Pinot Days - Some quick random thoughts

Pinot Days 2011 was a real blast, one of the more enjoyable large-scale tastings I’ve attended. One cannot hope to even begin to taste most of the wines at these events, but here were some memories that stuck out:

Most enjoyable producers:
Windy Oaks - As always, delicious and well-structured, will age beautifully.
Pelerin - Stylish SLH and Rosella’s pinots. I enjoyed talking at length with Chris Weidemann about his wines and winemaking.
Arcadian - I get what the enthusiasm is about. Very elegant, almost sexy style across the board.
Auteur - Boldly styled, but just awesome aromatics and flavors in good balance. The Shea bottling really shone.
Keefer - Solid, well-made wines from the proprietor of the well-known vineyard.
Swan - Another leaner, lighter style, but I can see how these well-built wines are renown for their ageworthiness.
Wrath - Intriguing for the bright flavors; some bottlings see zero oak of any kind! Excellent value as well.
Sequana - Dutton Ranch bottling in particular stood out.
Eric Kent - Solid across the board. A barrel sample of the 2010 Stiling had great stuffing.
Loring - My first encounter with Loring (and Brian!), and the buzz is true: big, broad-shouldered wines, but very flavorful…and a really cool guy too.
Sojourn - Very reliable producer…Craig’s wines seem like they should age well.
Skewis - Suave, balanced pinots from Mendocino and RRV, if memory serves.
Presqu’ile - Doug Wilder graciously pointed me to this new producer, who poured a nice Santa Maria pinot and a stylish rose as well. Their winemaker (Dieter, I believe), is a real hoot as well.
August West - Very solid, full of character. To his credit, Ed was pouring a 3-vintage vertical of Graham! (Thanks to Paul Luckin for jogging my pinot-clouded memory on that one!)

Least enjoyable (and deserving of mention for it):
JCB (American arm of Boisset) in the Burgundy corner had the chutzpah to pour a 2008 Mendocino pinot that was just oozing smoke and ashtray. The price? 75 bucks!!!
Meiomi’s little marketing stunt was tasteless at best.

The event itself was well-run, with great volunteer staff, food and water readily and consistently available, and I would recommend it without hesitation.

i would add:

Lattanzia - both WB Bottoms and Fredrick Ranch offerings were top notch

Romillily - the 09 RRV was very expressive both on nose and palate. for $35 it’s an easy buy

August West - top to bottom great wines. Ed does fantastic things with Graham Family and Rosella’s vineyards.

Duh…I totally forgot to list August West. I certainly enjoyed their wines, rock solid for sure. Will edit original post to rightfully include them!

What was the stunt?

Lattanzio, Scherrer, and Keefer were the standouts for me on Saturday. I was dismayed, however, at the number of bretty wines being poured by some other producers. Yikes.

It may have been the 2 long-legged gals in super short shorts telling folks to go to the Meiomi table.

PS: Here are some notable wineries that I tried and I attempted to sample lesser-known establishments:

Cartograph
Calstar
Hilliard-Bruce
Presquile
Ray Franscioni
Chronicle
Thomas George
Waits-Mast
Westwood

Of course, there were the usual good ones like Ketcham, Papaoetro Perry, ROAR, August West, Sojourn, Auteur, Hirsch, Keefer Ranch, Loring, etc.

My thanks to Mr.Alan Rath and Mr. Scott Hill for stepping in to represent Arcadian at this event.

those wern’t hookers? newhere

You had Alan representing you? Talk about rolling the dice! [grin.gif]

Pleased to hear all seemed to go well, even more so to see added favourite producers (e.g. Skewis, Keefer) as part of the show.

I am almost sure to make it to the November event in Chicago.

Which producers were these?

I’m gonna admit that I would have tasted the Meiomi wines if I was there…without my wife.

They stood out like a sore thumb, good marketing I guess. I thought that they got lost looking for the import car show.

Yet another Great Pinot Days event, kudos to Steve and Lisa Rigisch for their incredibly well organized event! Again!

GOOD MARKETING!

Why are there no pics of this? I’m sorely disappointed in you guys that you didn’t get your pic taken with the wine women. Booooooo.

We wondered what the heck those two “Ladies of the Afternoon” were doing there.

srsly. Singleton would have been on it.

My iPhone is always ready to take a pic of things that need to be shared with the world… or wineboard. Either way.

At first I thought they were from the Wine Spectator table. I figured they were the “score whores” you guys are always talking about.

zing