Tasting Impressions - 2018 Sandler Pinots - Over The Course Of A Week

A little late in posting these tasting impressions, but a few weeks back, I had the opportunity to taste the 2018 Sandler pinots over the course of a week (Peterson, Boer, Cortada Alta, and Madzia’s). I coravin’ed about a 4 oz pour from each pinot each night, to see if/how they evolved over the course of the week. All four pinots were delicious (and I would gladly drink any/all of them again), though I did find my personal preference did shift a couple of times over the course of the week. Sorry in advance for the long note…

Night 1 -
Peterson - Palest in color. Shy on the nose with maybe a hint of cherries. Light bodied on the palate with herbal, incense, tea notes, but not a lot of fruit showing through on the palate.
Boer - Darker in color than Peterson, but lighter than the others. This followed through on the palate with darker, black cherries and lots of spices. Finish was a little short.
Cortada Alta - Darkest in color. Most intense on the nose with a piercing raspberry scent. Lighter on the palate than I would have expected from the nose, dark berry flavors with a tangy finish. I like the mouthfeel on this with good balanced acidity and lots of flavor. This picked up a citrus note on the finish with some air.
Madzia’s - Garnet in color. Brighter nose of cherry cola. “Typical” RRV flavor profile on palate bursting with raspberry and cola. Nice long finish, this blossomed even more with some air.

Night 1 favorite was Cortada Alta by a nose over the Madzia’s.

Night 2 -
Peterson - Nose of raspberry, herbs, and grass. Spicy on palate with notes of herbs, tea and mushrooms and a hint of rhubarb. Little bitter note on the finish.
Boer - Piercing nose of black cherry cordials. Round mouthfeel with black cherry flavors and a hint of cedar (?). Finish lingers on the back of the tongue.
Cortada Alta - Nose is brambly, mouthwatering cherry/raspberry nose. Lighter on the palate, but juicy, bursting with fruit. Mouthwatering acidity. Tonight kind of a straightforward pinot (not a lot of other flavors other than the fruit), but really tasty.
Madzia’s - To me this has the classic RRV flavor profile. Cherry cola nose that follows through with cherry cola on the palate as well. Easy to drink, this would be a real crowd pleaser.

Night 2 favorite was a tie between the Cortada Alta and the Boer.

Night 3 -
Peterson - Nose starting to blossom compared with previous nights with a cranberry note. Cranberries and spices on the palate. Not as bitter/herbal as the first 2 nights - the wine feels like it is starting to relax. Picking up some warm baking spices on the finish. This is nice tonight - still light on the palate but delivers lots of flavor.
Boer - Same black cherry nose as previous nights, but with an added note of anise (?). Mouthcoating flavors, rounder on the palate than the Peterson. Some interesting side notes on the palate with tar, anise, cedar. Very different from the Peterson - this is bigger, bolder, brasher, but very nice in its own way.
Cortada Alta - Jammy strawberry/raspberry nose. Sweeter, redder fruit profile on the palate than the Boer. Still kind of straighforward, but very “gulpable”, though I wished there was just a little something extra going on…
Madzia’s - Same classic RRV flavor profile. Cherry cola nose that follows through with cherry cola on the palate as well. My impressions may make this sound like this is a lesser pinot than the others, but far from it - this is really delicious, though just not necessarily aligned with my personal preferences.

Night 3 favorite was Peterson with the Boer a close second.

Night 4 -
Peterson - Nose was a little closed again tonight - offering just a hint of cherries. Still light on the palate, but lots of flavor with macerated cherries, tea, herbs, baking spices - this is a very warming wine tonight.
Boer - Still dark fruit on the nose but with an added hint of blood orange. Darker fruit, more black berry than black cherry, medium bodied, this glides down the palate. Little bitter note on the finish.
Cortada Alta - Darker black cherry/raspberry nose. Palate is getting fuller/riper - with juicy dark cherry cordial notes. This is starting to pick up a hint of citrus on the back end of the palate. Nice long finish.
Madzia’s - This is Mr. Consistency. Same flavor profile from the first night until today - except the flavors are picking it up a notch. Long cherry cola flavors on the palate, and it finished with a bit more “oomph”.

Night 4 favorite was a tie between the Peterson and the Cortada Alta.

Night 5 -
Peterson - Red fruited on the nose. Still light on the palate, but tasty red fruit and spice flavors on the palate with a nice earthiness. The flavors really linger on the side of the palate, and there is good acidity balancing this out. Strong tea note on the finish.
Boer - Dark, perfumey nose. Dark and rich on the palate with a very plush mouthfeel. Nice warming spices on the finish.
Cortada Alta - Cranberry on the nose today. Palate shows cranberries with hints of citrus, earthy spices and a licorice note. This dances on the front of the tongue, but not much of a finish on the back of the palate.
Madzia’s - Once again, the same flavorful RRV profile. Tasty cherry cola flavors, although this might be getting a little “sweeter” on the palate.

