this heaven gives me migraine

2004 Red Car "Think Pink" Rosé

Region: California, US

Composition: Not sure, but it smells/tastes like Syrah

Background: I admit, I bought this on a rosé-buying spree (not just for the nifty bottle and very good label, but also because I really liked Red Car's "The Fight" when I had it back in May), but it is interesting that I am drinking it tonight, since I have been thinking a lot about people who take a chance to do what they want to do in life. People who do something that seems crazy or that requires faith in themselves, or even people who just pick up and change something because that is what they think they want. People without fear. (Or, maybe, people with fear but who are optimists or foolish or very very smart.) I am not one of those people, or at least I am one of those people who moves like a tortoise and needs to examine and overthink every decision and plan for all possible failures, including meteors, plagues of locusts, and the possibility that I will sprout a second head from my shoulders à la How to Get Ahead in Advertising, so I envy the people who decide something and then do it within a decade.

A few years ago, Carroll Kemp and Mark Estrin fled Hollywood to take a chance and make wine, first scraping together a couple of thousand dollars to make their first 50 barrels in Kemp's driveway, then procuring investment money to buy vineyards, and finally quitting their day jobs for the wine life. It was definitely one of those leap of faith endeavors, and they made it happen. They aren't enormously famous or anything, but they make small quantities of wine they love and love to make, and they get some money for it (and some recognition in wine circles). That isn't so bad, is it?

Kemp and Estrin named their winery "Red Car" after the old red Pacific Electric streetcars that used to be part of Southern California's transit system before that was all removed (silly transit systems, what's the point?) so the land could become Land of Cars. Hollywood storytelling came with them to their new jobs, becoming evident on their wine labels (not for this rosé, for some reason, but for all the other wines I have seen); each label has a paragraph telling a noir-style story about the wine, its name (usually something like "The Stranger" or "All-Night Radio") and the feeling it evokes. Supposedly, taken all together, the wine stories will tell a bigger story. This is something you don't see on labels every day, and while some people might find it hokey, I think it's creative and interesting enough. It's not like wine labels are usually that informative, and I tend not to trust them when they tell me things about the wine, anyway, so why not do something creative? It's way better than something horrible like "luxurious raspberry caresses your palate while oak-kissed cherries drift in and out on a tide of sumptuousness". Go, Red Car, tell me a story rather than feed me that kind of stuff.

Sadly, part of the Red Car story is that a few months ago, in May, Mark Estrin died of brain cancer at 57. I am glad that he (as the story goes) listened to the fortune cookie that made him brave enough to take the leap and join his friend Carroll Kemp to form Red Car, and in doing it found something that he loved.

Notes: This is a dark rosé, one of those rosés that is really almost a red. It's a cherry red in the glass, clear but intense, and has slightly salmon highlights. The rosepetal and strawberry/raspberry nose will almost bowl you over when you open the bottle. It's aggressive and mouthfilling with enough acid to hold up to the intense red fruit followed by a cola and spice finish. The spice was rigid and slightly bitter when I opened the bottle, but is now softening with a little exposure to air and while the spice is staying, the bitterness is going away. The spice makes me think this is probably Syrah, and this is one of those wines that starts out slow but ramps up to a big finish.

I think I like it better once it sits out for a while and calms down. It's a little over the top for me straight from the bottle, and nice after a half hour or so sitting around. I just let some sit out for about two hours, and now the nose has faded to almost nothing, but it still has the soft, watery start ending in a big burny spicy finish that really sticks around with you for a while. I think it is somewhat challenging and I don't absolutely love it, but it is interesting to drink and I am enjoying it despite its flaws. Maybe I will have the rest tomorrow night with actual food and see how that goes. I kind of had ice cream for dinner (not much, and with a lot of peaches and nectarines, so that isn't as bad as it sounds) and did not drink the wine with it because that would have been very very bad.

Cost: $15

Overall: B (maybe a B-)

2004 Kalyra Sauvignon Blanc

Region: California, US

Composition: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Background: I haven't been drinking much worthy of discussion recently. Partly because I haven't been drinking much, and partly because the drinking I have been doing has been out of desperation. I have had a headache for the last two weeks, see. And when you have a headache, you often don't feel like drinking (or cooking, or reading, or sleeping, or doing anything fun). It's pretty draining, having this headache for so long.

