Schug - 2006 Pinot Noirs

My look today at two of Schug's Pinot Noir releases closes the book on this weeks coverage of their wines. Similar to their Chardonnay program, Schug Carneros Estate has 3 different Pinot Noir releases. The Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is noteworthy for several reasons. It's worth mentioning that this is Schug's largest bottling at just under 14,000 cases. Which varietal a winery produces most of and how they do with it is something I often find to be very telling. While this wine was aged in oak, that was done in larger casks, limiting the exposure. The retail price on this wine is $22.

One thing that's immediately interesting to me is that this wine opens up very quickly. If the Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir were your date, she'd be a flirt for sure. As soon as you raise the glass a huge bouquet wild strawberries roars out. It's underscored by subtler rhubarb scents. The first sips and the mid-palate feature a bevy of tremendous cherry and spice notes. The finish, which I found to be above average for this price point, features a lot of spice, lingering cherry and tingly mineral notes that cling to the tongue and back of the throat. 

This Schug Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is silky and lithe. There is firm acidity and the wine is well balanced.  It is the sort of Pinot Noir that's a pleasure to drink on it's own. That said it will marry well with a wide variety of foods. What I said about quality Chardonnay in this price range goes doubly for Pinot Noir in my opinion. This wine, at this price, is unquestionably a bargain as far as I'm concerned. With 14,000 cases on the market this should be an easy one to find. If you like well made, accessible Pinot Noir, do yourself a favor and locate this one.

Approximately 7,500 cases of the 2006 Schug Carneros Pinot Noir were produced. It spent 2 months in large oak casks and 9 months in 30% new French oak barrels. Fruit was sourced from a handful of vineyards in Carneros. The retail price is $26.

The first thing that hit me was the earthiness of this wine. The nose is full of mushroom and dry cherry notes. Some spice notes emerge on the nose as the wine opens up. Unlike the Sonoma Coast Pinot, the Carneros plays hard to get. Either decant it for an hour or so, or pour a glass and drink it slowly over a few hours to witness it evolving. The first sips reveal sour cherry notes and subtle cola characteristics. The oak adds toast and vanilla notes that really emerge in the mid-palate. As with the Sonoma Coast Pinot, the Carneros bottling has an above average finish in it's category. While I found this wine to be a great match for a grilled pork chop it should go well with a wide array of foods. Considering the earthiness, I think mushroom dishes are a natural match. Drink this one now or hold it for a few years and watch more earthiness emerge.

Once again this wine over-delivers at it's price-point. There is more complexity in this wine than the Sonoma Coast Pinot. They have different mission statements and in my opinion they both achieve them. What I like most about the Carneros Pinot Noir is that it's the sort of bottle I could drink over a long evening. Whether I chose to enjoy it's evolution as I paired it with food, or simply decided to contemplate the loveliness of Pinot Noir as a varietal, I'd be happy with my choice.

Having tasted 6 wines from Schug Carneros Estate this week, it's unquestionable there is a house style. They make wines that are well balanced, which allow the fruit to shine and pair wonderfully with food. These are wines you can live with and enjoy anytime, knowing you're getting at least fair value for your money. I recommend checking out their website which has a lot of information about the wines and the history of the Winery. You can also read about several wine club options they offer. And while all of their wines are enjoyable, I found the most pleasure in their Pinots.

Next Week: Coverage of "Gambero Rosso" the Italian Wines Roadshow in New York City.

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Lange Vineyards - "Dundee Hills" Estate Pinot Noir - 2005

Willamette Valley in Oregon has several distinct wine growing regions. Within each of those the style of Pinot Noir, the valleys signature varietal can vary greatly. In general Pinot Noir in Oregon is more Burgundian in style than those produced in other parts of the US. Since most consider Burgundy to be the benchmark for great Pinot Noir, Oregon can be a revelation to new converts.

Lange Vineyards is located in the Dundee Hills Appelation of Willamette Valley. The area is known for earth with a reddish hue and extremely well balanced Pinot Noirs. Dundee Hills may in fact be the area in Oregon with the most Burgundian Pinot's of all. Lange makes several vineyard designates in addition to some cuvees.

