The Pinot Noir Open
November 21, 2011

We’ve hosted The Pinot Noir Open numerous times over the years and it has proven to be a very popular, totally fun, blind tasting theme.  This format is a friendly competition between Pinot Noir based wines from Burgundy, California, and Oregon.  In this case we included four wines from each region, plus an EWS favorite ringer, Felton Road Pinot Noir from New Zealand.

All of the Pinot Noir-based wines in this tasting received high ratings from the critics and/or were favorites of EWS.  The simple idea was to taste 13 terrific interpretations of Pinot Noir from recent vintages (2005 – 2009).  Unfair competition?  Who cares?  Sure, there can be no meaningful interpretation of our results, just each participant’s individual take on what they liked or disliked.

As it turned out, there was a lot to like!  All 13 wines showed very well, and all received votes.  This was one of those wonderful tastings where the wines read the script, providing numerous thrills for participants.  At the same time, we were stylistically all over the map, providing fuel for interesting discussions.

In the end, everyone found wines to love and everyone had a great time.

The following are consensus tasting notes, written to share commentary, descriptors, and convey the overall impression our group had for each wine.  Wines were poured in three flights from numbered bags (1 - 13) and are listed below in the order they were poured.  Participants were asked to vote (by number) for their three favorite wines.  We award three points for every first place vote, two for every second place vote, and one point for every third, allowing for ties.  Data is based on 28 voters. Voting tallies: 1st/2nd/3rd

1) 2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir “Marcassin Vineyard” (Sonoma Coast)  -  2 points (0/0/2)  -  93 rating Medium saturated color.  Slow building nose is meaty, recalling a grilled burger and bacon fat, with black cherry syrup pushing through.  Intense, piercing, weighty, pure, and youthful on entry; a wine with terrific structure.  Layered, rich black cherry fruit extract combines with decent acidity and iodine and zinc notes.  As a Pinot Noir, this wine is “unusual,” almost Syrah-like.  The finish is long and pleasurable.  This young wine was consistent and enjoyable all the way through.

2) 2008 Beaux Freres Pinot Noir “The Beaux Freres Vineyard” (Ribbon Ridge) -  4 points (0/1/2)  -  93 rating Light garnet hue.  Fairly closed nose, but we do pick up attractive, ripe cherry and strawberry fruit with some spice and oak in the background.  Hits the palate with sweet red berry fruit flavors.  It’s elegant and iodine-rich.  This is a delicious, precise, straightforward, youthful wine that’s very easy to like.  It seems to drop off in the mid-palate, but picks up a nice floral quality in the long finish.

3) 2008 Talley Pinot Noir “Rosemary’s Vineyard” (Arroyo Grande Valley)  -  14 points (1/4/3)  -  94 rating Fairly deep color.  Beautiful, rich, penetrating aromas suggest a very sexy perfume, plum, black cherry, spice, talc, and smoke.  Follows through beautifully on the palate; big, rich, concentrated, and lively.  This wine is probably the most complex in the first flight of five wines.  Flavors include pepper, five-spice powder, and wonderful dark berry fruit coating the mouth.  Finish is very long and consistent.  We like it!

4) 2007 Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru (Bouchard)  -  5 points (0/2/1)  -  93 ratingLight color.  Gorgeous, complex bouquet has a lot going on with notes of mint, pepper, herbs, smoke, celery seed, warm nutmeg, cassis, and cinnamon.  On the palate, wine #4 displays a nice glycerin mouth feel.  It’s a little gamy, floral, with decent acidity.  This wine should be very food-friendly; bring on the duck confit!  Great length.  Seems to be at peak drinking right now.

5) 2006 J. Christopher & Dr. Loosen Pinot Noir “Appassionata” (Willamette Valley)  -  11 points (3/0/2)  -  94+ rating Fairly deep color.  Attractive, rich, creamy, peppery nose with black plum fruit and Sambucca.  Fruit-filled, rich, concentrated, youthful, complex, penetrating, and intense on the palate.  Notes include black cherry flavors, spice, and a little bit of heat.  This wine seems quite young and will benefit from a year or two in the cellar.  That said, it’s very impressive and well received.  Long, consistent finish.

6) 2007 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru “Les Amoureuses” (Robert Groffier)  -  49 points (11/6/5)  -  97 rating Medium saturated color.  Real sauvage nose has everybody immediately thinking Burgundy!  We get sweet, meaty, beefy scents that recall black earth, smoke, wood, spice, leather, and deep cherry fruit.  Penetrating on entry with outstanding complexity and balance.  There’s a rich, blackberry character that runs throughout.  Wine #6 starts out as delicious and goes up from there as it opens.  Extremely long and pleasurable finish.  This great wine shows why Burgundy is so special as it blew away the competition.

