It’s not every day that I sit down to a mountain of wines for tasting and evaluation and get up two hours later wishing there were more to come.
Then again, it’s not every day that I run through a lineup as consistently stellar as the one my trusty assistant set up earlier this week. Wine after wine ranked high in my tasting notes, with 90-point-plus scores flowing from my pen.
Of course, there had to be a ringer in the group. Indeed, I had the good fortune to have a run of Dutton Goldfield vineyard-designated Pinot Noirs. This Sonoma County producer has been on a stupendous roll the past several years, cranking out with seeming ease well-balanced, complex Pinots and Chardonnays while rivals challenged our tolerance — and patience — for alcohol and oak.
Dutton Goldfield had it dialed in all along, and the new releases from the 2007 vintage are merely another in a string of successes.
I run down the superb Dutton Goldfield Pinots from Devil’s Gulch, Dutton Ranch/Freestone Hill, McDougall and Dutton Ranch/Sanchietti in this week’s WRO Reviews pages, as well as an outstanding Pinot from the Sta. Rita Hills and a limited-production Syrah from Chuck and Matt Ortman.
Enjoy!
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