2019 Rivers-Marie Spring Offer

WINE TALK
21

Sonoma Coast is on auto buy as well. I think I’m going to grab 1 Summa of each SVD. Just for the fun of it.

22

Bump. And, Will Segui, any advance on The RM newsletter?

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Does RM still make a Pinot from Kanzler?

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Here it is. I’m still building out the website component, hope to have it up this afternoon. --will

Winter 2019

Lost amidst all the chaos of the 2017 harvest is the superb quality of its Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. Before the fires hit the evening of October 8th, the growing season had been relatively uneventful with the only blip being the Labor Day heat wave. That had a much greater impact in Napa then in Sonoma. Both counties saw record temperatures but Sonoma’s proximity to the coast allowed it to warm more slowly in the morning and moderate faster in the evening. Peak temps were both shorter and lower. Once we got out of this brief spell, the vines recovered quickly and we saw a return to a cool growing season. The Pinot Noirs are characterized by great focus and purity, varietal and site transparency and racy acidities, basically everything that makes this grape so appealing. The perfume of these wines was apparent very early in their development. Several of the bottlings made dazzling first impressions as early as fermenter stage. We aren’t big numbers people in terms of gauging potential quality, but we couldn’t help being impressed by the lower sugars and pHs at true ripeness in 2017. Here on the north coast, Napa tends to be a vintage’s qualitative barometer. In 2017, it is the Burgundian varietals on the Sonoma side that shine, producing the most classic vintage we have bottled to date.

The Wines
2017 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 750 cases
With such a strong vintage for quality and quantity, we were able to be incredibly selective in 2017. There is a piece of every single vineyard designate site in this wine. The base is still Riddle Vineyard, located in a warmer northeastern corner of Occidental, complemented here by young vines from Summa, some clone 667 from Occidental Ridge, clone 828 from Silver Eagle and one used barrel of Platt. This blend gives a great insight into what the vintage provided on the true Sonoma Coast. Riddle is naturally red fruited so this wine comes across as a little more accessible than the more brooding 2016 version. Plum, mineral laced red fruit and mint jump out first balanced by a mouthwatering acidity that comes in a little earlier than normal.

2017 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Anderson Valley, 160 cases
Once again this wine comes from the original vines at Bearwallow. To us, this block has much more of a red fruited, savory character then the blocks we bottle as the Bearwallow vineyard designate. There’s a lot more give to this edition compared to the 2016. There is also less rusticity, replaced here by a more focused fruit quality. I’d put this on an equal qualitative footing with the Sonoma Coast, last year I thought the Sonoma Coast was more fully realized when comparing the two appellation offerings. Cut hay, rhubarb, white pepper and ripe tannin round out the generous palate. This is showing so well right now it’s a joy to drink.

2017 Rivers-Marie Bearwallow Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley, 260 cases
We love the wildness of the Anderson Valley wine profile. For all the talk about house styles in wineries, we feel this wine proves our wines are products of place first and foremost. We take grape growing very serious and we feel all the quality of our wines comes from paying very close attention in the vineyard. Truthfully, once the grapes hit the winery, we don’t do that much to them. With this Rhys site, we never have much to contribute. Kevin and his team do such a great job of farming, we never have to ask for anything. We always head out to the site looking to make suggestions but usually we just take a quick walk, see that everything is perfectly dialed and then go have lunch. The two blocks that make up this bottling are especially fascinating in their clonal make up and corresponding cluster morphology. The wine these vines produce has a nice mix of red and purple fruit, white flowers, white pepper, baking spice, loam and licorice. The fresh fruit core has plenty of lift from acidity and fruit tannin. This wine, like the Platt and Occidental Ridge, will take a little time to unwind in bottle.

2017 Rivers-Marie Occidental Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 240 cases
Writing this note is beginning to feel like writing the Summa Old Vines note. We have kind of run out of original things to say about the wine. This has been a consistently great site since we started with it in 2005. The color here is almost as saturated as Platt. Dark red berries, menthol, smoke, pennyroyal mint and violets provide the initial aromatic impression. The always low natural pH gives this wine a lightness that belies its initial intensity. We started using a little whole cluster in 2012 to cut into some of the candied mid-palate we perceived in the early vintages and here it not only provides cut but also texture. The mouthfeel takes on a tactile quality that balances the darker fruits that emerge on the finish. Abundant fruit tannin once again provides the structure and this wine, like the Platt, will take a few years in the cellar to reach full potential.

2017 Rivers-Marie Platt Vineyard Sonoma Coast, 150 cases
We are thrilled to offer our first vintage of Platt from what we feel is the best block in the vineyard. We had long admired Radio Coteau’s Platt offering (actually all of their wines) so we jumped at the chance to work with their block when it became available in 2017. The block is a little over an acre and a half and planted to the Calera clone. The wine has a density I have never really seen on the coast. The initial aromatic impression I only know how to describe as Burgundian reduction. It has a brooding, restrained perfume that we associate with high quality French Pinots. Though the color is dense, the wine is incredibly light on its feet veering from classic coastal notes of red berry, menthol, licorice and cloves to a tightly wound, structured finish. The tannin here is all fruit tannin and it is abundant. This wind buffered site produces berries with incredibly thick skins making for wines that will require some patience to unwind. I wouldn’t quite classify this as an inward leaning wine but there is incredible potential here that will take a few years to come out.

