Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
Family and I spent ten nights in the San Francisco & Russian River Valley areas prospecting the possibility of moving in the not too distant future. Three nights in a San Francisco airbnb, three in a Windsor airbnb, and four in a Mill Valley airbnb. To preserve the children’s sanity (and, by extension, ours), we only scheduled two winery visits and two tasting rooms, but tried lots by the glass, carafe, or bottle, at ‘home’ or AT restaurants.
Producers were chosen from a list compiled from disorderly comments and suggestions from friends. Sometimes I felt like reaching for the familiar e.g., ESJ and Dashe but, inspired by a recently read book on the Lewis and Clark expedition, stuck to unknown territory. The winery I most wanted to visit Arnot-Roberts is not open to the general public, so I am grateful to the friends and their connections that made it happen. For each producer we tasted, many more remained untasted, so this is a very limited sampling of the (presumed) European structure segment of cool climate northern California wines.
Since all wines tasted were from this decade and many were closed, I emphasized structural aspects in the short notes below. There are brief comments on the restaurants we visited, plus random observations resulting from the collision of newly-acquired information with a generalizing imagination. For those intimate with the terrain, seeing the familiar through a foreigner’s eyes might be quaint.
06/20 Left our luggage at our Mission Street apartment (near Noe Valley) and made a beeline to Bi-Rite for groceries and a few bottles. The tall and hip-looking vendeuse hovering in the impressive wine section noticed that I was checking some bottles for alcohol level, so she suggested something around 10%. I said it needn’t be that low, I just wanted to avoid high octane stuff. She replied that none of their inventory was overripe, and suggested a Suelo Farmers Hacienda Secoia Pinot Noir, which I was loath to take because the producer wasn’t on my list. I pointed to three others that were, and asked which she liked best. The first, she said, was terrible. The second (from Knez), she said was excellent, elegant and masculine, at which point I interjected before I could check myself that that was fine, but I wasn’t too keen on gendering wine. The young lady began to respond 'Well, but...' and then gulped whatever she was going to say. Trying to normalize things, I asked about the third, and the answer was monosyllabic. This was San Francisco, after all, but suddenly I felt like a blowhard p.c. regulator. Chagrined, I took the Suelo Farmers and the Knez as either self-flagellation or contrition, take your pick. Later that night:
2012 Knez Winery Demuth Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 13.4%
Ripe cherry cola, pepper, pomegranate. Sweetness surges upfront, gradually eclipsed by acidity not in lockstep. Not jammy or oaky, but something candied about the fruit tastes modern or new world. My 15 yr old kept asking me throughout dinner if it was masculine.
06/21 Dinner at Aziza, my favorite SF restaurant because of fabulous tasting menus experienced in previous trips. No tasting menu this time, but they cobbled something similar from the à la carte menu. Far from bad, but disappointing. Either the chefs are in between menus, as the apologetic waiter maintained, or the joint is losing its luster.
2013 Broc Cellars Cassia Rosé Mendocino 12.5%
50% Grenache Gris and 50% Grenache Noir. Closed, with some candied strawberry. Good acidity, weight and balance. Pleasant, but the slightly candied sweetness kept getting in the way of pleasure.
2013 Broc Cellars Vine Starr Zinfandel Sonoma County 12.5%
Wow, a 12.5% zin, gotta try this! Cherry and spices. Good acidity, balance and weight. Light tannins, no oak. Structurally flawless, but for some reason not particularly tasty.
06/22 Dinner at Blue Plate on Mission Street. Good food, homely and unpretentious atmosphere, good service, decent wine list.
2013 Leo Steen Saint Farms Chenin Blanc Dry Creek Valley 12.7%
From a Danish sommelier turned local winemaker. Dry farmed, 33 yr old vines, fermented in steel, then 4 months in neutral oak. White flowers and minerality. Excellent balance and weight. Juicy and perky. European structure, but different from Loire Chenin, possibly because none of that waxy wooliness. Delish and perhaps one to watch.
2013 Radio-Coteau Laguna Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 13.4%
Ripe candied cola. Not too much, but enough to signal modern or new world. Black pepper. Smooth. Almost slick. Light tannins, mouth-puckering finish; acidity and sweetness don’t mesh well. Not what I think a PN should be.
