Challenging the status quo

It seems like there are wine writers, reviews, judgers and raters galore out there these days frankly, too many to keep up. But recently I read a column from Dan Berger’s Vintage Experience that caught my attention.

As Pinot Noir growers and now producers it seems to be more and more difficult to get some to understand our Pinot Noir program. We grow five different clones of Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley and trust me; they don’t call it the “heartbreak” grape for nothing. Pinot is a not only a difficult grape to grow but also a delicate wine to make.

Our extended ageing program in both barrel and bottle is meant to achieve the goal of releasing a finely aged, mature wine. But yet questions and confusion arise when we announce the release of our 2005 vintage…? While I realize that others are currently selling their 2007 Pinot Noir’s, we prefer that our wines are enjoyed when they are ready to drink, releasing them later then most producers.

I correlate it to the saying “wisdom comes with age.” Not only are older vintages more valuable, their quality is better, therefore creating a better experience for the customer. Wineries pushing out 2007 and 2008 vintages are usually more concerned about adding to their cash flow, but in turn the wine is released to young.

The following is an excerpt written by Dan Berger from his newsletter Vintage Experiences connecting his dilemma with having to judge young wines. Dan writes about one of his judging experiences with the late columnist Jerry Mead;

And then Jerry said, “If they’re going to keep passing laws, they oughta make it illegal to release any Pinot [Noir] until it’s 5 years old.

That thought came to mind this past Tuesday night when I joined with a host of Sonoma County wine makers to blind-taste 12 RRV Pinots from the 2006 vintage.

The conclusion everyone agreed to was that not one of the wines was in any condition to be evaluated. All were too young.

Yet every wine on the table had already been released, and most had been judged by a slick magazine or wine expert six months earlier! Pinot Noir is one grape variety ( and there are others) that simply defies any sort of critical analysis this early.

By age 2 1/2 most quality Pinots are barely old enough to crawl, let alone walk. As for displaying the depth and character of all the complexity that is in the wine, forget it.”

There are some wine writers and critics that touch on this subject but in my opinion, not as many that should.  Remembering that winemakers and producers are dealing with a living, breathing, ever changing entity helps to put things in perspective. While our reasons for releasing an older vintage when the market is flooded with new releases may be confusing to some, we stand by our philosophy and will continue to swim against the tide. After all, what’s life without a challenge?