In/from which region and at what stage of development am I more likely to pinots with that black tea flavor profile? Any producers that come to mind? I just love that profile in pinots!
In all honesty, I tend to find that quality comes out with pinots that have a good amount of stem inclusion - but heck, that just might be me 
Cheers!
Would that lend itself more to any particular region and does it become more pronounced at any particular stage of development?
My wife finds black tea notes in some of Todd Hamina’s pinots. Most recently 2017 Noel. Can’t recall others but hopefully Todd can chime in.
Care to mention which “black tea”?? (hey, you asked and this is a food site!)
Closest in flavor would be Gongfu Black Tea. Does that Help?
I usually get it from those with stem inclusion, but not from all with stem inclusion. To my taste, I have noticed it in every single Cerise vineyard Pinot Noir that I have tasted (many vintages of Knez, Phillips Hill, Halcon, Witching Stick, Lioco). I also am not 100% sure that they all had stem included, but it would be a reasonable assumption. A fair number of the Anderson Valley pinots that I like have this to some extent.
Well Gongfu is more a style of making tea and I can’t say I’ve had any called that. I’ve sometimes tasted a muddy river bottom note you find in Sichuan/Yunnan blacks teas, but unfortunately cannot remember which ones had it, but have noted it in my notes when I’ve encountered it.
I am 100% in agreement here.
I am a bit surprised she doesn’t also get it from our wines, but Todd is another staunch user of stems.
I do find it in Todd’s wines and ours more commonly in cooler vintages. And that it’s more likely to be present in whole cluster wines from Oregon around the 6-10 year mark.
I also get the same black tea quality in some of my grenaches and my Cinsault - all are 100% whole cluster . . .
Cheers.
That’s good to know as well. What AVA are you sourcing your whole cluster wines from?
All of my grapes are Santa Barbara County - Ballard Canyon, Sta Rita Hills, Los Olivos AVA. And ALL of my wines are 100% whole cluster - foot stomped aggressively by me on Day 1 then punched down from then on.
Cheers.
She very likely does. I just don’t recall her mentioning. I recalled this one because Todd and I had a specific conversation about that wine and her tasting tea notes in it.
I am a caveman and can’t ever taste these delicate notes!
Well, to begin with I’d like to say that I have zero proof, studies or evidence that can be scientifically demonstrated to support anything I believe. I think there are tea notes in most every wine, but if those notes are folded into a more dominant trait they become obfuscated, so for all purposes they don’t exist. In our area, if there are some stems included in the ferment and one is sourcing fruit from volcanic sites that tea note has the ability to stand out. I like it when that happens.
agreed on stems. For OP try Fogline as I definitley get black tea notes and they do use stems. I believe one wine they make is 100% included.