Anybody in for the latest Kutch release?

Received email reminder. I’m buying these on faith as they seem to require some aging, so hopefully all you Kutch fans are spot on. [wink.gif]

Following available:

2019 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay
Vinous, Antonio Galloni 93 Points – The 2019 Chardonnay (Sonoma Coast) is fabulous. Rich, textured and wonderfully deep, the 2019 balances fruit intensity with bright acids and a good deal of supporting structure. Lemon confit, white flowers, mint and chamomile all meld together effortlessly. All of this fruit comes from the Bohan Vineyard.
View from the Cellar, John Gilman 93 Points

2019 Mindego Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir
Vinous, Antonio Galloni 94+ Points – A new wine in this range, the 2019 Pinot Noir Mindego Ridge emerges from a newer site in the Santa Cruz Mountains that has proven to be first-rate in just a few vintages. Jamie Kutch goes for a more restrained style relative to his peers here. The 2019 is taut and wiry, with tons of mineral, soil and earth inflections that build over time. Time in the glass brings out terrific fruit richness and greater depth than is evident at the outset.
View from the Cellar, John Gilman 94+ Points

2019 Bohan Graveyard Block Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
View from the Cellar, John Gilman 95+ Points – The Graveyard Block in Bohan Vineyard is a bit younger vines than some sections of this vineyard, as this parcel was planted in 1988. The soil here is different as well, as this block is sandstone, where most of the vineyard is on Goldridge soils. Interestingly, Jamie Kutch decided to completely de-stem this wine in 2019, though it was treated the same as the other Kutch pinots in all other respects, with indigenous yeast fermentation and aging in used barrels. The 2019 Graveyard offers up a more black fruity nose than the straight Bohan bottling, delivering scents of black cherries, dark berries, bonfire, spiced meats, dark soil tones, espresso, balsam bough, a hint of dried eucalyptus and a gentle framing of cedar. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with a great core of black fruit, superb soil signature and grip, ripe, buried tannins and a very, very long, tangy and very complex finish. I love the backend lift here. Usually I am a whole cluster guy, but this wine is stunning in its potential beauty!
Vinous, Antonio Galloni 94 Points

2019 McDougall Ranch Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
View from the Cellar, John Gilman 94 Points – The 2019 McDougall Ranch bottling of pinot noir from Jamie Kutch is also excellent in quality. Its cellar stats are similar to the other wines here this year, with seventy-five percent whole clusters and thirteen percent alcohol. The youthful nose offers up a lovely constellation of cherries, beetroot, pomegranate, pigeon, a fine base of dark soil, roses, black tea, sweet stem tones and cedar. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and potentially sappy at the core, with fine soil signature, ripe, buried tannins, tangy acids and beautiful length and grip on the complex and perfectly balanced finish. This is just a touch more structurally accessible out of the blocks than these other 2019s from Jamie Kutch, but it too is built for the long haul and it would be a crime to open a bottle before its tenth birthday. Fine juice.
Vinous, Antonio Galloni 94 Points

My absolute favorite winery. Last year I was fortunate enough to purchase over 8 cases. I’ve been on the list since his inception and think he’s one of the true class gentleman in the industry! I adopted a wonderful dog from the city approx 15 months ago and named him…of course Kutch.

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I don’t want to be too effusive here, but really, this is one of the great producers of Pinot and Chardonnay. These wines would have release price 50% higher any place else. Thank you Jamie for making a product that allows even us working class schlubs the occasional extravagance of Grand Cru!

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Another huge fan. Started buying the first year or close to it.
Cannot say enough good things about the Sonoma Chardonnay, except its a great value every year.
McDougall Ranch may be my favorite vineyard that he does. Love it every year.
Have yet to open a Graveyard, but love the Bohan bottles.
Looking forward to trying the Mindego Ridge wines.
while it was a big risk dialing back his wines after getting rave reviews, I think they are even better now, and clearly age better.

Love the wines. I am a bit oversubscribed but I bought all three of the pinots.

Some tasting notes from Frank, Brig and me of these wines if it’s helpful.

In my limited experience, I still think the '14 Chard is my fave domestic Chard and I think I still have 4 left.

Bought the Chard and two of the Pinots. I drink and enjoy a lot of Jamie’s wines.

I know everyone talks about Kutch pinots (and they are delicious)…the Chardonnays are IMO “out of this world”. I am on a budget (or at least I try to be), I dropped off another one of my Sonoma Coast producers mailing list just so I could buy this year. I also appreciate Jamie has kept his “entry level” pricing accessible.

Any idea on the sweet spot for aging/trying the Pinots?

The good news is I don’t think his pinots ever have a “it’s a big mistake to open one now” period, though maybe it would require more air if it’s a young bottle and particularly one of the more whole cluster ones.

The tougher thing is that, as a function of being a very transparent terroir driven producer, there is a lot of variation from one bottling to the next and one vintage to the next. So the answer varies. And then layer on a given taster’s personal preferences for whether he or she prefers the wine in a more youthful or more mature state.

I think they’re all into a pretty good spot after a couple of years from release, but should go a pretty long time and probably improve with patience. I’ve had the 2013 McDougall a couple of times this year and it’s into solidly early-middle maturity window.

The Bohan and Bohan Graveyard are ones that would seem particularly suited to younger drinking.

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I’ve mentioned in a few tasting notes where I think the sweet spot is for Jamie’s wines. These are just my personal views based on my palate.

I try to lay down his Pinots for one year before sampling and have found all of his wines ready to drink one year after release.

Wines at his entry level maintain that drinkability for 5-7 years before beginning a slow fade.

Wines at his higher price points (McDougal and Falstaff) in my experience begin to close down after a couple years and sleep for 4-5 years before opening back up beginning around year 7 or 8 (post vintage). These wines have an age-worthiness that I personally feel has yet to run its course. I’ve consumed 10 year old McDougal Ranch wines that had at least another 10 years of life still in the bottle.

For anyone new Kutch Inaugural vintage was 2005 (image below) so that is why peak age-worthiness of his big Pinots are undetermined at this juncture.

This is the one list I hope I never drop off because that means I have either quit drinking altogether or am dead.

Cheers to another outstanding release!
20210722_150530.jpg

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In for a mixed case. The Chardonnay may be the best value anywhere.

Also in…. Really enjoy the wines.

The pricing on his wines is really amazing. I sometimes hesitate to comment too much on that because in no sense should Kutch be thought of as a “value wine” or “daily drinker,” but the value relative to chardonnay and pinot from California and Burgundy is really superb.

I have been particularly impressed with Jamie’s last few vintages of his Pinots and Chardonnay wines. I think he is refining his craft and bringing out the best of what each vineyard has to offer.

Well that was fast… read this thread with all the high praise for Kutch, signed up for the mailing list, and then immediately bought a bottle of each of this current release. K&L also had a 2011 Kutch McDougall Ranch Pinot available so bought that too. Looking forward to tasting a Kutch with some age.

This forum makes it really hard to not spend money on wine everyday [cheers.gif]

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He is fearless to make constant improvements in the process. I get nervous when he tells the stories. LOL

Agree, bunch of enablers! neener

100% agree. Have only 1 2013 Falstaff left and am working my way through the McDougal’s