2004 Rhys Family Farm Pinot Noir

J

Jay Miller

Jay Miller
Doing inventory at Chelsea Wine Storage last night (my spreadsheet has diverged more and more from reality) I decided to open one of these when Joe stopped in on his way to a dinner.

Leathery, meaty, rich. With air attractive bright cherry fruit emerges on the finish. Very nice stuff. Both tasty and not at all boring.

It wasn't one of my favorites on release and it's still not for the brett-averse but that element has integrated nicely and I'm happy to still have another bottle (or two, I haven't finished my inventory yet). I also remember that the wine was too warm at that dinner we had on release so that may have contributed to the less than stellar showing back then. This was at cellar temperature which I think helped.

After Joe guessed Cornas and bretty Burgundy I showed him the bottle and he asked "Are they allowed to make wines like this in California?". I'm very glad they are.
 
Oh, throw my terrible blind tasting guesses in my face, will you?

Anyhow, it grew with air and I quite liked it in the end.

Parenthetically, I often wonder whether things that open in the decanter are just warming up to room temp, but in this case the wine stayed at cellar temp in the cellar, so we had a good control.

Blind tasting is often good for humility.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Oh, throw my terrible blind tasting guesses in my face, will you?

Anyhow, it grew with air and I quite liked it in the end.

Parenthetically, I often wonder whether things that open in the decanter are just warming up to room temp, but in this case the wine stayed at cellar temp in the cellar, so we had a good control.

Blind tasting is often good for humility.
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They were both really good guesses given what the wine tasted like, I only included them as I felt they demonstrated the style of the wine.

Personally, I've never minded a bit of brett in my Burgundy or N. Rhone (less tolerant in Bordeaux).
 
Not such a bad guess, after all. According to Remington Norman, Clape used to sell his Cornas to a famous negociant to put in their Corton. Why not -- same number of letters and first three are the same for both?
 
I would add in the wine's defense that the "Cornas" guess was "suave, cool vintage Cornas" in my mind. I felt that the Brett obscured the wine's varietal character when it was first opened, but that it was more pinot with time.
 
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