Night 5 favorite was the Peterson.

Night 6 -
Peterson - Nicely fragrant with red cherries and spice on the nose. A cross of wild strawberries and cherries on the palate with hints spices and tea. Long warm finish that drives right down the middle of the palate. Very nice.
Boer - Dusty black cherry nose. Black cherry and licorice on the palate. This is rounder, more full bodied than the Peterson. Nice long black cherry finish.
Cortada Alta - Bright cranberry scents jump from the glass. Wow - this is electric on the palate tonight - its like someone turned on the lights! Lots of energy in the glass - this makes the Peterson and Boer seem a little “tired” by comparison. This is more full bodied than the Peterson, but it is still light on the palate. Wow wine tonight and might be my favorite glass of the whole week!
Madzia’s - The nose is a little lighter tonight, but the fruit has darkened up on the palate a bit. This is also getting a little rounder and fatter - for my tastes, this was a bit more enjoyable earlier in the week.

Night 6 favorite was the Cortada Alta by a landslide.

Night 7 -
Only had a little bit left of the Peterson and the Cortada Alta on night 7…
Peterson - Nose of earthy red cherries. Palate starting to get a bit richer, with same red fruit and earthy spice flavor profiles. Very nice, but…
Cortada Alta - Once again, the Cortada Alta was electric! Bright piercing fruit jumps from the glass. Cranberry, citrus, tea, spices on the palate. Delicious!

Night 7 favorite was the Cortada Alta.

Very cool notes Paul. I really enjoyed seeing how the wines and your preference changed throughout the week. Thanks for sharing.

Good job,

I’m a loser because I drink as much of this stuff as anyone and have written many tasting notes over the years but Sandler is the house pinot and now I just don’t write up notes on it as I should because I just rip a cork and enjoy carefree. And I love Ed!

I will make a general comment on Ed’s style and my perception of change. For me, Sandler was very much like Rivers Marie for a long time, muddled ripe strawberry and soft/feminine on the palate. Over the last few years I’ve noticed a much more structured wine, something that would certainly age. Maybe Ed is just getting better at racking! neener

Not that any Sandlers are around long enough in my cellar anyways. It’s an annual BerserkerDay auto-reload for me an d then a backfill order in the fall when I run out.

Brig and I have obviously bought passage on the same boat.

I’ll be doubling up my orders from here on out as I think it’s probably the best value in my cellar

Paul, would you expect wines to have evolved much over 7 days using Coravin? I know the idea of Coravin is that they would not, but it sounds like these did, and you expected them to. I’m not sure if you can give some big picture context on that. Thanks.

I had the same question. Isn’t the point of the Coravin to prevent any evolution after opening the bottle?

I opened a 2013 Sandler Boer Vineyard a few weeks ago, and it was really singing.

Chris and John - my experience with Coravin is that for most of the wines I Coravin, there is a noticable “evolution” of wines, even over just the course of a week. Maybe I don’t Coravin correctly, so to put this into context, I have been using a Coravin since 2013, and I generally Coravin 1 glass of wine a night to have with dinner, then I lay the Coravin’ed bottle down on its side in my wine fridge for storage until the next time I reach for the bottle). I will generally have 1-2 bottles laying partially Coravin’ed at any point in time, and while there is often some movement in the wine the first couple of nights, after more than 3-4 nights, the wines definitely start to change/evolve for my tastes, especially as the bottles get more open headspace. So my expectation (hope) when I started this was (1) I could taste the four wines side by side to see how their flavor profiles compare, and (2) that I would be able to see some evolution of the wines over the course of the week, and that seems to have been borne out by the results.

The most noticeable change was in the Peterson, which started out really tight and closed with the herbal notes dominating the fruit, but over the week, it really blossomed to strut its stuff. Also, I wish I had more left of the Cortada Alta to try beyond the week I tasted it, because it was really surprising how it “popped” after night 6 and I would have loved to see where that wine went with more time…

BTW - if anyone has any tips for Coravin use to slow the evolution down further, please let me know.

Thanks for the 7 nights of tasting notes, Paul!!! That’s definitely a first for Sandler. Thanks also for the compliments, Brig, Chris and Bob!!

Opened the 2018 Boer tonight. Decanted for about 90 min (with decanter sitting in cellar) and then have been enjoying over the past 3 hours. This is only about my third Sandler Pinot Noir, and this one is just wonderful. My “oh yeah, I get it” Sandler. Reading through those first three nights of Boer notes just now, brought on some additional smiles. Anise? You bet. I got a hint of watermelon at one point. But, ever-changing, evolving. So nice. :wine_glass:

Complete no-brainer.

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