7) 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru “Les Cazetiers” (Serafin)  -  1 point (0/0/1)  -  91 ratingMedium-deep color.  Subtle nose recalls dark berry fruits with minerality, spice, and an alcohol whiff.  More interesting in the mouth, offering a complex mélange of flavors including cranberry, sour cherry, candied black plum, hijiki, and high-toned acetone.  The acidity is decent and there’s a hint of tannin to shed.  Simple, long, straightforward finish.  This wine was a little disappointing given our usual infatuation with Serafin’s “Cazetiers.”

8) 2009 Felton Road Pinot Noir “Block 3” (Central Otago, New Zealand)  -  5 points (1/1/0)  -  90+ rating Medium saturated color.  Pleasant nose shows a good, solid Pinot Noir character though nothing distinctive.  Notes include cola, vanilla, and bubble gum.  There is a complaint that wine #8 is “tooty fruity” with too much alcohol.  Youthful, sweet, and rather tight in the mouth, with huge fruit extract, cough syrup intensity in a “New World” style.  It ain’t Burgundy!  Because of the ripe fruit, this is an enjoyable wine to quaff, but it’s not showing much density or complexity tonight.  It sort of drops off a cliff from the mid-palate on for a short alcohol laden finish.

9) 2008 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir “Mark Bradford Vineyard” (Dundee Hills)  -  29 points (5/6/2)  -  95 rating Medium-light color.  Sweet, brawny, intense nose tells us that wine #9 is a powerhouse Pinot.  It’s filled with scents that recall dark berry fruits, spice, and just the right amount of oak.  Very concentrated and dramatic on the palate; it’s an exciting New World style.  Flavors of honey cake and candied walnuts add to the complex mix, which includes lots of vanilla from the mid-palate on.  This is an extremely delicious, youthful, and exuberant Pinot that reminds us why wine is our hobby instead of stamp collecting.  Very long, consistent finish.  Superb!

10) 2006 Kistler Pinot Noir “Cuvée Elizabeth” (Sonoma Coast)  -  23 points (2/6/5)  -  95+ rating Deep color.  Slow building nose takes awhile to get going.  There’s a nice, ripe fruit-filled core with mint, cedar, and licorice accents.  Big, youthful, rich, textured, and thoroughly enjoyable style on the palate.  Flavors of red and black fruits, creamy apple, plum, and pastry crust coat the mouth.  We really like the balance of acidity that gives the wine attack.  “It tickles” was one person’s comment.  This wine also gets high marks for its solid structure.  Very long, mouth-filling finish.  Superb now, and should continue to improve.

11) 2006 Volnay 1er Cru “Clos des Chênes” (Louis Jadot)  -  3 points (0/1/1)  -  92 ratingLighter color with a hint of amber at the rim.  Soft, pleasant bouquet offers ripe fruit, Asian spice, minerals, and leather.  Wonderful fruit in the mouth with a core flavor that recalls strawberry rhubarb.  Wine #11 seems to be more about elegance than power.  It is quite complex and has all of its components in harmony.  The finish was a bit short, however, this wine did gain weight in the glass.

12) 2006 Rochioli Pinot Noir “West Block Vineyard” (Russian River Valley)  -  19 points (4/2/3)  -  95 rating Medium saturated color.  Very attractive “New World” Pinot Noir nose is a little different from the other wines, but we like this style!  The red berry fruit is sweet and seductive, with wet earth and crushed gravel in the mix.  Compelling from the first sip; very well made with “enough complexity to be Burgundy.”  This sweet, modern interpretation of Pinot has excellent acidity to keep things moving.  The wine offers considerable length, with a wormy, black earth character.  Superb showing.

13) 2008 Cristom Pinot Noir “Eileen Vineyard” (Eola-Amity Hills)  -  5 points (1/0/2)  -  93 rating Fairly deep color.  Rich, powerful nose is filled with ripe dark berry fruit, with accents of chocolate and menthol.  Interesting and well made on the palate with good acidity throughout.  It’s a powerful and intense Pinot with that chocolate quality remaining through the finish.  Here’s another wine that keeps improving in the glass.  Long, consistent finish.  Well received by our group.

Executive Wine Seminars, Inc.
P. O. Box 1791
New York, NY 10113-1791

Tel: (800) 404-WINE (9463)
E-Mail: tastings@EWSwine.com

Howard Kaplan and Robert Millman, Co-Directors
Reprinted with permission.