Dehlinger Mailer

Got the mailer via snail mail. My question is regarding the 2009 Estate Pinot Noir. It is typically offered in this mailer but at least on my allocation there was not any. Apparently yields were way down. Did anyone get offered the 2009 Estate Pinot? There were offerings for a couple 2009 Reserve Pinots.

Philip Franks you out there? What did you see on your offer?

Tom
Twitter: @NWTomLee

Tom, I received the same offer. My take on this is that the Old Vines and the High Plains are in lieu of the estate. Whatever, allocations are down.

Joe

I’ve been looking forward to this mailer. Glad to hear it’s out…although it might be another 5 days before it gets to me, if you guys are both on the west coast.

That was my sense as well.

Jud and Joe, do you mean that Tom says so in the newsletter, or is it just an inference of yours? Given how much detail he shares in each newsletter, I figure he’d just come out and say it.

It would be strange if there were no 2009 Estate Pinot. There has been one every vintage since at least the 1980s.

I should get the newsletter any time now, I’ll be quite curious to see.

It is not clear in the newsletter. It does say 2009 yielded a crop size that was 43% the size of the 07 crop. It does not specifically say what was done with that fruit. So yes it is an inference on the part of Joe and Jud. Yes it would be very strange not to have an 09 Estate in my cellar. Now wish I had gone longer on the 09 Goldridge last fall.

I did send an email to Carmen to see if she could shed some additional light on the topic.

Tom

I thought the mailer was pretty clear. Here is what Tom wrote:
"For the Dehlinger Pinot Noir vineyard, both 2009 and 2010 were vintages of poor set caused by frosty and rainy springs. Comparing the cases of bottled wine with the full-sized harvest of 2007, 2009 had 43%, and 2010 had 52% as many cases. We don’t try to make up this shortfall at the expense of quality, such as by adding in some of the press wine, or by purchasing someone else’s grapes. This means that the allocations of Pinot Noir wines are going to be painfully small, especially in the 2009 vintage.

It seems clear that Tom declassified much of what he had, and then decided to make, as he put it later in the newsletter, “…two very small Reserve quality Pinot Noirs.”

The Altamont (which is what the Estate will be called in the future, anyway) was also given an “Old Vines” designation, and the other Pinot is a High Plains, which long time purchasers will remember that Tom made in 1999, 2000 & 2001.

Dehlinger is a semi annual no brainer. Not much PN to go around in 2009 and 2010. Tom states the 2011 looks very promising in barrel.

In addition to all of the reds the Chard is a favorite too.

There are 535 cases of the two “reserve” pinots combined, which indeed seems to be a little less than half of the typical production of the Estate. Tom quoted 2009 as having 43% of a full sized crop. So this mailer represents what there is what there is from 2009…

I got a healthy offer of Altamont and High Plains but no Estate. I’m not sure what’s up either.

Maybe there’s two people who don’t like you. neener

Don’t you think my explanation (post above yours) makes sense? There appears to be no pinot labeled “Estate” in '09.

John,

Sounds reasonable to me.

Email from Carmen Dehlinger:

"Hi Tom,

In 2009 Our Pinot crop was so small that we were not able to bottle an
Estate Pinot noir. Instead, because the quality of the grapes were so
good, we bottled the Altamont Old Vines and the High Plains.
Unfortunately these 2 bottlings are very small, so allocations are
small. The “Estate” Pinot will be back with the 2010 vintage.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks,
Carmen"

So there you go.

Tom

Thanks, Tom.

Jeff Fillippi writes above, “The Altamont (which is what the Estate will be called in the future, anyway) . . .” Where did you read that? At least for 2010 it sounds like there will still be an Estate pinot.

Another update from Carmen Dehlinger:

"Hi again Tom,

I realize that my first email left out some information. Starting with
the 2009 vintage, we will be transitioning the designation of the
“Estate” bottlings to “Altamont Vineyard”. In 2009, we did not make
one large bottling that corresponds exactly to past “Estate” bottlings.
Instead, we made two Reserve quality bottlings, the “Old Vines” and the
“High Plains.” In 2010, we will have one larger bottling that
corresponds to past “Estate” bottlings, but it will have the designation
“Altamont” to better reflect which soil type it came from.

Be sure to also read the “Goldridge/Altamont” section of the newsletter
for further explanation. Here is a link to our website describing the
two soil types Altamont and Goldridge and how they relate to our
different bottlings:
http://www.dehlingerwinery.com/Pages/DehlingerSoils.htm.

Thanks again,
Carmen"

Tom

Would you mind sharing how much of each do you consider “healthy”? Thanks.

Larry

Chris -
Tom explained all this in the July 2011 Newsletter and Carmen further clarifies above.