I was at the winery this morning and they had all the ‘19 Pinots in tank getting ready for bottling in a couple weeks. Anne tasted me through the lineup.
These wines are always good and getting better every year. The Occ Ridge, Summa Old Vines and Platt were particularly expressive making me want to go long on what I can get. Only 70 cases of Platt this year so a lot of people won’t get their wish list filled. Happy and honored with just a taste.
Notes from memory:
Bearwallow -Dark color, sharp, acidic, needs a little air.
Silver Eagle - structured wound up, should settle down by the time it’s released.
Summa Old Vine - World class nose, (l loved Anne’s line that she wishes she could put that in a tea bag and hang it around her neck all day and just smell it) it’s just that good, elegant, plush strawberry, dried orange peel, pine needle, stroking my wine ego.
Platt - Summa on steroids, same mouthfeel with black cherry fruit and seamless transition from front to finish.
No smoke taint? That’s great.
The Kincade Fire was pretty close to some of these vineyards and so destructive I was afraid 2019 vintages all throughout Sonoma/Napa might have some adverse affect.
This fire thing is going to happen annually. Damn climate change…so cal is burning as I write this.
Anyways, considering rivers Marie didn’t release many of the 2017 cabs because of smoke, I’m sure they won’t release smoke tainted Pinots in 2019.