TN: 2012 Kutch Falstaff Vineyard Pinot Noir

2012 Kutch Falstaff Pinot

This is a very dark wine for Jamie. Usually his wines are bright ruby and you can almost see through them with smaller pours. Concentrated. The nose at this point is difficult to coax.
There is tremendous material with lots of dark red fruit. It coats the palate. An intense finish that lingers. The texture is so silky.
I don’t know how these guys do it when they get this kind of maturity but can make a wine this silky in texture.

The fruit is perfectly ripe. There is no bitterness.
Not overripe or extracted. This needs serious time. The structure is completely buried. Very nice!

Don,

I just tried this last week with the Sonoma Coast bottling. Your note is right on, though I found the acidic frame fairly dominant. Not much tannin to my taste though. Clearly a wine for the cellar and very impressive. Pretty ripe, almost creamy fruit inside that acidic frame, definitely some oak showing, but really compelling wine I haven’t stopped thinking about in a week. 100% whole cluster apparently and riveting acidity. Fascinating stuff.

Great note. The Falstaff was our favorite in Jamie’s 2012 lineup. And now I’m thinking I better snag one before they’re all gone! I actually like how his 2012s came out overall vs. some of his older vintages.

Thanks Don. There is a fascinating array of Pinot (and Syrah by the way) coming out of California these days.

Here is my impression. I think it’s in FMIII signature as WOTY candidate, maybe he’ll stroll by and comment.

  • 2012 Kutch Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (2/23/2014)
    Falltacular 2014 (FMIII in the OC): Back up the truck on this wine. Top 5 for me and probably WOTN and serious candidate for WOTY. Slightly darker than a few of the previous 2012 tasted before this wine. Purple hue radiates. Nose has the combination of wood chips and earthy quality. Palate is excellent with the dark fruit mingled with a chalky limestone note. Long finish. No problem throwing 96 points at this one.

Posted from CellarTracker

Although it’s not yet 1/2 over, this could be my WOTY. What a fantastic bottle of pinot noir, Don. Agree.

  • 2012 Kutch Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (3/15/2014)
    Jamie Kutch Visits The OC For Dinner (Luciana’s In Dana Point (South OC)): Tasted blind. Well, like with the recent 2012 Fogline Sun Chase pinot I drank and had one of those ‘aha’ moments, here too is another one of those aha wines, the best wine I have tasted now in 2014. This was poured next to the 2012 McDougall, both blind. The only bias I had going into this flight was that of seeing the favorable comments on this 2012 when poured last month during Falltacular. I’ll credit Brig Campbell, who pulled this needle out of the Falltacular pinot haystack when he went through all of the 2012s that were poured that day, and with Brig missing the dinner last night when I tasted this wine, I would have enjoyed seeing him react to this wine again. As to what I found last night in the glass, beautiful spicy strawberry with blue fruit tones. It’s accessible yet the acid is beauitfully punctuated here, even a little crunch in texture. Where it excels is that the fruit is beyond the red fruit, jammier quality that I found in the 2010 and to extent in the 2011. In this 2012, I find a wine with exellent acidity, terrific fruit, outstanding. Early WOTY candidate and I plan to now buy more while it is still available. I’ll drink another1-2 bottles over the rest of this year and see how it fares.

Posted from CellarTracker

Vincent,
Remember that I drink mostly Burgundy. Acidity is a basic requirement for me. :slight_smile:
I found the acidity to be “correct”.
This is a beautiful wine.

Totally agree. Always my favorite along with McDougall. I have followed since 2007 and Jamie’s wines just keep getting better and better. Bravo! champagne.gif

Thanks Don for the note and to anyone else who was kind enough to provided input.

For some technical background on the wine and vintage:

Beginning in 2012, all the wines we produced were made with 100% whole cluster. Previously, we pushed the whole cluster to 50 and 75% but never 100% (which we continued in '13). I believe that your “silky texture” compliment is a direct effect by the generous quantity of stems included.

Another difference we experienced in '12 was that our Malolactic fermentation took over 9 months for completion. Previously, our Malo’s would finish in just 1-2 months. This is due to a new, cold cellar which allows the wine to slowly mature vs. our old passive (warmer) cellar which sped up the maturity of wine in barrel. With the cold cellar, it allowed us to use less than half the sulfur we would usually use (as no sulfur is added until after Malo is complete).

The final difference worth mentioning is now how we have access to all stainless and wood tanks for fermentation vs. our old plastic bins we would use. This helps us maintain control & the integrity of the fruit far better than in the past and properly express the fruit from the vineyard to the bottle unlike we had ever done in the past.

I hope that provides some color…

OK, now I feel really stupid for only taking half my allocation of this wine … [pwn.gif]

Jamie, What is the clonal makeup of the wine?

828, 115 and 777

I tasted and tested ever barrel of 2013 last week. The finished alc was 12.2% with a pH of 3.6, no acid add. Partial carbonic ferment. While I am vested, I am also in love.

Thanks for all the added info Jamie. It’s very much appreciated.

I opened my first bottle of 2012 Falstaff last night, and most definitely concur with the glowing notes above. It is indeed a superb wine that I expect will age brilliantly.

Baby…killer…

but thanks for the bravery, my friend!

My thoughts from a brief taste at FallTacular a few months ago.

"2012 Kutch Falstaff Vineyard Pinot Noir

Shows lots of potential already, with all manner of hinted baking spices, red berries and plum. The structure is there, a just-bridled acidity but fine purity of red and black raspberry fruit. Fine bones indeed."
Best,

Mike

[welldone.gif]

I had Jamie’s '12 Pinots at Falltacular and directly thereafter went home and bought some. Really difficult not to pop one, but I’m a patient man.

All of it.

It’s so cool to read.

Thanks for writing it.

Best,

Kenney