They were the best of wines, they were the worst of wines. Pinot's promise, and peril, on the Sonoma Coast Jon Bonnéublished 4:43 p.m., Friday, August 17, 2012 Nowhere in California has more prestige in Pinot Noir right now than the Sonoma Coast. For all the shortfalls of this sprawling appellation - it occupies nearly half the county of Sonoma, and is four times as big as the Russian River Valley - it has become a powerful mark on a label. As always with California, the prospect of the coast holds strong allure. So it has become a new benchmark for Pinot Noir in the state. Especially so with the 2010 vintage, a tough year if ever there was one. Just as with the Russian River Valley wines we tasted recently, 2010 was a bellwether for decisions about style. The vintage had a one-two punch of hot and cold: cool weather for much of the year, interspersed with a couple of heat spikes that burned a lot of fruit. Being farther out toward the Pacific - closer to what is now sometimes dubbed the "true Sonoma coast" - helped modulate those heat spikes a bit. But rare was the vineyard that wasn't affected. I was joined for a lineup of about 40 wines by Alan Murray, a master sommelier and the wine director at Masa's, and by Jason Lefler of Solano Cellars. We expected that even the best wines might have some uneven aspects, given the changeable weather. What we didn't expect was such a wobbly lineup. Many bottles did, indeed, exhibit both slightly unripe, green flavors and raisined ones. That, though, wasn't as unsettling as some wines' somewhat unfinished nature - efforts that tasted as though they had endured some unfortunate cosmetic cellar work in a drive toward drinkability. In a few cases, we detected smoky aspects reminiscent of the wildfire-touched 2008 vintage. Could a phantasm of '08 be lingering in a few bottles? All these things made the wines especially hard to parse. Some might improve with a few more months in bottle; we waited longer than usual to taste, but maybe these are particularly late to blossom. Some wines awaiting release later this year certainly have plenty of potential. The big, fecund flavors of the 2010 La Follette Sangiacomo Vineyard ($40, 14.7% alcohol) show a balance of size and style. As you drift farther toward the fog-draped shoreline, reasons for excitement emerge. The tension and power in Williams Selyem's bottles from the Hirsch ($75, 14.3%) and rare Precious Mountain ($94, 14.2%) vineyards mark a fine showing for the extreme farming of the coast's far reaches. If our current list of selections seems a bit abridged, that's because I'm withholding final judgment on how the Sonoma Coast fared in 2010. Perhaps it's one of those vintages that requires an extra stay in bottle. Or it may be, as the Russian River wines were, a tough referendum on the limits of style ( sfg.ly/R373UM). One other thing. At the West of West festival in Occidental earlier this month, a range of 2009s and 2010s from what has come to be diplomatically called the West Sonoma Coast - seeing that grapes in pip-spitting distance from Sonoma Valley can, bureaucratically speaking, be from the Sonoma Coast - were on fine display. Because geography is the Molotov cocktail of California wine, the Westies are hesitant to push too hard for an official delineation of the proper coast and its subareas (although the federal government approved one such long-standing request, for the Fort Ross-Seaview area north of Jenner, earlier this year). It is a far stretch from the Lakeville area near Carneros to the hills above Bodega Bay. The gusts of the Petaluma Gap should reasonably stand apart from the fog of remote Annapolis to the north. It's good to keep discussing geography. But it's also good to acknowledge that when we talk about this appellation, we are almost necessarily speaking in overly broad terms. Sonoma Coast may now be a familiar sight on the shelf, but that doesn't mean we've begun to understand its true nature. 2010 Zepaltas La Cruz Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($42, 13.6% alcohol): Ryan Zepaltas has a fondness for this Petaluma Gap spot, north of Novato's Gnoss Field. He uses a mix of 115 and Pommard clones, lesser-known selections that help explain the wine's innate tension. A slightly cloudy appearance hints at a wine meant for cellar time. But for 2010, here's a benchmark. Evoking a damp forest on a rainy day, with sweet umeboshi plum, currant and a licorice accent, it's a dense and complex bottle. His 2010 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($29, 14.1%), largely from La Cruz fruit, delivers, too, as an early-drinking effort. 2010 LaRue Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($60, 13.2%): Winemaker Katy Wilson took her San Joaquin Valley farm upbringing into account when moving into winemaking. Her young label, named for her great-grandmother, focuses on just one wine: a blend from three vineyards near Occidental and Sebastopol. Dense and packed with exotic dried-herb notes, this forthcoming release shows the tart red fruit you'd expect from Occidental's chill in a cool vintage. A fantastic clarity of Pinot flavors. 2010 Hirsch Vineyards Bohan Dillon Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($32, 13.1%): With Ross Cobb (Cobb Wines) now at the winemaking helm, David Hirsch's famed property is pursuing a restrained, complex style that suits the extreme coast. Hirsch's second wine, which draws from a few neighboring sites on the Cazadero ridgetops, is tension-filled and pleasingly leafy, full of wet flowers, bergamot and the minerality that marks the Hirsch site. Raspberry and watermelon fruit round out a subtle bottle that's more approachable right now than the young, slightly blocky 2010 Hirsch San Andreas Fault ($60, 13%). 2010 Freeman Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($44, 14.1%): The Freemans' blend, tapped from seven vineyards around the appellation, finds a headiness and spice under guidance from Ed Kurtzman. Some roasted fruit flavors are balanced by a tangy orange and pine needle, and vivacious bayberry. A deft snapshot of the coastal appellation. 2010 Failla Occidental Ridge Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($60, 13.9%): This vineyard at 800 feet near Occidental, pioneered by Warren Dutton, isn't the most extreme among Ehren Jordan's sites. But Jordan - who also farms his own site on the far coastal ridges - finds just enough plushness here to balance a chewy, mineral mouthful of cherry fruit. Its broad shoulders are matched by a wonderful energy to the taste. 2010 MacPhail Pratt Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($47, 14.3%): James MacPhail's label, recently acquired by the Hess Collection, is back on point with its aromatically packed, rich style. Amid jam-packed cherry fruit is an intense dark soil aspect and a savory herbal side, almost like wild ramps. A distinct oak tone lingers, and the fine quality of Sebastopol's Pratt site radiates through it all, with a bit less amplitude, given the vintage. 2010 Schug Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($24, 13.5%): Tapping into the eastern Sonoma interpretation of Sonoma Coast, Schug turned out a blend from noteworthy vineyards (Sangiacomo, Stage Gulch and so on) that functions as the sort of solid weeknight bottle too rare these days. Rooty and mint-edged, with ripe strawberry and a sarsaparilla edge that offers up-front pleasure. 2010 The Forager Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($25, 14.4%): Jonathan and Susan Pey (Pey-Marin) are on a noble mission, providing a drinkable Pinot without pretense. They've merged a parcel near Sonoma Mountain with a Russian River site for that broad, raspberry-packed interpretation of Sonoma. Aromas of sea salt and dry leaves make for a straightforward, robust bottle. Jon Bonnés The San Francisco Chronicle's wine editor. Find more of his coverage at sfgate.com/wine. E-mail: jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jbonne Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/wine/wineselections/article/Pinot-s-promise-and-peril… -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 * * james(a)brewingnews.com James.Ellingson(a)StThomas.edu *