So I have been taking a lot of painkillers, seeing my doctor, taking Vicodin on occasion, and drinking only sometimes when I feel a little okay or get desperate for a break from the headache. I got this bottle out a few days ago after a bottle of the 2003 Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc (I stupidly have no notes for that, but I liked it better than this, and the finish was a little creamier and smoother). It was a hot night and I wanted more zippy clean wine, and given that I had at least half a headache and couldn't commit to a bottle of wine without thinking it might sit for days and go bad before I finished it, I figured I would open something cheap, at least.

Kalyra is located down in the Santa Ynez Valley of California, and most of the grapes they use are from Santa Barbara County. The label is the brainchild of one Michael Brown, who makes wines under the Kalyra label as well as wines made from Australian grapes, which he bottles under the M. Brown label.

(Other than their own website, there isn't a lot of info on Kalyra out there in the world, but I would be remiss by not mentioning that you can see the tasting room in Sideways... it's the one Sandra Oh's character works in.)

Notes: This is pale straw in the glass with chartreuse glints, and has a typical Sauvignon Blanc-y herbaceous green nose with some apple and nectarine, with vanilla undertones. It's mostly tart green apple on the palate, and has some herbal spice in the finish, and a lingering green apple flavor, once you get over that bitter bump. It's a simple Sauvignon Blanc, and fine for hot weather, although not overly remarkable. I did finish the bottle, eventually, so that says something (I have two open and probably bad at this point bottles lying around that I never got around to finishing, and that usually means I didn't like something about them).

Cost: $8 (from Trader Joe's here in SF-- it looks like it is normally about $10-$14)

Overall: B

1999 Fritz Rockpile Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: California, US

Composition: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Background: Fritz Winery has been undergoing a Renaissance of sorts for the last few years, evidenced first to me by their changing labels, since I am a label junkie. They used to employ an Eighties-style label that looked cheesy at worst and dated at best, and now they have moved to a much more sedate style of label involving some animals I think of mentally as "dinobirds" on it (I think they are really just peacocks or grouse or some land-bird along those lines, but the posing makes me think of dinosaur dioramas). From what I can tell the actual switch in labelling came about in 2001/2002, but because some of the older wines are just now being released, you can find a mix of labels for Fritz wines in the stores.

Jay and Barbara Fritz started Fritz winery in 1979, converting a family farm retreat they had owned since 1970 into a winery. It was the height of the energy crisis and gas shortage worries (as I can remember, since I was in elementary school at the time, being inundated with those "This Is A Landfill (Don't Be Part Of The Problem And Throw Things Away)" movies and Big Blue Marble), and echoing those early 1970s sentiments, they did the green thing and built an energy-conscious winery that is actually underground in a hillside. In 1996, they decided to ramp up their winemaking, and started making changes. They hired Helen Turley on as consultant, and worked with her for a few years. In 2002, they hired Christina Pällmann, who had worked with Jacques Seysses at Domaine Dujac, and Blair Walters at Felton Road, and she is now consulting with Merry Edwards on the winemaking.

This wine is interesting because it is a single vineyard Cab (Rockpile, no less... in what is now the Rockpile AVA, I believe, but that didn't happen until 2002) and it is cheap. It is about fifteen bucks normally, but I got some through my wine club for less than nine. And it is fairly simple and fruity, but still, for nine bucks it is a very good Cabernet. And I don't usually even like Cabernet very much, but this is kind of a guilty pleasure Cabernet.

In any case, it was just what I needed last night, after a weekend of weddings and cleaning and not enough studying. The exam is in ten days, I have an opera to see tonight, and my parents roll into town on Thursday. I am already having nightmares about misidentifying wines in blind tastings, and even though I need the next week to finish preparations (I am still trying to memorize all the sub-regions in Australia and where they are/what climates they possess/what grapes they grow, not to mention Bulgaria and Romania), I kind of wish it was over already, because I am tired of dreaming about wine (last night, I was creating a cellar from scratch, and that isn't even on the test).

Notes: Deep garnet with a slightly paler rim. Forward nose of black currants, bell pepper, mint, maybe some pine or spruce. Nicely balanced in the mouth... not a lot of tannin, enough but not a ton of acid. Pleasant persistent black cherries and currants, a tiny bit of leather, and minty freshness. It's simple and fruity, not complicated and brooding like a grown-up Cabernet, but tasty and easy enough to drink. I think that it is excellent value for the price, and am sad to see K&L is already sold out of it. It's the kind of thing you can take just about anywhere and people will enjoy it, rightly so.

