in alcohol, more laid back and food friendly.
The food friendly nature of European wines is the reason that the wine list at Alice Water’s Chez Panisse used to exclude California wines, notwithstanding her “farm to table” focus on local produce and meats and the proximity of Napa Valley. In the last five to seven years, that has changed, as more and more California winemakers have been producing more food-friendly wine.
It’s All a Matter of Taste: Some New Discoveries and Returning Favorites
Taste is relative, of course, and ultimately personal, which makes ratings (e.g., Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Robert Parker) a bit dubious. I say, it’s like movie reviewers. If you find one whose taste you like, then use it. Otherwise, make up your own mind. At blind tastings, invariably some low-priced, unknown wine scores very highly. Go figure. Perhaps it’s all marketing.
My favorite growing regions are Santa Lucia Highlands and Sonoma Coast, but I love many wines from the other regions. Although I’ve tasted hundreds of Pinot Noirs over the past eight years, I am always excited to discover new “friends” while treasuring the old. Here are some vignettes, listed alphabetically, with their region noted parenthetically:
Returning Favorites
· Alma Rosa (Santa Rita Hills). This is Richard Sanford’s newish label (and no relation to the young lady from The Apprentice). Richard is renowned as the founder of Pinot Noir in Santa Rita Hills, and was long associated with Sanford & Benedict wines. He is a true gentleman, giving of his time and I love all of his wines (Pinot and not).
· Flying Goat (2007 Rio Vista “2A,” Santa Rita Hills). You can tell by the name that they guys take themselves way too seriously, but this is serious, fruit-forward good wine for $40 a bottle. They have other fine vineyard-select wines, all worth taking a fly at…
· Pappapietro Perry (Sonoma Coast). A long-time favorite of mine, first sampled up in Healdsburg (my favorite Sonoma County town), where I became enamored with Peter’s Vineyard, and bought the last six bottles from Wally’s Wine upon returning to LA. Their wines are in the upper $40’s now, and tasted a bit “hot” to me (meaning high in alcohol).
· Tantara (Solomon Hills, Santa Rita area). Really wonderful, fruit-forward smooth and juicy wine. It’s a family affair, and nice folks. At $48/bottle, it pushes my upper limit.
New Discoveries
· Belle Pente (Willamette Valley). One of my favorite Burgundian style Oregon Pinots is from Du Pente Vineyards, and since the latter wasn’t there, I figured the name was close enough, why not try it? It was in the same mode, and cost in the $25-$40 range, but I recently purchased a bottle from K&L Wines for around $25, and Woodland Hills Wine Company has a good supply.
· La Follette (Sonoma Coast). My ah-ha moment with Pinot came from a tasting of Tandem’s 2001 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot, where Greg La Follette was the winemaker. Like fine restaurants, you need to follow the “chef” not just the label (as with Alma Rosa). He was pouring offerings from different vineyards retail priced from $37 to $50 a bottle, but I recently drank a tasty $27 bottle of La Follette from K&L Wines.
· Sheid Vineyards (Santa Lucia Highlands). Wonderful people, wonderful wine, sold mostly from the winery and their wine club. Never heard of them before, and I am generally suspect of wineries that produce lots of different varietals, rather than concentrating on a few. But I was particularly fond of their Estate Pinot, which runs around $30. Liked it so much I tried to purchase a bottle, only to be admonished by event organizers that I could not remove wine from the premises. Full disclosure: I stayed til the end of the event, helped load up their remaining supply in their Mini for the return trip, and they gifted me the bottle.
All in all, though, an adventurous afternoon. And I drove home safely.
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