Older California Pinots...

Had lunch with one of the owners of Littorai on Tuesday and tasted some delicious older Pinots and Chardonnay... The 2000 Charles Heintz Chardonnay was beautiful... stony, steely, a bit of baked apples, fat and rich - in short, it still needed time. The 2001 Thieriot Vineyard Chardonnay fat, overripe fruit, with buttered popcorn, honey, cantelope and pineapple. Nice and long, but I prefered the previous Chard... On to the Pinots! The 2001 Hirsch was mushroomy with barnyard, turned wet earth, ripe black and red fruits (wild raspberry, ripe candied cherries) - this was young and powerful. The 1999 Hirsch was baked cranberry, bramble, black cherry, raspberry, allspice, thyme and smoke. This was a beauty... still very Russian River Valley. The 2001 One Acre from Mendocino was a completely different animal... ripe, powerful black fruits with exotic spices, red charries... "Stunning" was one word I used... the 1999 One Acre was all earth spice, black turned earth, dusty mushrooms, broken twigs with a bit of alcohol evident on the nose. My favorite was the 01 One Acre... the 2006 "The Gift" is a botrytis-infected chardonnay with over 200g/l rs(!)... from the Mays Canyon and Thieriot vineyards. Nice, not cloying, but beautiful. Very high acid on this as well... needs time.

Last night I also tried the 2005 Kistler Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir - very, very pretty - actually my favorite bottle of this I've had from this vintage. It's starting to come together... the 2003 Berthaud Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru was hot, over-ripe and didn't appear to have anything to do with Chambolle-Musigny... tasted more like Chateauneuf-du-Pape! The 1998 Chateau Batailley is as it has been, but two good bottles have me feeling good about this one. The 1998 Chateau Lynch-Bages was soft, ready to drink and pretty. Not a great wine, but not bad to drink either! The Henriot Brut Rosé is amazing Rose... so yeasty, nutty and toasty with just hints of berry fruit on the nose... intoxicating nose...