Cost: $9 from my wine club (normally about $15)

Overall: B

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(Old Fritz versus New Fritz, label-wise, for those interested:)

2001 Penner-Ash Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: Tonight we have the second in the mystery lot of discount wines (mostly Pinot Noir from Oregon) I picked up the other day, the same lot that handed me the somewhat unlucky St. Innocent the other night. This time I fared better. This wine is definitely somewhat evolved, but still very tasty.

Penner-Ash is located in Newberg, Oregon, and it looks like they just opened a new sustainable (good for them) gravity flow (who isn't doing that these days?) winery last May, situated at one of their vineyards. They focus on Pinot Noir and Syrah, and dabbled in Viognier last year, releasing it this year. Lynn Penner-Ash is the winemaker, and worked at Stag's Leap in Napa before moving to Oregon, where she made wine at at Rex Hill before buying some land and releasing her first vintage of Pinot Noir (the 1998, and only 124 cases of it) under the Penner-Ash label in 2000. By the time she released this 2001, which is a blend of several vineyards (whereas their other Pinots are single-vineyard offerings), she had upped the ante somewhat, and was making a lot more wine-- 831 cases of this were made.

The strangest thing about this bottle is the very deep punt. If you believed that punt depth determines the price of a wine, this wine would be very expensive indeed. I could almost jam my fingers up to my knuckle into the punt, which prompted a spate of bad punning in the house, and I spent a long time trying to get a picture of it, the results of which you can see on the right. I finally measured it and it was almost three inches deep! That is just strange, and it does make the bottle very fat compared to normal bottles with their puny punts. I guess it is another way to stand out from all those other silly Burgundy bottles on the shelf.

Notes: Medium ruby in the glass, this has a nose of smoky meat, leaves, sweet earth, and some black cherry. It's medium-weight in the mouth with some cherry, earth, and cinnamon/allspice. There's also some slight burnt toast and coffee (just like breakfast!), but not too much. The finish is soft, with little tannin but some nice lingering warm spices and a very very faint cherry cough drop flavor that is lasts a good long time (unlike a wine I had last week which was overpoweringly cherry cough drop flavored). Overall it is very plush and lush and full; hedonistic.

I could put these notes into WSET lingo, which kind of takes the joy out of things but is very thorough and makes me consider things I don't always remember to consider. Perhaps I should do this more often:

Appearance

Clarity clear
Intensity deep
Color garnet
Other core much darker than pale pinkish rim

Nose

Condition clean
Intensity pronounced
Development developing/aged
Aroma characteristics cherry, smoke, tobacco, meat, earth

Palate

Sweetness dry
Acidity low-medium
Tannin low
Body light-medium
Intensity medium-pronounced
Bubbles none
Flavor characteristics cherry, earth, cinnamon, allspice
Alcohol level medium
Length long

Conclusions

Quality good
Maturity ready to drink
Value category high-priced

Cost: $20 (originally $45)

Overall: A-

2000 St. Innocent Pinot Noir, Freedom Hill Vineyard

Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: Sometimes you hear about a wine sale going on online and you get the chance to order a bunch of wine really cheap. Sometimes the wine is older, so you know you are taking a chance, but you do anyway, and you go into the venture with eyes wide open knowing you could end up with some dead bottles. You take that chance because it's all in the name of learning, and it's good to try older/dead bottles, too, since you don't see a lot of them on the market (unless you seek them out or have them in your personal collection). Anyway, that's how I came across this bottle.

I've seen St. Innocent Pinot Noir all over the place, but haven't ever tried it. I understand that this probably isn't the best example of their wine... on the St. Innocent website the winemaker says that Temperance Hill wasn't always his favorite:

Temperance Hill usually does not achieve the complexity of my other Pinots. It is not a wine I gush about or drink much. The 2000 Pinot noir, Temperance Hill is different. The growers have been working very hard to get the vines in balance and their success is evident in 2000.

The problem with 2000 was that even though the vines were getting sorted out, the vintage was a little underwhelming. There weren't any big weather problems that year (it looks like 1999, 2000, and 2001 were all fine vintages in Oregon), but I guess that particular site didn't fare as well and the fruit was okay but not spectacular. The resulting wine didn't have a lot of fruit or structure and I guess the winemaker could only do so much with it (he says the year 2000 was the year of terroir for the wines... they reflect the site as much as anything else). And while I am sure it was fine when it was released back in 2002 (and for a while thereafter), it's a little weary now: whatever fruit was there is gone, and there isn't a lot else to hold it up, mostly a lot of oak effect (the wine was aged for 16 months in 30 percent new American oak). 481 cases were made and I hope they were all consumed long before now.