06/23 Dinner at Windsor airbnb.
2011 Suelo Farmers Hacienda Secoia Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 13.0%
33% whole cluster, native yeasts, 10 months in French oak, 12% new. Muted but attractive strawberry and stems, no sign of over ripeness. Good acidity and balance, bitter finish. With food, quite pleasurable, with a serious edge.
06/24 Morning visit to Nathan Roberts in Healdsburg. A wonderfully instructive and congenial two hours which I will try to summarize: Nathan’s father was a full time cooper, and Nathan was a full time cooper until 2002, when he became a part time winemaker. He still makes (with pleasure) the new barrels used for the Montecillo Cabernet. Nathan quit the cooperage business entirely in 2008, when he and Duncan decided to become full time. They have been friends since age 8, helpful since they source from over 20 vineyards, and have to divide themselves to visit all of these locations as harvest time approaches, requiring a lot of driving. The decision of when to pick is, of course, crucially theirs, though farmers have a bit of latitude if grapes are in the zone and bad weather is approaching. Not owning vineyards, they can be fastidious jacks of all trades in other departments (Duncan came by to say hello, carrying a metal ladder he was repairing). This also allows detailed personal attention, which seems to be in their nature. As evidence of their do-it-all attitude, they only hired their first full time employee this year. While Duncan seems more outgoing, Nathan appears more reserved, with the concentration of someone who builds things by hand.
Trousseau, Pinot Noir and Syrah are vinified in a similar manner: 100% whole cluster (generating longer and cooler fermentations), gentle pressing, very few punch downs, fermented to dryness, with native yeasts, and malolactics happening if the wines wish it. All spend ten months in used barrels. 2011 was their first pinot noir vintage, so pinot is a relatively new variety for them, sourced from three vineyards. Nathan showed us a map of California and indicated where some of the vineyards are located. The distribution is scattered, with several below the Bay Area, which are not warmer (as I would have supposed) because of fog and cold ocean currents; the variety of micro climates seems enormous; fog, wind, ocean currents, varying altitudes and mountain passes all conspire to make latitude less relevant here than in most places. Nathan says not all his source vineyards are dry farmed, but that is his preference, though drought years like 2014 and 2015 are proving challenging for bud development.
2013 Arnot-Roberts Trout Gulch Vineyard Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains 12.5%
Stainless steel fermented, aged in five year old barrels, with no lees stirring. Trout Gulch is their coolest climate vineyard. Lovely white flower and caramel. Tangy citric acidity (pH 3.2). Beautiful wine. Nathan says it should become ideal in the 8-12 yr range.
2014 Arnot-Roberts Trousseau North Coast 13.0%
Peek preview, not yet released. 50% Luchsinger, 30% Bohan, 20% Bartolomei. Nathan says 2014 was a warmer vintage, so the wine is fruitier. Indeed shows an attractive strawberry fruitiness. Great balance and structure. Absolutely delicious, an ideal combination of seriousness and pleasure.
2013 Arnot-Roberts Peter Martin Ray Vineyard Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains 12.5%
From a historic vineyard, still with the original Martin Ray family, replanted in 1979 and dry farmed. Delicious smoky strawberry aroma, sappy, delicious mouthfeel. A beauty.
2013 Arnot-Roberts Clary Ranch Syrah Sonoma Coast 11.8%
Vineyard faces the Petaluma Gap, so subjected to weather extremes, wind and fog, with very slow ripening. Smoky, herbal, spicy. Racy acidic fruit. Deliciously spicy. Another beauty.
2012 Arnot-Roberts Montecillo Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley 13.8%
First release for this wine. Dry farmed, red volcanic soil, at 2000 ft. Nathan called it an unusually healthy and beautiful vineyard, with 40+ yr old vines. Elegant, spicy, classy. Tannic and mouth puckering. Light oak presence (one of three barrels was new wood). Berries are small, so 75% destemmed.
06/24 Lunch at Campo Fina in Healdsburg. Good food, excellent wine list, and efficient wait staff, with the bonus pleasure of meeting comrade Michael K., who took excellent care of us.
