2009 California Pinot Noir: Best Vintage Ever?

Wine Spectator called the 2007 California Pinot Noir vintage the "best ever". Now there's talk 2009 might be even better than 2007. The skeptic in me is starting to think this is like Bordeaux where a vintage of the century comes around three out of five years, but the reality is Pinot Noir consumption outpaces all other varieties combined around here so I'm paying attention to the accolades and buying 2009 California Pinot Noir. Although Oregon's Willamette Valley has a reputation for being the home of domestic Pinot Noir, all things considered I prefer the options available from California.

It's mostly because south of $30 I've had better luck with California Pinot Noir. Many of the lower-end bottlings from Oregon I've tried fall flat on the mid-palate and are accompanied by a green/stemmy aftertaste that sometimes dominates the flavor profile. It's not to say that there aren't fantastic Oregon Pinot Noirs. Far from it. But of the wines available in Massachusetts it seems like you have to spend north of $40 to find an outstanding bottle.

And that's not the case with California Pinot Noir. While it's not easy to find a great California Pinot Noir for around $25, higher production levels and wider distribution do make it possible.

If you search Wine Spectator's tasting notes for 90+ point Pinot Noir made in the US since 2006 costing less than $20 you'll find 5 wines. Two of them were made by Siduri (their 2007 Sonoma County and 2007 Willamette Valley).

As we look at early ratings for 2009s, three wines from Siduri again stand out: The 2009 Siduri Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (91WS/$29), the 2009 Siduri Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (also 91WS/$29), and the 2009 Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir (92WS/$29).

I tried the 2009 Russian River Valley a while back and was unimpressed. I thought it was a little over-ripe and hot at points. I'd rate it 87 points. This left me a little "spooked" until I tried the 2009 Santa Lucia Highlands at the Wine Spectator event in Boston a while back. It showed quite well so I tracked down a bottle to try. I'm glad I did.

The 2009 Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir is a powerful and focused wine with classic California Pinot Noir markings. It's generously fruit-forward with primarily black cherry notes but refrains from straying into over-ripe territory - at least for my palate. It finishes clean with just the slightest bit of heat on the backend. Overall an outstanding wine. I'll go along with Spectator's rating on this one: 92 points WWP.

I think it's one to check out, especially if you can find it for less than $25. It's also trending a point or two higher than the 09 Siduri Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast bottlings on CellarTracker. A terrific example of outstanding California Pinot Noir and an insightful window into the 2009 California vintage.

Check it out:
Siduri website
2009 Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands on CellarTracker
2009 Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands on Wine-Searcher.com

I have more 2009 California Pinot Noir recommendations coming up, and a deeper analysis of the 2009 vintage. I'd love it if you subscribed to the site so we can keep in touch.

Question of the Day: What are your impressions of 2009 California Pinot Noir? Which producers are you buying from?


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/RdgHORQkJLM/2009-california-pinot-noir-best-vintage.html

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WineFest @ CrossRoads Frisco, Texas

Some really exciting news out of CrossRoads Winery in Frisco, Texas.  WineFest October.  Looking for some great music, wine and great people? This is the place to be.  The Munson Wine Trail and some extra all under one roof.  Tastings from each of the wineries and commemorative glass and some really great tasting cheeses in […]

Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2011/07/17/winefest-crossroads-frisco-texas/

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Napa Valley Harvest 2011: Risk

This last Saturday, wine grape growers in Northern California got a taste of the underside of risk. Morning sprinkles provided a window into what could happen if a harvest already 3 weeks behind schedule is further effected by early spring...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FermentationTheDailyWineBlog/~3/T7IODDPkDzI/napa-valley-harvest-2011-risk.html

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The Lost Symbol, Quantum Mechanics and How Randall Grahm helped me Reconcile Biodynamics

By a country mile as the crow flies over a buried cow horn on the vernal equinox, Biodynamics is the subject I’m most interested in amongst a myriad of conversational issues that compete against each other in the wine business.  Yet, I’ve never been able to square with Biodynamics – the benefits or the bunkum – until now.

