2013 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Las Alturas Vineyard- USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands (5/27/2015)
Wow. This was a gift and even though it is from Santa Lucia Highlands, I thought it would be a fine, well made wine. Nope. This is disgusting and undrinkable. For the aromas, just light a match and the get some over ripe, rotten fruit. The palate is gag worthy. Like drinking a glass of liquid smoke mixed with the cheapest whisky you can find.
I have no recollection of having a more undrinkable wine.
I had a 2013 Belle Glos Clark and Telephone last week that was really not my thing. Thick, without any balancing character and just not what I want in my glass. Funny, as you might expect, a few at the table (they did not have the wine wisdom and brilliance that we all possess) really liked the wine. I was honest about it, Jason, and I told the person who brought it that I didn’t care for it. Not to make the guy feel like sh#t but to be candid with him and tell him why. Who knows, maybe he will drink Oregon PN and Anderson Valley Deep End stuff one day but he and others like this Belle Glos stuff, which seems like Caymus 40th to be made for the mass audience who want weight, color and force, all things that by god Pinot Noir for me should never be. BTW, if you want some validation that people like Belle Glos, go look at the notes in CT for the 13s. 440 users of the Clark and Telephone, which is Rhys level #s, man. 2013 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Clark & Telephone Vineyard, USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley - CellarTracker!
Don’t ever forget that we are the MINORITY in the wine consuming world. Vast majority of imbibers want to be slammed in the face!
My next door neighbor, Dave, and I caught the wine bug together about 20 years ago and went in hard for the big bruisers. Didn’t much care for pinot for years. I fell off the syrup train about 10 years ago but he is still going strong and can’t get enough of the bruisers. He has cases of Caymus 40th and is so proud. Its ok - to each their own. Drink what you like and don’t worry about others drinking habits.
Tom, that is true and what I believe, too. Caymus and their off shoot labels are working because they are what people want. Not Baudry, not Copain, not Dujac or Jamet. If I bring those kinds of wines to a gathering where the crowd is not you, me, Counselor Seiber, Mr Hagen or many others here, the other crowd is going to look at me and say “uh, this seems thin, or tangy” or whatever. Give the folks at Caymus credit: they are making wines that make money, not wines that are going to win a contest for finesse or ethereal display. Your neighbor, he gets it for what he wants, as much as I can’t drink Belle Glos for what I want.
PS–Jason, dude, we have known each other for a long time and by god, you know your palate by now. Belle Glos is not going to be something you are going to enjoy. You were doomed from jump street.
I am one of those people who want weight and fruit in my Pinots. The Las Alturas was the first pinot I tasted that was over the top for me. My first sip, right after opening it, it was a big mouthful of slightly overripe fruit, with a real, real long finish. I was thinking it was 50 percent Australian Shiraz. After 15 minutes open, it was over the top.
I know Joey and the man who trained him, Mac MacDonald, (Vision Cellars), and this wine was way out of character. I asked Joey how much syrah was in the Las Alturas. He said that’s how the grapes are from that vineyard with a sheepish grin. I think he’s making several levels/styles of wine the appeal to the different palates.
I have no issue with peoples tastes. And I myself like to get slammed in the face every once in awhile. I haven’t had the Caymus 40th but I suspect it is a well made wine and I would probably enjoy a glass on occasion. This Belle Glos is a poorly made wine, full stop.
Jason, Belle Glos has been on my “avoid list” for a long time. If offered as a gift or a casual sip…why not? Surprises are possible. Sorry to hear it didn’t work out.
Someone gave me a bottle of this once, and I just regifted it. The recipient and his company the night he opened it thought it was great, everyone wins.
I think there has always been a mass market for very ripe, sweet, sugary wines, but I think certain producers like Belle Glos and Caymus are finding that there is a strong market for it into more premium price points as well. I expect others will respond to the demand and that niche will expand.
I’m totally in the “live and let live” mindset about others loving this style of wine, just as Tom described above. The only thing that irks me a little is when those who get off on bashing American wines hold these out as being representative of California wine. “Yes, this is horribly overripe, sweet and manpulated, but that is how California pinots generally are.”
Caymus 40th and Belle Glos are not typical of Napa cab and Central Coast pinot, they are at one far extreme of it. Just as if some French wine hater found the most green, weedy, underripe, unclean Burgundy or Chinon out there, and said “yes, this is awful, but this is really representative of what Burgundy and Chinon are like.”
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