Pinon Silex Noir 2007

S

Steven Spielmann

Steven Spielmann
Drank tonight. My first bottle of this a year and a half ago was flinty, austere, Pinon Vouvray Tradition inflected in a halb-halbtrocken Riesling direction. I thought it was potentially an ager so I put some away.

Tonight it was merely pleasant - again, like the Tradition, or even like lesser Vouvray, almost entirely lacking in the mineral qualities that I often find (and love) in Pinon's demi-secs. No complaints relative to 'wine in general' of course - good stuff - but not exceptional.

Is it sleeping? Has the minerality receded to show good standard Vouvray? Is my palate disintegrating with age, so that in another few years I'll be posting about The Prisoner? Will The Prisoner be cheaper than Beaujolais Villages by then because of Gilman and Levenberg?

Well, no worries. It was nice and there is more good wine. But I miss that extra something.
 
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
Pinon Silex Noir 2007Drank tonight. My first bottle of this a year and a half ago was flinty, austere, Pinon Vouvray Tradition inflected in a halb-halbtrocken Riesling direction. I thought it was potentially an ager so I put some away.

Tonight it was merely pleasant - again, like the Tradition, or even like lesser Vouvray, almost entirely lacking in the mineral qualities that I often find (and love) in Pinon's demi-secs. No complaints relative to 'wine in general' of course - good stuff - but not exceptional.

Is it sleeping? Has the minerality receded to show good standard Vouvray? Is my palate disintegrating with age, so that in another few years I'll be posting about The Prisoner? Will The Prisoner be cheaper than Beaujolais Villages by then because of Gilman and Levenberg?

Well, no worries. It was nice and there is more good wine. But I miss that extra something.
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It's funny you mention The Prisoner. That's one of the worst wines I've ever had.

I don't think that the 2007s at Pinon were wines to age. I didn't. They were more of a take what you can get now vintage. The 2008s are another story.
 
This bottle is evidence for your view. Based on some of the mineral notes I got in the Silex Noir and a certain sense of acidity I was thinking it might be a ten year wine, and I think CSW had a suggestion that it might go 15 or 20 in their notes on it. And maybe we were right and the acid and minerals have just dialed back a bit for now, but if I had to guess from this bottle I'd recant my initial thought and follow the VLM instead.

2006 Prisoner was the worst wine I've ever had that did not have chemical or bacterial flaws - it's actually a paradigm of bad wine for me. Given the choice (and for the same price) I would rather drink a whole case of Charles Shaw than another bottle of that - even if I had to do it at one sitting.
 
I wasn't extremely pleased with my 2007 Tradition that I had a couple of weeks ago either. But, that was because I thought it a little austere and shut down.
 
I have trouble thinking Pinon's '07's are done already - the '06's weren't at this time last year. I hope some of the more interesting stuff peeks back out soon though. I have some more '07 tradition also so I'll check that out and report back - though I may wait a couple of months in light of these posts.
 
I'm having a glass now, day 2 after opening. It's pretty good. Zingy, searing acidity, decent minerality, cushiony demi-sec upholstery.

I'll have some more.
 
Reporting back on my last bottle of '07 Tradition: balanced, beautiful, straightforward, a little mineral, a little sweet, a little hint of fig and meyer lemon here and there, exactly what you would want from the Pinon Tradition with gyoza and snow peas and mushrooms and eggplant. By no means done yet, though I wouldn't peg it as a long ager. Fine for a few more years though.

Now I have to go buy some '08s.
 
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
Reporting back on my last bottle of '07 Tradition: balanced, beautiful, straightforward, a little mineral, a little sweet, a little hint of fig and meyer lemon here and there, exactly what you would want from the Pinon Tradition with gyoza and snow peas and mushrooms and eggplant. By no means done yet, though I wouldn't peg it as a long ager. Fine for a few more years though.

Now I have to go buy some '08s.
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Yes, you do. The '08 is, in my admittedly limited experience, the finest Tradition I've had since the '02 of cherished memory.

Mark Lipton
 
+1. At the winery I liked the 08 Silex a lot and the 08 Tradition even more, both finer than the corresponding 07s.

Separately, if anyone can get their hands on the 08 Moelleux, that's an astonishingly balanced and delicious aberration, with a chrome-stripping 7.1 gr/l acidity instead of the more usual 4.0. A dessert wine that will never have to go on a diet.
 
More demi-sec or sec-tendre. Pinon does make a little sec - only had the '04 but thought it was quite a fine wine, similar to the Tradition but sharper and less sweet.
 
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
More demi-sec or sec-tendre. Pinon does make a little sec - only had the '04 but thought it was quite a fine wine, similar to the Tradition but sharper and less sweet.
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I discussed this very question with the most affable M. Pinon recently in Chicago. His response was sec-tendre and added that he's trying to make them as dry as he can, so the RS value has fallen in recent years.

Mark Lipton
 
He says that, because of the acidity generated by his clay-silex soils, he considers demi-sec to be the ideal expression of his wines.
 
I read that written about Touraine Chenin generally. I've also read that, with the general warming trend, Vouvray sec is rarely completely dry any more.

But if Oswaldo's account is right, then why would Mark's also be so. Does Pinon believe traditional demi-sec treatment is now producing wines that are too sweet to balance the way he wants them to with the soil-driven acidity?
 
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