Notes: This is a brownish-burgundy in the glass, clear but looking a little older. It has a nice rustic nose of forest floor and earch and mushroom, with a little blackberry and smoke. There's some strawberry/cherry on the tongue, but it is pretty overwhelmed by smoke and iodine and some rough tannins. The finish bursts with some oaky spiciness, but then fades off. I kept a half bottle around for round two the second night, and it was pretty bad by then, even though I kept it cold and gassed it. The second night it was all tannin and no fruit, which is to be expected from a Pinot that didn't have a lot of fruit to begin with and is also over the hill (or in a temporary bad spell, although I am not sure where it could go from here). It was okay but not great the first night, but the second night I gave up on it. It tried its best.

Cost: $20 at release in 2002 (I picked it up recently for about $10)

Overall: C-

2002 Edmunds St. John "Rocks and Gravel"

Region: California, US (Berkeley, even!)

Composition: 65% Mourvèdre, 25% Counoise, 10% Syrah

Background: Oh, those wacky kids over in Berkeley, with their "bottled by intuition and blind luck" note on the label. Steve Edmunds and his wife Cornelia St. John are the wacky kids in question, and they started Edmunds St. John in 1985, with the idea of attempting to grow Rhône grapes and make terroir-driven wine in California-- not such a crazy idea now, but back in 1985, it was probably a bit of a wild venture. They have always been low key and self-funded, and have been making wine in a variety of warehouses over in Emeryville and Berkeley.

This is my first Edmunds St. John wine, and I have been interested in them for a while since I hear good things of their Syrah (I was recently foiled in an attempt to get some, recently). This particular wine has some Syrah in it, but the blend is usually dominated by Grenache. I guess in 2002 they couldn't find any Grenache, so this blend is Mourvèdre-based. The grapes are sourced from a variety of vineyards in California, from Paso Robles to Placerville, hence its designation as California Red Wine. Only 607 cases were made.

Notes: Blue-crimson in the glass with a light pink edge. A very brambly sweet-fruit nose with a strong ash and smoke element that I find a bit overwhelming. Berries, pencils, old leather, spice, and some gamey aromas are also floating around in there. In the mouth it initially full of black fruit, but that is quickly overcome with a wash of strong smoked leather. If I could remember ever eating jerky, I might think it was a little like that. The finish has some soft tingly tannins, and it lingers for a long time, leaving you with a subdued pleasant smoky flavor in your mouth. Overall it's a little too much on the smoky side for me, even though I do like it. When I tasted it a day later I thought the nose was a little much, still, but the flavors had smoothed out overall and in the mouth it was less smokily overwhelming. I think it really wanted some roasted meat to show off.

Maybe it's just this vintage (probably, since it sounds like this vintage was unusual), but I thought it was amusing that there was a lot of stuff in this wine, but not a lot of rocks or gravel. It could have been called "Smoke and Meat".

Cost: $20

Overall: B-

2004 Chehalem Pinot Gris

Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Gris

Background: I am in the throes of frantic study for my WSET exam in July (and wondering what I was thinking, as well as wishing I could drink wine and study effectively at the same time, but that isn't possible), so I haven't been drinking much at all, but I made an effort to sit down with some wine tonight so I could participate in Wine Blogging Wednesday 10, the not-Noir Pinot challenge. We sat down with this, some bread and cheese, and an episode of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. I may or may not get through Germany and Austria later tonight, at this rate.

Today was a lousy day for a crisp white wine here in San Francisco... it's been rainy and cool and drizzly all day, and I would much rather be drinking a nice rustic Minervois or Southern Rhone tonight, not a sprightly white. But for Wine Blogging Wednesday, I go the extra mile. And I think we had a winner... someone else in the house was eye-rolling about having to drink a white wine on a day like this. He had some, and opened a red since that was more in keeping with the weather, but I notice he went back to this after a glass of the red.

I have had and enjoyed Chehalem Pinot Noir before, and chose their Pinot Gris because I had some at Chez Panisse back in April and enjoyed it enough to want to try it again and pay more attention to it.

Chehalem was founded in 1990, and is in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, about 45 minutes south of Portland. They make a variety of Pinots (Noir, Gris, Blanc) as well as a couple of Chardonnays, and I certainly hope to visit them someday, next time I fly up to Portland (we drove the first/last time we were up there, and that drive is LONG). Chehalem is pretty dedicated to terroir and was involved with an interesting "transparent winemaking" experiment with some pals over at Rex Hill and Bethel Heights wineries back in 1998. (I love experiments like those because I love all things conceptual). They model their Pinot Gris after Alsatian Pinot Gris, favoring complexity and a full body, and they bottle the wines in flûtes d'Alsace, the traditional long, thin bottles used in the French region. They also use a very nifty-looking screwcap that I liked.

