Terroir tasting

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David Lloyd

David Lloyd
Most of my friends enjoy looking at terroir. However, we usually do it with wines served blind and no theme is discussed so options can be played. The aim is to start simple, eg New World Vs Old and if possible take it to the vineyard. None of us get much pleasure from Bordeaux varietals or Shiraz so it is usually based around Pinot Noir. I give all this background because we rarely find suitable wines in Australia. There is the Calvert Road series in NZ and mega heaps in Burgundy. The USA however, does seem to have many growers who supply fruit to multiple makers. What we like is for example an Arcadian PN by them, an Arcadian made with Fiddlestix fruit and a Fiddlestix by Fiddlestix. The most stunning tasting was based around a Jadot Volnay (Mitans I think) a Jadot Rugiens, a Fontaine-Gagnard Rugiens and a Thierry Violot-Guillermard Rugiens, all from 06. The Volnay stood out like dogs gonads. We would love to get hold of more sets of US wines such as these but it is nearly impossible from so far away and when it is possible freight may double the cost. So do many of you US folk look at sets of US wines like this? or is it just us quirky Aussies? The only down side with the US wines is that since we try and source them remotely they sometimes have huge variations in the picking dates eg the same vineyard may end up with alcohols ranging from 13.3% to 15.3%. The French tend to pick at closer intervals. Generally speaking, I think it has helped to enlighten many of my colleagues to the quality of the US PN when grown in cool places such as Santa Cruz Mountains, Sonoma Coast, Oregon etc.
 
I have been to multiple tastings of this vineyard or that vineyard California Pinot Noir. Most of them were back when the Santa Rita Hills stuff was initially trendy, so we would drink 6 different renditions of Clos Pepe. We lost a few tasters to alcohol poisoning, and more than a few of us realized from those events how boring the wines really were.

It's becoming trendy to have big tastings of the Rhys Pinot Noirs, but since they are estate vineyards (unless you pull in the Alesia bottlings) there is no otehr wine to comapre them to within a given site.
 
Do it with grenache from Spain. It can be an enlightening exercise - if you can get a little more diversity than the points-rich fruit bombs made for the US market.
 
I would actually suggest Zinfandel as a better vehicle than Pinot Noir. There are numerous producers making multiple vineyard-designate Zins, often from old vines, with more or less the same production techniques (Peachy Canyon, Ridge, Ravenswood, Easton, Alderbrook, etc). If you avoid Zins that are hyper-ripe or heavily oaked, it can be a very nice ullustration of terroir.
 
Interesting range of comments so far. I agree that some US PN can show excessive ripeness/alcohol but I have tried quite a few in the last 12 months that looked elegant and very good. Regarding Zin, I do love the stuff, mainly due to an old friend the late Dr. Allan Mines. I do indeed try and look at a range of Zin terroirs. I need to declare an interest here, Allan was a Prof at UCSF and when one of his students expressed an interest in going to Davis he got her to intern with me. The idea being that would put her off winemaking. Jenny Beloz has been the assistant winemaker at Ravenswood for about 10 years now. She finds me some nice Zins for me and we have an annual Zin din with a few friends who are not just Pinotphiles. The hard part is always to get the wines downunder. It has reached the stage where many of my friends no longer tell me if they visit California. The usual cross state shipping rules make it hard and as for then getting a compilation sent downunder, very hard unless a particular winery takes pity and assists. However, to get back to my original question it appears rare for you all to taste blind with reference wines thrown in as you look at terroir??
Now, I will also go off topic for a while to ask if anyone can message me or post what La Paulee is? ie I know the name refers to the end of vintage party held in Mersault but the US event seems like it has wines from all over. So is it a Burgundy promo? Importer driven event? etc etc
 
Thanks Yule, I had been to that site before and was left puzzled but this time I picked on some blokes name as the host and read about him, Daniel ? who appears to organise quite a jeebuz. Now I get it.
 
Daniel Johnnes is the wine director for Daniel Boulud's restaurants. He also imports wines and I believe he and some partners are thinking of purchasing vineyards. Others might know more.
 
The only US restaurants I and most other aussies have heard of is French Laundry so Daniel Boulud means little to us. But it looks like it will be handy for when we get back to the US. Have you heard of Vue de Monde or Sepia or Quay or Tetsuyas as some of the better Aussie eateries? There are many more but the trend is towards really noisy ambience that an old grumpy person like myself finds hard to put up with but the under 35s love em. I think I am also sad to report that the Sydney food scene is better than Melbourne at the moment. However, like most things downunder they all seem very expensive to US visitors. If Daniel is thinking of purchasing vineyards it is probably a very good time with the world glut of wine. Poor old Beaujolais are really hit hard and some gorgeous places really tempt me to move. Hopefully I will simply temper this desire when I and a group of colleagues make Chard, Gamay and PN in Burgundy next year or the year after.
 
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