2013 RPM (Roberts/Parr/Meyers) Gamay Noir El Dorado County 13.0%
Per Michael, this is a joint venture between Rajat Parr and Arnot-Roberts. 100% Gamay Noir. Nathan later told me that this (and the prior two vintages) were 50% carbonic, 50% conventional, but 2014 will be fully carbonic. Light raspberries and pot pourri. Fresh, with good acidity. Very pleasant.
That evening, we drank bottles of the regular pinot and rosé pinot made in a very small scale by the owner of our Windsor airbnb. Chatting with him I could tell our wine aesthetics were quite different. The regular pinot was over 14%; smooth, and acid deficient. The rosé, which he offered us unassumingly, almost apologetically, was absolutely delicious, one of the loveliest rosés ever. It was also probably the darkest, almost the color of what I think a regular pinot should be. When I told him all this he seemed, of course, perplexed. Bloody foreigners. But this showed us that there may be undiscovered gems in dem der hills.
06/25 Morning visit to Littorai. Ted Lemon was not around, but we were ably taken around by Craig, who has worked there on and off for seven years. Craig took us around to see the Pivot vineyard, farmed biodynamically, but with irrigation drips throughout. Says they hope to be 100% dry farmed in about 3 years. All wines use native yeasts. Whites are whole cluster, reds are for the most part destemmed, though there is some whole cluster use depending on vintage characteristics. There has been no acidification in single vineyard wines for the last 10 years. Craig showed us exhibits related to composting and flowers used for biodynamic spray preparations, as well as soil samples from the different vineyards sourced by Littorai (of which only a few are proprietary). Craig was eloquent on the subject of the variety of local micro climates, and how average temperature and the high-low range varies significantly with distance from the ocean and the presence of gaps like the Petaluma Gap. He said that extremely cold water coming down form the Arctic cools the coastal area and generates the widespread fog when it comes into contact with the warmer air. Craig was able to talk about new oak and whole cluster percentages, but seemed less informed regarding SO2 usage, something possibly telling that I would encounter again at Porter Creek.
The pinots we tasted were, as usual, arranged in order of increasing complexity, though the three single vineyards cost the same. Curiously, they were also arranged in order of descending alcohol, which I believe contributed to each one being more closed than the previous (my new pet theory is that higher alcohol, other things equal, makes wines less closed because of the higher rate of evaporation). Agains, I would encounter something quite similar at Porter Creek the following morning.
2013 Littorai B.A. Thieriot Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 13.1% $75
25% NFO, 75% 3-10 yrs old. Oak, white flowers and hay. Lovely citric acidity and weight. Beautiful, just needs time to absorb the oak.
2012 Littorai Les Larmes Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 13.8% $40
Anderson Valley appellation PN. Candied red fruit. Sappy, with excellent acidity and structure. Fruit not candied in the mouth, no discernible oak.
2013 Littorai Platt Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 13.4% $70
Sees 25/30% NFO. Attractive aroma; spicy, strong personality. Very nice balance and weight, good acidity. Richest of the three single vineyards, but not at all excessive.
2013 Littorai Pivot Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 13.1% $70
Estate owned. Relatively closed, with some red fruit and red flowers. Good acidity and structure. Very nice, though not particularly distinctive at this early point.
2013 Littorai Mays Canyon Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 12.3% $70
Totally closed. Astringent acidity and good structure. Contextually, one has to give this the benefit of the doubt, but currently showing very little.
06/25 Lunch at Peter Lowell's in Sebastopol. Atmosphere leaves something to be desired, but good food and wine list.
2013 La Clarine Farms Albariño Sierra Foothills BTG
Light floral aroma. Lovely tangy acidity, good balance, more than the sum of its parts. Very nice.
2014 Matthiasson Linda Vista Chardonnay Napa Valley BTG
Attractively aromatic, no oak. Slightly caramelized sweetness greater than the acidity. Friendly wine.
2014 County Line Rosé Pinot Noir Anderson Valley BTC
From Eric Sussman, who makes the not-so-pleasing Radio-Coteau reviewed above. Lovely floral and mineral aroma. Good citric acidity, balance and weight. Simple, but lovely.
06/25 Afternoon visit to the Wind Gap tasting room in Sebastopol's new The Barlow shopping complex. Impressive array of wines.
