I tasted a well regarded pinot from the Paso Robles area over the weekend and it was loaded with tomato notes on the nose and palate.
I haven’t run into such a preponderance of tomato such as this.
A Google search wasn’t helpful, so I ask: would you consider this a tasting note based on style, etc; or a sign of VA?
I would classify my experience as being that this is a flaw, but not sure whether to put it down as a valid ‘flavor’ or a sign of something else.
Tomato leaf is a common way of describing the green, herbaceous notes in Sauvignon blanc, Cabernet sauvignon, or Cabernet franc.
It is also a note found in wines with significant stem inclusion. Generally tomato would be a positive stem note; negative would be more green, underripe aromas such as green beans or artichoke.
Without tasting the wine I cannot say for sure, but since you are talking about a Pinot noir from Paso Robles, I’ll go with stems. It is a style from a deliberate winemaking decision.
tomato used to be a common experience in overripe German Spätburgunder… better vineyard work and less oak in the cellar seem to have rendered this less of a problem
I think Anton is talking about the actual tomato and not the stem/leaves. I’ve definitely experienced it in a wine before and I’m pretty sure it was a PN, but I have no idea which. I liked it, actually, but it was far from a dominate flavor.
I have tasted tomato notes in PN’s from certain vineyards. My observations fit with your, James. I think it is when the site is one that gives herbaceous notes (deep soil and/or excess canopy?) and then gets quite ripe.
When it is greater than a faint whisper, I don’t prefer that note.
Most of the overt tomato notes I have experienced have been due to heat damage- Also typically cabs.
There was a Livermore field blend being peddled years ago by a now-bankrupt winery that reeked of canned tomatoes. I believe it’s a flaw resulting from too high dimethyl sulfide.
Yes, tomato itself.
It made me wonder about heat, as well. But, I got it shipped during temperate weather from a reputable winery and it lived in my cellar thereafter, so I wonder when it could have gotten ‘stewed?’
I will try the other bottle and see.
The only time I’ve had strong tomato flavors was in a frank cornelisson bio-weapon.
I find tomato skin in CA pinots fairly often, often with whole cluster wines. The last wine I noticed it in was a 2008 Lucien Le Moine Clos Vougeot. I generally like it.
I often find tomato flavors in Pinot from very windy sites.
Tomato leaf is very common in Santa Maria pinot, in my experience.
That’s also where I’ve found it most often.
Me too. The average wind there is often above 6 mph. This can cause the stomata to close on the leaves which affects ripening.
Amazingly interesting! You guys are amazing!
This wine is from the Quinta Del Mar Vineyard located just outside of Nipomo on the Southern tip of the San Luis Obispo County.
Nipomo is essentially Santa Maria Valley, just a few miles north of the AVA boundary and much the same geography and climate. Much different from the Paso Robles area in northern SLO County.
You can get the “tomato” aroma and flavor from both the tomato leaf and the fruit. If you want more of a green note, next time you make pasta sauce throw in a few tomato leaves.
Those flavors and aromas in wine are from compounds in the berry itself and they are amplified or reduced based on length of skin contact, when they were picked, sun and wind conditions in the vineyard, temperatures of vinification, pH, the presence of oxygen, etc. So if you have mitigating circumstances or take mitigating steps, you have more or less of them.
They’re not the same as the pyrazines that produce a green pepper note and that are destroyed by UV light. They’re a different class of compound called hexenal, and they’ve been known since the early 1900s. They’re found in a lot of things, like tea, and of course, grapes.
You can actually buy the pure stuff if you’re developing flavors - Frito Lay for example, uses it to develop the flavors for their delicious crispy snacks. Those various flavors on Doritos don’t come from actual fruits and vegetables.
This past April there was an article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry - they’ve figured out that 2-hexenal is sweeter and more pleasant than 3-hexenal, which in large amounts can be too “green”, so they’re developing tomatoes with more of the 2 and less of the 3.
So keep your eyes out for tomatoes with less of a tomato note.
There are also certain pinot clones that can have a very tomato character, although they aren’t in use as much anymore. The old Martini clone 58, also called Martini 13 can have a strong tomato character and there is still some planted down in the central coast area as well as Anderson Valley.
I thought that they had achieved that years ago. Haven’t had a decent store bought tomato in a decade.
RRV as well, Holdredge “Shaken Not Stirred”