The 2005 Dundee Hills Estate Pinot Noir is a pretty small production at 400 cases. The wines nose is a bit reticent at first. After breathing for a bit the aroma starts to come out. Raspberry is the first thing that hit me and it lingered along with a bit of dust. The mid palate shows lots more berry fruit at this point. This wine is still pretty young. With a couple more years of bottle age I's expect the earthiness of this wine to become more apparent than it is now as the fruit subsides.  This Pinot finishes with some mushroom, spice and a hint of smokiness. Overall the wine has an elegant feel. It's medium bodied with good acidity.

Suggested retail on this wine is $60.00. Some digging on Wine-Searcher.com shows it can be found for a few dollars less. This is a terrific Pinot Noir that shows what can be accomplished in Willamette Valley, making it a good bet if you want to lay a bottle of Pinot Noir down for a couple of years. Make no mistake Lange is one of the best producers of Pinot Noir in Oregon.

Stony Mountain Vineyard

One of the best ways to get tips on smaller producers when touring a wine making region is to ask the people in the tasting rooms. Most folks are generally excited to share their favorites with you.  Often they're places you may have missed or overlooked. Sometimes they're not even listed on the map. A couple of people suggested I seek out Stony Mountain Vineyard in McMinnville. Never one to shy away from needing an appointment, I secured one for early this morning.

9:00 AM was the scheduled time. Perhaps more appropriate for coffee than wine, but you have to go when they're available, especially at smaller places that are often 1 or 2 person operations.

Stan Murayama the owner and Winemaker met me out front and walked me into the barrel room to taste. A lovely guy to speak with Stan shared some information about his operation.

300 Cases. That's his average annual production. There's small and then there's tiny. So right away you know these wines are cared for and coddled into the bottle.

Stan makes an Estate Pinot Noir and an Estate Reserve each year. I tasted both the 2003 & 2004 Estate as well as the 2003 Estate Reserve. All three wines had a wonderful purity of fruit and true Pinot character. The 2003's definitely benefit from their additional year in bottle. The 2004 tastes very good now but my suspicion is that it will be that much better in another year. I put the question to Stan and he agreed that in another year the Reserve will be even better than it is now. In fact he suggested it should be perfect by around Easter.

Having spent close to a week in Oregon tasting wine at this point I have run across the spectrum of quality and price. Over 30 wineries into my trip I have to report that Stony Mountain Vineyard wines are well within my Sweet Spot. Stan is producing tremendously exciting Pinot Noirs that are priced very fairly. In fact they're a bit of a steal.

With only 300 cases a year they're only sold locally or directly from the winery. If you like excellent Pinot Noir check them out.

It was close to 10:00 AM when I left, time for something else for breakfast.

Soter Vineyards

Another day in Oregon, more outstanding wine. My day started out with an appointment I'd made to taste at Soter Vineyards. I was met and greeted enthusiastically by Chris Poulos their Sales & Marketing Coordinator.

Starting in the office I was officially welcomed with a taste of their 2003 "Beacon Hill." Brut Rose. At four years old this wine is incredibly youthful. It seems to have a minimum of five years ahead of it, probably more. Brioche and biscuit characteristics dominate the mid palate and enhance a rich, round mouth-feel. The finish is a killer and lingers for a nice long while. A tremendous sparkler.

From the office we made our way up to Mineral Springs, the estate vineyard. We passed  the spot at the top of a hill where their tasting room is under construction.

Once at the vineyard we dug in to some Pinots.

"Beacon Hill" came first. This was a 2005 and it seems to be coming into it's own quite nicely. Well balanced with cherry characteristics and proper acidity one can't  help but compare it to a fine Burgundy. A few more years in bottle should help the already present earthiness develop further. I would expect this one to still drink well, perhaps even better, in eight or nine years.

The estate vineyard "Mineral Springs" is just being brought on-line. In fact the 2005 I sampled was the first bottling. Not nearly as resolved at this point in it's evolution as the "Beacon Hill" it promises to ultimately reward the patient with a potentially more complex experience. Tremendous spiciness and a big bouquet are already present in the "Mineral Springs" bottling. Time will serve to make this a stronger offering. Each subsequent vintage also holds a lot of promise as more mature vines will likely result in even nicer releases from this vineyard.