2017 Rivers-Marie Silver Eagle Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 300 cases
We noticed a real shift in quality for this bottling in 2016. This new edition takes things up another notch with the addition of some Swan clone and the declassifying of all the clone 828 into the Sonoma Coast. There’s a refined element to the wine that wasn’t in the early versions and we appear to have solved some of the reduction issues with the inclusion of 15% whole cluster. Coming from a warmer spot in Occidental, this still features the darkest fruit profile of all the bottlings but balanced by the high natural acidity of the vintage. This new clonal mix provides a lighter palate impact without sacrificing any of the density of the experience. Black cherry, cola, mint and wild herbs run from start to finish in this wine making it a good candidate to be the early drinker in the line up. We do however expect the stuffing in this wine to help with aging, the 2009 is just now entering its mature drinking window.

2017 Rivers-Marie Summa Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 300 cases
The palate here is usually very deep compared to the Old Vines broad, initial appeal. With vine age, this wine is getting a little closer to its older sibling every year. It is still a more generous wine at release given its core of red fruit but all of the Old Vines elements are creeping into the palate. A savory edge has emerged the last few years that we think will only intensify with time. For all the dark cherry and plum, there are equal parts mint, licorice and pine resin. This bottling is still a more immediate drinker than Summa Old Vines but now at 20 years of vine age, the profile gap is closing. With more normal yields in 2017, we also were able to be more selective. Even so, we are happy to be able to actually offer some quantity of this wine to you. Most years, Mother Nature isn’t so kind.

2017 Rivers-Marie Summa Old Vines Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 180 cases
Here we could copy and paste our notes from the last few vintages. This wine has gotten so consistently good since Ulises Valdez and his crew took over farming. The color is more stable, aromatics are more explosive and the depth of the wine has increased starting with the 2014 vintage. The 2017 continues this trend and might be the best wine from this vineyard in that 2014-2017 vintage span. It would be easy to say every year that this is the best wine in the line up but I do truly believe it in ’17. It’s the completeness of the wine that best conveys this message. It will be one of those wines that drinks well now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now and until it decides to give out. The characteristics of the wine are pure Summa: red/orange fruit, cut hay, pine needles, purple flowers, crushed rock and wet earth. It has a lingering inner mouth perfume that pulls out more floral notes and a more pure red fruit profile. There’s the usual weightiness without heaviness at the finish complemented by the natural acidity of the site. As we move into the 40th year of these vines, we expect this lithe density to continue trending upward offering more mouthwatering power that only vine age can provide.


The Future

We will continue with the three mailer cycle this year. Last year’s varietally specific mailers proved to be a success so you will see the Chardonnays offered in a few weeks. The Pinots and Chardonnays will again ship together once the Chardonnay mailer closes in late February. The Cabernet mailer will drop on its usual date of the third Tuesday in July.

Speaking of Cabernet, the outlook for quantity looks pretty poor for 2017. We have been making some hard blending cuts over the course of the last several months. The lineup currently looks to be Napa, Panek and a tiny bit of Lore. For us, we are going with all pre-fire picks. In Napa, there were some really good lots picked after the fires but not for Rivers-Marie. No Herb Lamb or Calistoga in 2017 but you will see them return in 2018.

To wrap with a little good news, 2018 looks phenomenal. One of the most ideal growing seasons in our brief history has produced stellar wines across all varietals. Temperatures were moderate for the entire growing season allowing for maximum hang time and true ripeness at lower than average brix. The color saturation for 2018 is intense but the wines are well balanced by a sturdy fruit core and buffering tannins and acidity. The wines are finely chiseled already and we look forward to seeing how they develop over the next few months.

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Sounds like a great year for Pinots. Will have to try to restrain myself tomorrow from going nuts with the spend.

26

Ugh.

Too many annoying decisions.

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Thank you Will for the great detailed notes.

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+1 thanks for the descriptions. Sorry to hear about the '17 cabs…

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Always look forward to these pinots and have been buying since the very first vintage. Now due to age and having too much wine, I have cut down considerably. Nonetheless, I will still be buying these as they remain among my very favorite California pinots. As an added bonus , for me, they drink well early plus age well. Luckily, my girls have excellent palates and will always volunteer to help with “inventory reduction.”

Cheers!
Marshall [berserker.gif]

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It’s live

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I’m in…

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I didn’t get the initial email but I got the email today! Order in for 1 each of the Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley, Bearwallow, Platt, and Old Vines Summa! Love the shipping rates! Looking forward to trying them out!

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In for a few of the Pinot Noir:

2 x Sonoma Coast
2 x Anderson Valley
1 x Silver Eagle
1 x Occidental Ridge

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Solid scores by AG released today. Entry-level Chardonnay (93 p) and PN scored 92+. Well done considering its modest USD30 price tags.

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Grabbed the SC and AV. Tought to pass at $30 even though I already have far more pinot than I need

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Anderson Valley appellation wine already sold out when I placed my order at 1:00PST today, get your order in folks!

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Shoot. Been super busy today and didn’t get around to finalizing my order to include the Anderson

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In for Summa and AV.

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1 x Sonoma Coast
2 x Anderson Valley (missed this last year)
1 x Bearwallow
1 x Platt
1 x Silver Eagle
2 x Summa
2 x Summa OV

Also splitting the RAEN mixed six pack with a friend. Today was not kind to the wallet… [truce.gif]

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In for 4 bottles. First timer and just signed up. Super excited.

But can we talk about the $4 a bottle to ship? [cheers.gif]