Pinot Days

It seems harder and harder these days to comment on the tastings I go to, especially these HUGE ones. Pinot Days, the latest, took place in an airport hangar out in Santa Monica. The list of participating wineries was enormous. How the hell could I even begin to comment on all these wines, let alone take tasting notes? I was there tasting for five hours!

Alana Estate
Arcadian Winery
Archery Summit
August West
Baxter Winery
Bazaar Boutique
Belle Glos Wines
Belle Pente Vineyard & Winery
Benovia Winery
Big Table Farm
Bjornstad Cellars
Bouchaine Vineyards
Buena Vista Carneros
C.Donatiello Winery
Cargasacchi Vineyard
Carr Vineyards & Winery
Cima Collina
Clos Pepe Vineyards
Clouds Rest Vineyards, LLC
Coho Wines
DeLoach Vineyards
Demetria Estate
Derbes Wines
Derby Wine Estates
domaine chandon
Domaine Serene
Donum Estate/Robert Stemmler
Dutton-Goldfield Winery
Etude Vineyards & Winery
Evening Land Vineyards
Fess Parker Winery
Flying Goat Cellars
Fort Ross Vineyard & Winery
gainey vineyard
Gary Farrell Winery
George Wine Company
Hahn Family Wines
Halleck Vineyard
Handley Cellars
Hirsch Vineyard and Winery
Hitching Post Wines
Ideal 55
Inception Wines
Inman Family Wines
J Vineyards & Winery
Keller Estate
Ken Brown Wines
Kendric Vineyards
Ketcham Estate
La Fenetre
La Rochelle Winery
Lachini Vineyards
Landmark Vineyards
Londer Vineyards
MacMurray Ranch
MacPhail Family Wines
MacRostie Winery
Mahoney Vineyards
McIntyre vineyards
Melville
Merry Edwards Wines
Morgan Winery
Native9 Wine
Olson Ogden Wines
Pali Wine Company
Papapietro Perry Winery
Paraiso Vineyards
Paul Mathew Vineyards
Pfendler Vineyards
Pillow Rd. Vineyard
Pisoni Vineyard & Winery
Prodigal Wines
Riverbench Vineyard & Winery
Robert Talbott Vineyards
San Francisco Wine Association
Sand Hill Wines - Durell Vineyard
Santa Lucia Highlands Wine Artisans
Scherrer Winery
Sequana Vineyards
Shandel's Oppenlander Vineyard
Small Vines Wines
Sojourn Cellars
Spell Estate
Stephen Ross Wine Cellars
Suacci Carciere Wines
Talisman Cellars
Talley Vineyards
Tantara Winery
Test Winery
Testarossa Vineyards
Thorne Wine
Three Sticks
TR Elliott
Veramonte
WesMar Winery
Willamette Valley Vineyards
WINDY OAKS ESTATE
Woodenhead
Zotovich Family Vineyards

At around 100 wineries, with an average of 5 wines a table, we're talking 500 wines. This isn't a complaint, mind you, just an appeal for sanity. How can anyone really taste that many wines, much less have concise, and fair notes? Makes you wonder about scores and official reviews... The best I could really do is offer up a short list, and some over all impressions.

07 pinots out of Santa Barbara are beautiful. we all know that, but what's interesting is the seem to be locking up a bit. Not overly tannic, but perhaps a bit hidden. I think this is a good sign, it means these are wines for the mid to long haul (as long as that really is for Cali Pinot anyway) but these should have some life ahead of them and are not mere flashes in the pan. The 08's in general are not as impressive by a long shot. Everyone seemed to be putting their best smile on, and they were far from a disaster, but many were hit by frost, and I've heard from a few producers that even their 09 crop was affected by the damage from 08. I've been saying it for awhile, and I continue to believe it, if you're a collector and you're actually still buying wines, pick up your 07 Cali Pinots.

So, onto my short list:

My three favorites:
Wesmar, Native 9, Ken Brown.
All solid producers, and I've been fans of their juice for awhile. Wesmar, and the Balletto vineyard in particular, always offers up a beautiful strawberry and bing cherry lightness that's almost irreverent when dealing with a room full of Big Overdone Cali Pinots, and more importantly, it pulls it off. Lovely juice.
James Ontiveros' Native 9 is always a favorite of mine. He was pouring his 08. There's a complexity and depth to James' wine that I just love. Even as I tasted it, I admitted to myself that maybe, and even likely, it wouldn't be the favorite in the room. Didn't offer up all it's beauty all at once, but it still had that something special going for it that keeps me coming back. A tough call because I know my personal bias led me towards it, but I don't care, still made my top three.
Ken Brown... well it's Ken Brown, always awesome, in fact I've never had anything less than greatness from any of his wines, his 08's are solid and his 07, awesome.

Then onto honorable mention:
Arcadian Winery
August West
Belle Glos Wines
Bjornstad Cellars
Cargasacchi Vineyard
Clos Pepe Vineyards
(Wes Hagen at Clos Pepe gets special mention as he also poured his 01 VS Pinot which was Stellar! His wines are some of the longest lasting, most collectable of the evening)
Domaine Serene
La Fenetre
MacPhail Family Wines
Melville
Merry Edwards Wines
Paraiso Vineyards
Pisoni Vineyard & Winery
Prodigal Wines
Riverbench Vineyard & Winery
Suacci Carciere Wines
Talisman Cellars
Zotovich Family Vineyards

And these are just of the wines I tasted, many were missed. What really stood out was the overall quality, not a stinker in the bunch, really and truely not one wine I didn't like. Actually, that's not true, wine exchange was pouring four wines and they had an Argentinian Pinot I didn't care for. Other than that though, an amazing collection of fantastic wines...