When Stu Smith of Smith-Madrone winery and author of the blog Biodynamics is a Hoax said in a recent interview, “It’s a fight between religion and science.  There’s no question about it.  The people that are mostly Biodynamic supporters are post-modernist skeptics of science” I paused and took it in.  Yet, I was also confused about the boundary lines that he drew.

We live in a complicated world.  It seems too tidy to draw boxes and say that BioD detractors are pragmatic and progressive in matters of viticulture who resent the piety of Biodynamic practitioners whilst the BioD folks shrug their shoulders when asked how Biodynamics works, eschewing modern day viticultural practice, gazing at a moon chart.

Meanwhile, as we’re noodling on these neat assignments, let’s also throw in secondary dubiousness with Demeter as the arbiter of standards (and depositor of checks), mix in the Biodynamic father Rudolf Steiner as an alleged charlatan and add a dash of societal convention that relies on burden of proof for outcomes. 

With this heady stew, we now have perfect assignments along with swirling sub-issues that force the interplay of capitalism, spirituality, philosophy and science that is nearly impossible to reconcile amongst even the most reasonable people.

Harrumph.

The problem-solver in me needs to transcend partisan Biodynamic views.  The facilitator in me wants to find common ground. 

I want to know the truth about Biodynamics.  Not necessarily THE TRUTH, but my own truth, a personal reconciliation even if it is: “There’s a lot in life we don’t understand and this is one of them.”

I’m okay with living in the space between so long as I’ve assigned value to the black of, “It’s a hoax” and the white of, “It’s religion.”

Why? Because unlike Smith’s assertion, there has to be more to Biodynamics than accepting the use of BioD practices as an article of faith.

Likewise, Biodynamics can’t be debunked as an article of faith, counter to science.  If so, it presumes that the base of our collective human knowledge is at an end point.  We know everything there is to know and so Biodynamics doesn’t fit because it’s not rooted with a base of empirical proof.

So, what if Biodynamics is neither religion nor science, but rather a hybrid of the two that isn’t fully understood?

After all, by its very definition, Biodynamics relates to:  the study of the effects of dynamic processes, such as motion or acceleration, on living organisms.

That’s what I’ve been exploring.  Undoubtedly, it’s not leading me to THE TRUTH, but it is leading me to a truth different than, “science” “hoax” and “religion.”

Katherine Cole’s new book Voodoo Vintners (see review) does an exceptional job of framing Biodynamics in a balanced manner, yet there’s one chapter that I found sticking with me long after finishing the book.

In Chapter Four titled, “Science … or Sci-Fi” Cole explores the emerging scientific realm of quantum mechanics – the idea that our bodies, minds and physical environment are a symbiotic elements of energy that interact and that our consciousness, our thoughts, can impact our world. Specifically, she cites a book called, The Field:  The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe by Lynne McTaggert.

The framework for Cole’s mention is the notion of “intention” in the vineyard.  The idea that, as she notes and deftly discredits in the paragraph, “The belief is that the preparations aren’t merely herbal treatments for plants; they’re carriers of the farmers’ intentions, which have been swirled into them through the powerful act of stirring.  While it isn’t a requirement for Demeter certification, intention is that little bit of witchcraft that separates the most committed practitioners from the unbelievers.”

Yet, what energy forces and “intention” distills down to is not a rejection of science, but an embrace of the most cutting edge of science.

Randall Grahm, the founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard, is quoted from his blog in the book noting, “The world of wine exists in a non-Euclidean space, and certainly partakes of the quantum universe; there are great discontinuities in what we know or imagine we know.”

With that, I made a mental note to pick-up, The Field.

Later, I read Ideal Wine by David Darlington, which covers some of the some topical area with more insight into the scientific quantum mechanics link and Biodynamics, including Steiner’s founding of the philosophical area of anthroposophy, a pre-cursor philosophy to the more scientifically-rooted, legitimized quantum mechanics.