2014 Wind Gap Fannuchi-Wood Road Trousseau Gris 11.7% BTG
Harvested in three passes for ideal maturity levels. A bit closed, flowery. Beautifully vibrant, citric acidity, good body. Very good.
2014 Wind Gap Fox Hill Vineyard Rosé North Coast 11.3% BTG
Mostly nebbiolo, with some dolcetto. Closed. Very pleasant, with good balance and structure. Very nice.
2014 Wind Gap Soif Old Vine Red Blend North Coast 11.5% BTG
Blend of five grapes, vinified in concrete eggs, fully carbonic. Fruity aromas, fruity taste, with good balance and mouth feel.
2013 Wind Gap Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 12.7% BTG
From five vineyards. Nice stemmy pinosity. Very nice mouthfeel, good balance and weight. According to the server, all Wind Gap pinots are 100% whole cluster.
2012 Wind Gap Nellessen Vineyard Skinny Jeans +/- 11.0% BTG
50/50 red blend of syrah and viognier, fermented with full carbonic in concrete eggs, the CO2 stemming from fermenting juice because more natural that injecting CO2. Tasted with skepticism because of the high % of viognier, but very appealing red fruit aromas with some syrah tar. Fruity, balanced, with good weight and acidity. The most fun wine of the trip. Not sold in bottles, only in growlers.
06/26 Morning visit to Porter Creek tasting room. Alex Davis was out, but we were well cared for by Paul, an amiable Scot. Like Craig at Littorai, he knew his whole clusters and NFO percentages, but not SO2. Also like Littorai, the pinots were served in order of descending alcohol, and were increasingly closed, feeding my volatility theory. According to Paul, Porter Creek is the oldest biodynamic winery in Sonoma County, since 1997. All pinots are fully destemmed.
2013 Porter Creek Chardonnay Russian River Valley 13.9% $36
23% NFO. Oak aroma, but still young. Lively citric fruit. Good balance and weight. Very nice.
2012 Porter Creek George’s Hill Chardonnay 12.7% $46
Demeter certified. Estate grown. Wild yeasts. 23% NFO. Very similar to the previous, perhaps up a notch.
2013 Porter Creek Timbervine Ranch Viognier Russian River Valley-Sonoma County 14.7% $36
Closed. More sweet than acid, but not as egregiously as one might expect from grape and alcohol level. Nice enough, all things considered, but not my cuppa.
2014 Porter Creek Rosé Sonoma County
Producers were chosen from a list compiled from disorderly comments and suggestions from friends. Sometimes I felt like reaching for the familiar e.g., ESJ and Dashe but, inspired by a recently read book on the Lewis and Clark expedition, stuck to unknown territory. The winery I most wanted to visit Arnot-Roberts is not open to the general public, so I am grateful to the friends and their connections that made it happen. For each producer we tasted, many more remained untasted, so this is a very limited sampling of the (presumed) European structure segment of cool climate northern California wines.
Since all wines tasted were from this decade and many were closed, I emphasized structural aspects in the short notes below. There are brief comments on the restaurants we visited, plus random observations resulting from the collision of newly-acquired information with a generalizing imagination. For those intimate with the terrain, seeing the familiar through a foreigner’s eyes might be quaint.
06/20 Left our luggage at our Mission Street apartment (near Noe Valley) and made a beeline to Bi-Rite for groceries and a few bottles. The tall and hip-looking vendeuse hovering in the impressive wine section noticed that I was checking some bottles for alcohol level, so she suggested something around 10%. I said it needn’t be that low, I just wanted to avoid high octane stuff. She replied that none of their inventory was overripe, and suggested a Suelo Farmers Hacienda Secoia Pinot Noir, which I was loath to take because the producer wasn’t on my list. I pointed to three others that were, and asked which she liked best. The first, she said, was terrible. The second (from Knez), she said was excellent, elegant and masculine, at which point I interjected before I could check myself that that was fine, but I wasn’t too keen on gendering wine. The young lady began to respond 'Well, but...' and then gulped whatever she was going to say. Trying to normalize things, I asked about the third, and the answer was monosyllabic. This was San Francisco, after all, but suddenly I felt like a blowhard p.c. regulator. Chagrined, I took the Suelo Farmers and the Knez as either self-flagellation or contrition, take your pick. Later that night:
2012 Knez Winery Demuth Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 13.4%
Ripe cherry cola, pepper, pomegranate. Sweetness surges upfront, gradually eclipsed by acidity not in lockstep. Not jammy or oaky, but something candied about the fruit tastes modern or new world. My 15 yr old kept asking me throughout dinner if it was masculine.