Soter Vineyards is clearly a name to keep in mind for top notch Pinot Noir & Sparkling Wine. If you're in the Willamette Valley area you'd do well to try for an appointment. In addition to the elegance of the wines, the property is beautiful and well worth touring. When you add in their friendliness, Soter Vineyards is my kind of Triple Threat.

Kramer Vineyards- Willamette Valley Oregon

Every trip I take to a wine producing region to taste wine results in some memorable tasting room experiences. Having spent less than 2 days so far in Oregon I've already tasted some great wines and met some friendly folks.

But then I walked into Kramer Vineyards late in the day yesterday. After a few minutes at the very welcoming tasting bar sampling one of their tasty sparkling wines I was asked if I had any interest in tasting a six year vertical of their Barrel Select Pinot Noir. Any interest? I had to laugh, this is exactly the sort of thing you hope to stumble accross when you're out wine tasting. And to make it even more appealing it was an incredibly modest $12.00 for the privilege.

I was ushered into the back room where I sat with the owners and winemakers Trudy & Keith Kramer as well as their friends the Lint's (RJ & Junaita) who it turns out are in the process of getting their own winery (Plum Hill Vineyard) up and running. Then I was also introduced to Marilyn Blen who seems to do a variety of different things around the winery including acting as in house chef (more on that later).

I sat down and was poured generous quantities of the above mentioned Pinot Noirs from vintage years 2002 through 2006. The 2006 came from a barrel sample as it's a few months away from being bottled.

Each of the Pinot's was well balanced and very drinkable. In the 2001 you can detect that it's optimum drinking window is coming to a close. But it's very enjoyable right now and the color has muted a bit from the cherry red of a young Pinot to take on some rust color.

The nose on all 6 was very distinct. The 2006 promises to be a blockbuster. It has a bigger almost jammy nose with lots of dark fruit. By the time it's released next fall it should really be singing.

My favorites were the 2003 and 2004. The 2003 was incredibly perfumed and just beautiful to drink. The sort of wine you want to grab a bottle of and sit outside and consume every last drop of. The 2004 also had a unique nose which I could not quite put my finger on. Anise came to mind but I'll reconsider when I taste it again.

We then moved on to their 2004 Heritage Pinot. WOW, What a tremendous wine. A big round mouth-feel, lots of cherry and spice characteristics and a lengthy finish. Just fantastic.

It was at this point that I was asked to hang with them for dinner. How could anyone ever say no to this friendly, gregarious bunch. We enjoyed salad and a slow cooked brisket that Marilyn had prepared with her family's plum BBQ sauce recipe. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe it. Of course several other wines were poured with the meal including a unique one called Carmine I believe. It comes from several grapes being combined genetically. The last wine was a Pinot port. A terrific way to end, it paired nicely with chocolate.

Close to 3 1/2 hours after I walked into Kramer Vineyards I actually left. Richer not only with the new wines I discovered but with an incredible few hours spent with some genuinely lovely and generous people who happen to make delicious wine and sell it at a very fair price.

If you have the chance visit them. If you don't have that opportunity order some through their website KramerWine.com.

Culley - Pinot Noir

For years now wine lovers have recognized New Zealand as the home of unique, well made Sauvignon Blanc. In the last few years they have also emerged as producers of well made Pinot Noir. Culley's 2006 Pinot Noir is made in a Burgundian style.

Classic Pinot characteristics of sour cherry and cola are balanced by firm but not overwhelming acidity.  This Pinot has a nice finish that lingers on the tongue for quite awhile.

This is a medium bodied wine that will marry well with a wide range of cuisine and is also incredibly easy to drink on it's own.

It will likely drink well for a couple of years if cellared properly.  However I wouldn't expect it to improve much if at all. 

Pinot Noir is amongst the most difficult wines to find a true bargain on. Coming in at around $12 a bottle the Culley certainly qualifies.