After I purchased The Field, I noted that it had a cover blurb that said, “The author and science featured in The Lost Symbol.”

The Lost Symbol is author Dan Brown’s follow-up after the wildly successful book, The DaVinci Code.

By now I’m deep into the proverbial rabbit’s hole. The Lost Symbol is a mediocre story, but an incredible mix of historical insight, cutting edge new science in quantum mechanics and its relation to modern day man’s role in seeking spirituality.  And, unlike the DaVinci Code that took some liberties with the line between fact and fiction, Brown is quick to point out in the preface of The Lost Symbol that, “All rituals, science, artwork, and monuments in this novel are real.”

And Brown does, in fact, lean on the ideas in The Field and McTaggert’s subsequent book called, The Intention Experiment whilst the cottage industry of “decoding” The Lost Symbol books gives validation to the basis for the ideas presented.

For the two people that have read this far, all of this is pretty heady stuff and not easily explainable, which might partly account for the obfuscation in Biodynamics and wine.  You have to be really, really intellectually curious to spend the time, but here’s where I’m at and here’s my recommendation if you want to follow a similar path:

Biodynamics isn’t about science vs. religion or “post-modernist skeptics of science” as Smith put it.  The entire conversation is wrong.  It IS about science that isn’t fully understood – quantum mechanics.  In fact, there’s a growing body of evidence that science and religion are one and the same.  This may be pseudoscience to some, but, regardless, the wine and Biodynamics conversation needs to be about whether you believe in the cutting edge of science or whether you need empirical proof in the here and now.  Talking about anything else is bloviating with half-truths from ideological positions. 

Further, anybody interested in wine and trying to understand Biodynamics from a wine perspective is wasting their time by reading about Biodynamics through the lense of the agricultural practices.  Don’t spend any time on Nicolas Joly, or Monty Waldin, or any of the leaders in the field.  You’ll never get past the weird preparations and the attempt at the explanation thereof.

Instead, any attempt at understanding Biodynamics needs to come through a view of the emerging science side.  Get a notebook to take notes.  Read The Lost Symbol first.  Then, read a decoding book about The Lost Symbol.  This acts as an accessible introduction to a number of ideas.  Again, the ideas and facts are real, the story is fiction.  From there, read The Field and skim The Intention Experiment.  Then read Voodoo Vintners and Ideal Wine. 

Once this has been completed, fill in the gaps with internet research on Steiner and some of his history with Theosophy and later Anthroposophy and then wade into Google and Amazon.com searching for, “Quantum physics, God, Consciousness.”  Balance all of this with some quick searching on metaphysics to understand the delta and overlap between science, religion and philosophy.

If, after having done this, you haven’t completely confused the shit out of yourself, you’ll have gained a new enlightenment the least of which will be akin to Oliver Wendall Holmes quote, “Once the mind has been stretched by a new idea, it will never again return to its original size.”

As I mentioned earlier, when seeking a truth, I’m okay with “There’s a lot in life we don’t understand and this is one of them” and that’s where I come down on Biodynamics, but the conversation must not be framed in black and white terms.  Everybody around Biodynamics – the proponents and the detractors are operating in the gray and there is no one particular truth, but, and this is a big but, we might not be too far away from a deeper understanding.

A Partial Journey in Exploring Biodynamics:
image

Other stuff to read:
The science behind The Lost Symbol

Quantum Mysticism

Institute of Noetic Sciences

Space photo credit:  Wired.com

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/the_lost_symbol_quantum_mechanics_and_how_randall_grahm_helped_me_reconcile/

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Why importer Jose Pastor says ?no, gracias? to Wine Advocate scores

This week, our “set of titanium corkscrews” award goes to Jose Pastor. The 30-year-old Bay Area resident has a difficult business life selling Americans on the virtues of wines from such little-known grapes as Listan Blanco, Baboso, or Mantonegro from the Canary Islands and Mallorca. And since 2009, he’s added another challenge: selling his wines [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/fE6kCtNzDsg/

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