06/21 Dinner at Aziza, my favorite SF restaurant because of fabulous tasting menus experienced in previous trips. No tasting menu this time, but they cobbled something similar from the à la carte menu. Far from bad, but disappointing. Either the chefs are in between menus, as the apologetic waiter maintained, or the joint is losing its luster.
2013 Broc Cellars Cassia Rosé Mendocino 12.5%
50% Grenache Gris and 50% Grenache Noir. Closed, with some candied strawberry. Good acidity, weight and balance. Pleasant, but the slightly candied sweetness kept getting in the way of pleasure.
2013 Broc Cellars Vine Starr Zinfandel Sonoma County 12.5%
Wow, a 12.5% zin, gotta try this! Cherry and spices. Good acidity, balance and weight. Light tannins, no oak. Structurally flawless, but for some reason not particularly tasty.
06/22 Dinner at Blue Plate on Mission Street. Good food, homely and unpretentious atmosphere, good service, decent wine list.
2013 Leo Steen Saint Farms Chenin Blanc Dry Creek Valley 12.7%
From a Danish sommelier turned local winemaker. Dry farmed, 33 yr old vines, fermented in steel, then 4 months in neutral oak. White flowers and minerality. Excellent balance and weight. Juicy and perky. European structure, but different from Loire Chenin, possibly because none of that waxy wooliness. Delish and perhaps one to watch.
2013 Radio-Coteau Laguna Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 13.4%
Ripe candied cola. Not too much, but enough to signal modern or new world. Black pepper. Smooth. Almost slick. Light tannins, mouth-puckering finish; acidity and sweetness don’t mesh well. Not what I think a PN should be.
06/23 Dinner at Windsor airbnb.
2011 Suelo Farmers Hacienda Secoia Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 13.0%
33% whole cluster, native yeasts, 10 months in French oak, 12% new. Muted but attractive strawberry and stems, no sign of over ripeness. Good acidity and balance, bitter finish. With food, quite pleasurable, with a serious edge.
06/24 Morning visit to Nathan Roberts in Healdsburg. A wonderfully instructive and congenial two hours which I will try to summarize: Nathan’s father was a full time cooper, and Nathan was a full time cooper until 2002, when he became a part time winemaker. He still makes (with pleasure) the new barrels used for the Montecillo Cabernet. Nathan quit the cooperage business entirely in 2008, when he and Duncan decided to become full time. They have been friends since age 8, helpful since they source from over 20 vineyards, and have to divide themselves to visit all of these locations as harvest time approaches, requiring a lot of driving. The decision of when to pick is, of course, crucially theirs, though farmers have a bit of latitude if grapes are in the zone and bad weather is approaching. Not owning vineyards, they can be fastidious jacks of all trades in other departments (Duncan came by to say hello, carrying a metal ladder he was repairing). This also allows detailed personal attention, which seems to be in their nature. As evidence of their do-it-all attitude, they only hired their first full time employee this year. While Duncan seems more outgoing, Nathan appears more reserved, with the concentration of someone who builds things by hand.
Trousseau, Pinot Noir and Syrah are vinified in a similar manner: 100% whole cluster (generating longer and cooler fermentations), gentle pressing, very few punch downs, fermented to dryness, with native yeasts, and malolactics happening if the wines wish it. All spend ten months in used barrels. 2011 was their first pinot noir vintage, so pinot is a relatively new variety for them, sourced from three vineyards. Nathan showed us a map of California and indicated where some of the vineyards are located. The distribution is scattered, with several below the Bay Area, which are not warmer (as I would have supposed) because of fog and cold ocean currents; the variety of micro climates seems enormous; fog, wind, ocean currents, varying altitudes and mountain passes all conspire to make latitude less relevant here than in most places. Nathan says not all his source vineyards are dry farmed, but that is his preference, though drought years like 2014 and 2015 are proving challenging for bud development.