Notes: Greenish straw in the glass, like dried grass, something I am seeing a lot in California of these days, the freak rains notwithstanding. The full nose of honeyed peach with pineapple is forward, but not overwhelming. It's snappy when it first hits the tongue, with a lot of tart fruit right off (more stone fruit), and it finishes with tart green apple and apricot, along with some honeyed undertones. We had it with some Hudson Valley Camembert, Cypress Grove Pepper Chevre, and quince paste (...I called it "dinner!"), and it was pleasant. It has a lot of weight to it, and is almost Chardonnay-like in body. My only complaint is the apricot-bittersweetness at the finish, and the fact that overall the finish is a little heavy and clunky for the rest of the wine.

Before I sat down and picked it apart like this, I enjoyed it a lot more. Back then I had it with pasta and asparagus with green garlic and cream. I thought it went really well with those things, even the pesky-to-match asparagus, and the funky finish didn't bother me at all. This is what happens when you pay attention....

Cost: $15

Overall: B

2004 Etude Rosé

Region: Carneros, California, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: Yet another notch in my Pinot Noir/Rosé belt. Of the rosés I have had in recent months, this is my favorite, my weirdness about Etude notwithstanding. I am continuing to try others, partly because this one is pricey for a rosé and hard to get, and partly because, well, what is life without experimentation? I still love it. I can tell I love it because I tend to hoard it and when occasions come up, I debate if they are worth the Etude Rosé. I can't hoard it too long, though, because then I would have old rosé and that could be ugly.

Tony Soter made this wine before, but stopped production about a decade ago. The masses have been clamoring for its return (or he thought it was worth revisiting) and he's making it again- this 2004 version was a trial run of 600 cases. I hear he sold them all, and quickly. Bacar (watch out, silly flash intensive site with a possibly outdated menu/wine list) has this on their glass menu right now, for anyone wanting to try it without serious commitment. It looks like K&L also has a few bottles left.

Etude has been around since about 1982, and is Soter's original effort to make wine, hence the name "Etude" (French for "study"). The focus is Pinot Noir, but Soter also makes a couple of other wines under the label. In 2001, Beringer Blass bought Etude, which Soter says allowed him to expand and improve the winery without going into debt/taking on partners. This move probably also allowed Soter to focus more on his other label, Soter Vineyards, located up in Oregon, and explore his interest in sparkling wine as well as continue his work with Pinot Noir.

Notes: This may possibly be the girliest wine in existence, and I mean that in a good way. It's a very feminine wine... elegant and refined and soft. In the glass it is a clear salmon pink with some orangey glints, and the nose is goregous... all honeysuckle and strawberries with honey and rose. In the mouth it is full of berry fruit, mostly strawberry and cherry, and has a soft finish full of more berry and rose. There is some acid in the finish, but not a ton, and it is silky and pillowy and the flavor lingers for a long time. I think part of the reason I like it so much is that everything is so well-integrated and balanced that it is a pleasure to drink. If you could drink a glass of silk and soft velvet, this would be it. It has a ton of fruit in it, but is not sweet or cloying.

Cost: $18

Overall: A

2004 Robert Sinskey Vin Gris of Pinot Noir

This is the rosé of stress that turned into the rosé of celebration. I had big plans for this WBW, and have five different rosés socked away. I was going to compare and contrast! I was going to drink more than one! And then Helsinki happened. Or didn't happen, really.

As of last Wednesday, I had a trip to Helsinki planned for work the week of the 15th. As of Thursday, nobody was going. As of Friday, no one was sure who was going but somebody was going. As of yesterday, we the involved were going, and I rushed to find a ticket and buy one. As of 5.15 this (Tuesday) afternoon, I was not going and wasn't supposed to. In between all that fun the last few days have been a lot of scrambling and preparation and you name it for this trip.

So I just spent some nerve-wracking time on the phone with Joshua of Expedia (who rocks) and he got everything cancelled and sorted out and once I return the power adapters I picked up, the only money I am out for the trip is for some books and magazines I picked up to read on the plane, things I will happily read anyway. And now I can do the things I wanted to do the weekends before and after without fear of stress or jetlag.

