[wine] NYTimes.com Article: California Gets In on the Pinot Noir Game

The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by jellings(a)me.umn.edu. /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ THE CLEARING - IN THEATERS JULY 2 - WATCH THE TRAILER NOW An official selection of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, THE CLEARING stars ROBERT REDFORD and HELEN MIRREN as Wayne and Eileen Hayes - a husband and wife living the American Dream. Together they've raised two children and struggled to build a successful business from the ground up. But there have been sacrifices along the way. When Wayne is kidnapped by an ordinary man, Arnold Mack (WILLEM DAFOE), and held for ransom in a remote forest, the couple's world is turned inside out. Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/theclearing/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ California Gets In on the Pinot Noir Game April 14, 2004 By ERIC ASIMOV IN the last decade, pinot noir has been a real California success story. Pinot, the great red grape of Burgundy, was long considered too exacting - fickle is the clich� - to produce good wine in California. The climate was too warm, the soil too rich, the grape clones incorrect, the rootstocks improper, you name it. But once you have the taste of good pinot noir in your mouth, you thirst for more, and California winemakers persevered until they began to get it right. Through the 1990's, the map of pinot-noir-growing areas in California came into focus. These areas were typically cooled by coastal breezes, fogs or elevation, but warmed up enough in the daytime and into the fall for the grapes to ripen properly. Prime pinot territory has come to include the Arroyo Grande in San Luis Obispo County, the hilly areas in the Monterey Bay area, the Carneros region, the Russian River Valley, the Anderson Valley and, most recently, the Sonoma Coast and the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County. But even as the California wine industry congratulated itself on taming the pinot noir grape, critics sniped that the wine didn't taste like Burgundy. It was too heavy and too sweet, they said, making up with power, fruitiness and alcohol what it lacked in subtlety, earthiness and finesse. California partisans responded that their pinot noir has its own character and personality, and that those who insist on comparing it to Burgundy miss the point. After all, they said, even Burgundy doesn't often meet the Burgundy ideal. While both sides are correct, the California partisans can't help sounding defensive. Burgundy has always been the standard that California winemakers have striven to meet. Once in a while, they even get there. The single-vineyard wines of Calera are positively Burgundian in their intensity and elegance. But more often, even the best California pinots have been something else. To get a better idea of what that is, the Dining section wine panel tasted 25 of California's most celebrated pinot noirs from the excellent 2001 vintage. My colleagues Amanda Hesser and Florence Fabricant, our guest, Beth von Benz, the wine director at Judson Grill in Manhattan, and I were expecting the sweet fruit bombs so typical of California pinot. Instead, we were surprised by their balance and character. The wines we liked best weren't blockbusters; they were nuanced and interesting, combining vibrant fruit with an unexpected earthy character. In short, they were pointing to Burgundy. Bound by what we could purchase retail, we were not able to include some of the most hotly pursued California pinots, like Kistler and DuMol, which are hard to come by. Some wineries, like Marcassin and Calera, have not yet released their 2001's. One bottle I was eager to taste, a Rozak Ranch from Brewer-Clifton in Santa Barbara County, was corked and undrinkable. Nonetheless, we were able to try a good enough cross-section of California's top pinots to give us cause for optimism. Our No. 1 wine, for instance, the Littorai Thieriot Vineyard from the Sonoma Coast, seemed to combine the best of both worlds, mixing plush California fruitiness with Burgundy's more elegant texture. Littorai's winemaker, Ted Lemon, trained in Burgundy. Like many California pinot producers he gets grapes from a variety of vineyards, bottling them separately in an effort to display each vineyard's distinctive features - just as in Burgundy. Littorai's Hirsch Vineyard bottling was bigger and oakier, yet attractive. Like Littorai, Flowers, situated in a beautiful valley on the Sonoma coast, makes single-vineyard wines, but it also produces blends from several vineyards. Our No. 2 bottle, a wine of surprising subtlety, included grapes from 10 different vineyards. Our third-ranked bottle, the Anderson Valley Hein Vineyard bottling from Copain, also made a virtue of lightness, offering beautiful fruit, floral and earthy flavors that did not overwhelm with sweetness. Not that we ignored all the California-style pinots. The Rosemary's Vineyard from Talley in the Arroyo Grande Valley was thick and rich yet balanced, while the Peters Vineyard bottle from Papapietro Perry, a winery new to me, was fat and saturated with fruit. Yet it was structured enough to lead us to believe the wine would become focused with time. Some well-known names in California pinot noir didn't make the cut. We found the Hirsch Vineyard bottling from Williams Selyem to be surprisingly washed out, while a Hyde Vineyard from Paul Hobbs was light and forgettable. These two were, by the way, the most expensive bottles in the tasting, at $105 and $110 respectively. One relative newcomer that made the list was Failla, a winery worth looking for in the future. Ehren Jordan, who owns Failla with his wife, Anne-Marie Failla, is the winemaker for Turley Wine Cellars and makes pinots that are surprisingly Old World in scale. California pinot doesn't age the way a top Burgundy does. Its fruitiness rarely evolves into the trufflelike, funky, leathery flavors that you sometimes find in aged Burgundy. Yet it would be interesting to taste a bottle of the Rochioli every few years. Now it is dense and closed, but over time, it seemed to us, a story in pinot noir would unfold. Pinot noir is by reputation the most food-friendly of red grapes. It is the classic restaurant choice if you are looking for one bottle to bridge fish and meat dishes. Paradoxically, the thick, sweet California pinots can be difficult food matches, overwhelming salmon and pork, for example. But most of these pinots? I'd drink them with just about anything. Tasting Report: Earthy and Fruity Personalities That Stand on Their Own BEST VALUE Littorai Sonoma Coast Thieriot Vineyard $48 *** 1/2 Vibrant California-style ripe fruit combined with a leaner Burgundy texture; balanced and harmonious with persistent, complex flavors. Flowers Sonoma Coast $40 *** Subtle, elegant and earthy, with chewy tannins, a rasp of acidity, a dose of chocolate and good mineral and fruit flavors. Copain Anderson Valley Hein Vineyard $51 *** Alluring aromas of tart cherries, strawberries and earth; medium-bodied with persistent flavors. Easy to enjoy now. Talley Vineyards Arroyo Grande Valley Rosemary's Vineyard $70 ** 1/2 Classic thick California texture, with plenty of spicy, dark fruit and herbal flavors. Balanced and persistent. Rochioli Russian River Valley $50 ** 1/2 Dense and closed, yet potential is evident; earthy, slightly dusty aromas with flavors of tart cherry and sassafras. Littorai Sonoma Coast Hirsch Vineyard $58 ** 1/2 Aromas of fruit and smoke, along with a chocolate component from oak barrels; fruitiness and complexity begin to emerge with exposure to air. Gary Farrell Russian River Valley Rochioli/Allen Vineyards $63 ** 1/2 Clear and balanced with medium body; flavors of ripe fruit and earth. Straightforward and pleasing. Failla Russian River Valley Keefer Ranch $40 ** Juicy, with plenty of fruit and floral flavors but not a lot of complexity. Papapietro Perry Sonoma Coast Peters Vineyard $55 ** Very Californian, with plump texture and luscious fruit. Will evolve. Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Reserve $50 ** Powerful aromas of cherry and vanilla; full of life but not subtle. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/14/dining/14WINE.html?ex=1082966960&ei=1… --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. 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