2013 Arnot-Roberts Trout Gulch Vineyard Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains 12.5%
Stainless steel fermented, aged in five year old barrels, with no lees stirring. Trout Gulch is their coolest climate vineyard. Lovely white flower and caramel. Tangy citric acidity (pH 3.2). Beautiful wine. Nathan says it should become ideal in the 8-12 yr range.
2014 Arnot-Roberts Trousseau North Coast 13.0%
Peek preview, not yet released. 50% Luchsinger, 30% Bohan, 20% Bartolomei. Nathan says 2014 was a warmer vintage, so the wine is fruitier. Indeed shows an attractive strawberry fruitiness. Great balance and structure. Absolutely delicious, an ideal combination of seriousness and pleasure.
2013 Arnot-Roberts Peter Martin Ray Vineyard Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains 12.5%
From a historic vineyard, still with the original Martin Ray family, replanted in 1979 and dry farmed. Delicious smoky strawberry aroma, sappy, delicious mouthfeel. A beauty.
2013 Arnot-Roberts Clary Ranch Syrah Sonoma Coast 11.8%
Vineyard faces the Petaluma Gap, so subjected to weather extremes, wind and fog, with very slow ripening. Smoky, herbal, spicy. Racy acidic fruit. Deliciously spicy. Another beauty.
2012 Arnot-Roberts Montecillo Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley 13.8%
First release for this wine. Dry farmed, red volcanic soil, at 2000 ft. Nathan called it an unusually healthy and beautiful vineyard, with 40+ yr old vines. Elegant, spicy, classy. Tannic and mouth puckering. Light oak presence (one of three barrels was new wood). Berries are small, so 75% destemmed.
06/24 Lunch at Campo Fina in Healdsburg. Good food, excellent wine list, and efficient wait staff, with the bonus pleasure of meeting comrade Michael K., who took excellent care of us.
2013 RPM (Roberts/Parr/Meyers) Gamay Noir El Dorado County 13.0%
Per Michael, this is a joint venture between Rajat Parr and Arnot-Roberts. 100% Gamay Noir. Nathan later told me that this (and the prior two vintages) were 50% carbonic, 50% conventional, but 2014 will be fully carbonic. Light raspberries and pot pourri. Fresh, with good acidity. Very pleasant.
That evening, we drank bottles of the regular pinot and rosé pinot made in a very small scale by the owner of our Windsor airbnb. Chatting with him I could tell our wine aesthetics were quite different. The regular pinot was over 14%; smooth, and acid deficient. The rosé, which he offered us unassumingly, almost apologetically, was absolutely delicious, one of the loveliest rosés ever. It was also probably the darkest, almost the color of what I think a regular pinot should be. When I told him all this he seemed, of course, perplexed. Bloody foreigners. But this showed us that there may be undiscovered gems in dem der hills.
06/25 Morning visit to Littorai. Ted Lemon was not around, but we were ably taken around by Craig, who has worked there on and off for seven years. Craig took us around to see the Pivot vineyard, farmed biodynamically, but with irrigation drips throughout. Says they hope to be 100% dry farmed in about 3 years. All wines use native yeasts. Whites are whole cluster, reds are for the most part destemmed, though there is some whole cluster use depending on vintage characteristics. There has been no acidification in single vineyard wines for the last 10 years. Craig showed us exhibits related to composting and flowers used for biodynamic spray preparations, as well as soil samples from the different vineyards sourced by Littorai (of which only a few are proprietary). Craig was eloquent on the subject of the variety of local micro climates, and how average temperature and the high-low range varies significantly with distance from the ocean and the presence of gaps like the Petaluma Gap. He said that extremely cold water coming down form the Arctic cools the coastal area and generates the widespread fog when it comes into contact with the warmer air. Craig was able to talk about new oak and whole cluster percentages, but seemed less informed regarding SO2 usage, something possibly telling that I would encounter again at Porter Creek.
The pinots we tasted were, as usual, arranged in order of increasing complexity, though the three single vineyards cost the same. Curiously, they were also arranged in order of descending alcohol, which I believe contributed to each one being more closed than the previous (my new pet theory is that higher alcohol, other things equal, makes wines less closed because of the higher rate of evaporation). Agains, I would encounter something quite similar at Porter Creek the following morning.