While I was on the phone dealing with this latest crisis I remembered that I needed to drink some rosé for Wine Blogging Wednesday 9, and here we are! I am only doing one, and I decided to get out a bottle of the Robert Sinskey, since everybody is going so nuts for it around these parts. I was hoping it would live up to the Etude Rosé, which I had about two weeks ago, and it was so good I am trying to track some more down.

In any case, I will either have to drink and post about a lot more rosés this summer, or have some sort of rosé party and compare the remaining three or four bottles. In the meantime, I have this.

Region: Carneros, California, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: I don't know much about Robert Sinskey, other than that he was an advertising/photographer guy before he started making wine, because his dad (also named Robert) needed help at the winery. Dad Sinksey founded the winery in the late 1970's after retiring from medicine, but got called back into things because of his creation of an artificial lens for the human eye. Thus he hit up his son (who, it seems, was questioning his career choice) to come work for him, and here we are today. Their winemaker, Jeff Virnig, joined them as assistant winemaker in 1988 and became one of the youngest winemakers in the valley when he took over the reins in 1991.

I do know a little about rosé wines; mainly that there are three ways to make them:

1- You take black grapes, press them, and immediately run off and ferment the resulting juice (which is usually very pale). This makes a vin gris.
2- You take black grapes, press them, and let the juice sit for a few hours (maybe a day or two) with the skins before runoff and fermentation, so that the juice is colored by the skins, but not so much color as you would get for a red wine.
3- You use the saignée method, and dump all of your black grapes into a tank and press them. Once they sit a while, you bleed off some of the juice (hence the name) to make your rosé. And then you can make red wine with the leftovers if you want. This is like #1 above but you get both rosé and red wine out of the deal (and the red wine is usually pretty intense, since you have the same concentration of pips and skins and tannins, but with less juice).

You can also blend red wine and white wine to make rosé, but that is becoming more uncommon and is considered cheesy, especially in Europe, where it is banned outside of Champagne (rosé Champagne is made that way, and it is the exception). And contrary to what a lot of people think about pink wine, most (or at least a lot) of rosé is dry, not sweet and candylike.

Notes: It's slightly too pink to really be salmon, but it is a goregous color. Let's say rosy salmon in the glass, clear as water. It's got a fairly uncomplicated nose of toast and strawberries, with hints of grapefruit and some white flowers like jasmine. On the palate it has a lot more strawberry and cherry, and has a zingy finish that is all lemon and citrus. I thought the finish was slightly bitter and a little too acidic when it was freshly opened, but once it sat out for a little while and softened up, it was more enjoyable (the bitterness never completely went away, though). Or maybe it was the fact that I was off the phone and very relieved. Or the fact that I had a salad with it (mâche and pears with some goat cheese and simple vinaigrette).

Cost: $15

Overall: B

2003 Radio-Coteau "Savoy"

Region: Anderson Valley, California, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: This is the second vintage of wines from Eric Sussman and winery Radio Coteau, (a phrase meaning "hillside broadcast", or, "word of mouth"). Sussman makes four Pinot Noirs, a Syrah, and a Zinfandel. I had the 2002 Timbervine Syrah last summer, and remember that I learned exactly what the scent of geranium was from it, while enjoying it quite a bit.

Sussman made 440 cases of the Savoy Pinot Noir and they are already sold out, according to the winery website (I know you can still get them here and there, but they are not easy to come by). The names of the wines all reflect those of the growers/vineyards the grapes come from, with the exception of the "Neblina" Pinot Noir blend. Sussman is a deliberate and dedicated winemaker, and this wine is the result of not one, but several passes through the vineyard to obtain grapes at optimal ripeness (not a completely uncommon practice, but still very meticulous and dedicated). He bottles his wines unfined and unfiltered.

Notes: This is a ruby blue-red in the glass, and has a slightly hot nose full of black cherry along with vanilla and cinnamon cookie spice. The vanilla became more prevalent as the wine opened, up, but we didn't get to decant it and I am afraid we did the wine a terrible injustice by drinking it this young in the first place. So we added insult to injury by not decanting it. It is slightly thin-seeming early on in the mouth and the fruit is not fully fleshed out, but it has a lot of spice and even a hint of leather and smoke in it, especially in the finish. It was pleasant enough, but I did not love it, and I think that is probably somewhat to do with the fact that it is still very young (I was warned of this beforehand, so I can only blame myself there). I wouldn't mind revisiting it in a year or two, if I can find a bottle, because I respect Sussman and what he is doing.

Cost: $40-$50

Overall: B