Since returning from nearly two months out of the country touring some of the wine world’s hottest spots (I counted 24 separate airline flights in the month of October alone), I’ve been diving into my backlog of wine samples with gusto.
A few great California Cabs. Some very nice aromatic whites from all over. Most impressive, an array of superb California Pinot Noirs. And I’ve only just begun.
In the upcoing issue of WRO, most of which will be posted by the end of the day today or early Wednesday morning, I look at a couple of new releases from Rutz Cellars. I hadn’t tasted Rutz in several vintages and don’t remember being as impressed with this Russian River Valley producer.
The wines are not only stunning, they are stylistically true to origin, which is the Burgndian model, of course. I also recently tasted and subsequently reviewed a couple of new releases from Gary Farrell, whom I consider America’s pre-emminent Pinot Noir guru.
And before that I waded into some very nice Calera Pinots from the 2002 vintage. All of this outstanding Pinot reminds me that until not too long ago Pinot Noir did not enjoy such a great reputation domestically, and that was reflected in the sales figures.
After the movie “Sideways”, demand for Pinot Noir spiked, and so did awareness. My how times have changed, and for the better. When it comes to domestic Pinot Noir, we seem to have an embarrassment of riches.
Not in my wildest dreams…
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