TN: 2009 Arcadian - Pinot Noir "La Encantada Vineyard" (USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills)

Well, being a huge Arcadian fan, this is not how I would have preferred to start this thread. Alas, it is what it is. Hopefully the next bottle is more clean.

2009 Arcadian Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (11/23/2020)
– decanted 80 min. before initial taste –
– tasted non-blind over 2 -3 hours –

NOSE: red-fruited; moderately expressive; cherry.

BODY: clear, garnet color with slight bricking at the edges; color is of medium-light to medium depth. medium bodied.

TASTE: fairly bretty; I think there’s some red fruit and a savory aspect behind the brett. NR (flawed)

Brian, sorry for your loss. It’s a let-down anytime a cork ruins a perfectly good wine. I hope this finds you and those you love safe & healthy this holiday season.

Thanks, Kirk! And Happy Holidays to you and yours, as well. [cheers.gif]

I don’t think the cork was the culprit here . . .

Cheers

Larry, are you questioning Joe Davis’ wine-making capabilities on this? That is how it is coming across…

I highly doubt that’s what Larry was doing. I’ve never heard of brett coming from cork.

Dave,

Well, now that you mentioned it . . .

No, I am not questioning Joe’s winemaking capabilities whatsoever . . .

I guess the question is whether you understand where a wine ‘picks up’ Brett? It is considered a ‘spoilage yeast’ and usually arises either by a wine being placed in a dirty barrel that is ‘infected’ with Brett, a wine that is run through hoses that may not have been cleaned correctly, or rarely, picked up from the Vineyard itself. Once a wine is ‘infected’ you can keep it in check by hitting he wine with high levels of SO2 during barely aging, and then sterile filtering the wine at bottling. If you don’t do this, you risk a potential ‘bloom’ down the line, if the conditions are right, and that will lead to ‘variability’ in that bottling, which might have happened here.

So no, not questioning his wunemaking at all - just stating that he cork is not what’s at fault here.

Cheers.

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Thank you for the clarification!

2009 Arcadian Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (8/25/2021)
– decanted 1 hr. before first taste –
– tasted non-blind over approx. one hr. –

NOSE: red-fruited; ripe red fruits; some light brett.

BODY: dark garnet color of medium depth with slight bricking at the edges; medium bodied.

TASTE :medium+ acidity; dark red fruits; bretty.