2013 Littorai B.A. Thieriot Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 13.1% $75
25% NFO, 75% 3-10 yrs old. Oak, white flowers and hay. Lovely citric acidity and weight. Beautiful, just needs time to absorb the oak.
2012 Littorai Les Larmes Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 13.8% $40
Anderson Valley appellation PN. Candied red fruit. Sappy, with excellent acidity and structure. Fruit not candied in the mouth, no discernible oak.
2013 Littorai Platt Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 13.4% $70
Sees 25/30% NFO. Attractive aroma; spicy, strong personality. Very nice balance and weight, good acidity. Richest of the three single vineyards, but not at all excessive.
2013 Littorai Pivot Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 13.1% $70
Estate owned. Relatively closed, with some red fruit and red flowers. Good acidity and structure. Very nice, though not particularly distinctive at this early point.
2013 Littorai Mays Canyon Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 12.3% $70
Totally closed. Astringent acidity and good structure. Contextually, one has to give this the benefit of the doubt, but currently showing very little.
06/25 Lunch at Peter Lowell's in Sebastopol. Atmosphere leaves something to be desired, but good food and wine list.
2013 La Clarine Farms Albariño Sierra Foothills BTG
Light floral aroma. Lovely tangy acidity, good balance, more than the sum of its parts. Very nice.
2014 Matthiasson Linda Vista Chardonnay Napa Valley BTG
Attractively aromatic, no oak. Slightly caramelized sweetness greater than the acidity. Friendly wine.
2014 County Line Rosé Pinot Noir Anderson Valley BTC
From Eric Sussman, who makes the not-so-pleasing Radio-Coteau reviewed above. Lovely floral and mineral aroma. Good citric acidity, balance and weight. Simple, but lovely.
06/25 Afternoon visit to the Wind Gap tasting room in Sebastopol's new The Barlow shopping complex. Impressive array of wines.
2014 Wind Gap Fannuchi-Wood Road Trousseau Gris 11.7% BTG
Harvested in three passes for ideal maturity levels. A bit closed, flowery. Beautifully vibrant, citric acidity, good body. Very good.
2014 Wind Gap Fox Hill Vineyard Rosé North Coast 11.3% BTG
Mostly nebbiolo, with some dolcetto. Closed. Very pleasant, with good balance and structure. Very nice.
2014 Wind Gap Soif Old Vine Red Blend North Coast 11.5% BTG
Blend of five grapes, vinified in concrete eggs, fully carbonic. Fruity aromas, fruity taste, with good balance and mouth feel.
2013 Wind Gap Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 12.7% BTG
From five vineyards. Nice stemmy pinosity. Very nice mouthfeel, good balance and weight. According to the server, all Wind Gap pinots are 100% whole cluster.
2012 Wind Gap Nellessen Vineyard Skinny Jeans +/- 11.0% BTG
50/50 red blend of syrah and viognier, fermented with full carbonic in concrete eggs, the CO2 stemming from fermenting juice because more natural that injecting CO2. Tasted with skepticism because of the high % of viognier, but very appealing red fruit aromas with some syrah tar. Fruity, balanced, with good weight and acidity. The most fun wine of the trip. Not sold in bottles, only in growlers.
06/26 Morning visit to Porter Creek tasting room. Alex Davis was out, but we were well cared for by Paul, an amiable Scot. Like Craig at Littorai, he knew his whole clusters and NFO percentages, but not SO2. Also like Littorai, the pinots were served in order of descending alcohol, and were increasingly closed, feeding my volatility theory. According to Paul, Porter Creek is the oldest biodynamic winery in Sonoma County, since 1997. All pinots are fully destemmed.
2013 Porter Creek Chardonnay Russian River Valley 13.9% $36
23% NFO. Oak aroma, but still young. Lively citric fruit. Good balance and weight. Very nice.
2012 Porter Creek George’s Hill Chardonnay 12.7% $46
Demeter certified. Estate grown. Wild yeasts. 23% NFO. Very similar to the previous, perhaps up a notch.
2013 Porter Creek Timbervine Ranch Viognier Russian River Valley-Sonoma County 14.7% $36
Closed. More sweet than acid, but not as egregiously as one might expect from grape and alcohol level. Nice enough, all things considered, but not my cuppa.
2014 Porter Creek Rosé Sonoma County
