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Feature Article
Unseasonal rain threatened the Anderson Valley Pinot Festival May 19-21, but it held off during the Grand Tasting.
Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival a Real Celebration
As the number of AV Pinot bottlings breaks the half century mark, a trend toward site specific single-vineyard wines becomes apparent.
by
Thom Elkjer
May 23, 2006
May 23, 2006 -- Boonville, CA -- Anderson Valley conducted its annual “Pinot Fest” over the weekend, and there was ample reason to celebrate. For one thing, the rain that constantly threatened to drench the event never fell, so visitors to the pastoral, ocean-influenced valley were able to enjoy its natural splendor with relative ease.
For another, the Grand Tasting on Saturday, May 20th featured the debuts of numerous new Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs, raising the total to 50 or more from the 2004 harvest. Given the number of new programs already in barrel, the valley should easily surpass that number when the 2005 vintage comes to market.
When AppellationAmerica conducted its Discovery Tasting of 2003 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir late last year, there were 38 wines in the tasting and another half dozen that eluded capture. At the Pinot Fest, most attendees got their first tastes of Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs from half a dozen new labels, including Baxter, Black Kite, Breggo Cellars, Harrington, Standish, and Zina Hyde Cunningham. Existing labels including MacPhail and Saintsbury also unveiled new programs. These push the known number of valley Pinots past the mid-century mark, with more to come.
Most interestingly, the new programs are almost uniformly dedicated to vineyard-designated wines. Some of those vineyards are just one or two acres planted to a single clone, bringing a welcomed new site-specificity to Anderson Valley Pinot Noir.
“There are so many great sites in Anderson Valley and other regions, and I believe they should be expressed,” says winemaker Phil Baxter, who joined his father in an eponymous wine label after a stint in Burgundy. “Blending makes interesting wines, but it negates site 100%. If we want to take California winemaking to the next level, we have to explore our best sites and see what they have to say.”
Doug Stewart launched Breggo Cellars to make wine in Anderson Valley from top vineyards, and quickly secured grapes from both Ferrington Vineyard and Savoy Vineyard. His 2005 production will include-vineyard designated Pinot Noirs from both sites. “These vineyards are not only completely different, they are also stellar and have proven that they can stand alone,” he says. “They have history with some of the grand-daddies of California Pinot, including Williams Selyem and Littorai, and we want to put our oars in that water.”
To put this new single-site trend in perspective, the Appellation Signature for Anderson Valley Pinot Noir in 2003 favored multi-vineyard, multi-clone wines. I was honored to be able to make this point at the Pinot Fest technical seminar on Friday, May 19th. During my talk, I explained that most of the seven 2003 Signature Pinot Noirs (selected in a blind tasting by winemakers working in the appellation) turned out to have a surprisingly common recipe. At its basis, it combines fruit from multiple vineyards – often at opposite ends of the valley – and multiple clones, typically a combination of Dijon/ENTAV plant material and older, established clones such as Pommard, Martini, Swan, and David Bruce. Even the single-vineyard Signature wines – from Savoy and Ferrington, not surprisingly – combined a mix of new and old clones.
Yet the trend is clearly to more specificity, both among and within the vineyards of the valley.
James MacPhail is one of the emerging leaders of the site-specific pack. He is now making Anderson Valley Pinot Noir from a one-acre site planted exclusively to clone 115 (Fratty Shams Vineyard) and a two-acre site planted exclusively to the Martini clone (Wightman House Vineyard). These are in addition to his single-vineyard wine from Toulouse Vineyard. He poured the Toulouse and Fratty Shams at the Pinot Fest, impressing tasters with complete, complex wines despite the Burgundy-like restrictions of his vineyard sources.
While many visitors were surprised to see the Saintsbury banner flying in Anderson Valley – the label has been near-synonymous with Carneros for more than two decades – it makes sense given the winery’s recent decision to ditch its “reserve” program in favor of vineyard-designated wines from the reserve sources.
Co-founder Richard Ward was on hand at the Pinot Fest, offering both a 2004 from Goldeneye’s Confluence Vineyard and barrel samples of a 2005 Pinot from Cerise Vineyard. This latter site, which has provided fruit for a growing list of premium producers (including Copain and Siduri), spoke with its usual eloquence even in a young barrel sample. In the hands of Saintsbury, it should gain even more power to impress in future vintages.
“We’re not coming in as experts on Anderson Valley, but with a real respect for and understanding of a particular grape,” Ward told me, referring with characteristic modesty to his quarter-century of experience with Pinot Noir. “We wanted to keep pushing ourselves in new ways, and Anderson Valley is an extraordinary place to be able to do that.”
~ Thom Elkjer, Mendocino Editor
To comment on Thom Elkjer’s writings and thoughts, contact him at t.elkjer@appellationamerica.com
For another, the Grand Tasting on Saturday, May 20th featured the debuts of numerous new Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs, raising the total to 50 or more from the 2004 harvest. Given the number of new programs already in barrel, the valley should easily surpass that number when the 2005 vintage comes to market.
When AppellationAmerica conducted its Discovery Tasting of 2003 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir late last year, there were 38 wines in the tasting and another half dozen that eluded capture. At the Pinot Fest, most attendees got their first tastes of Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs from half a dozen new labels, including Baxter, Black Kite, Breggo Cellars, Harrington, Standish, and Zina Hyde Cunningham. Existing labels including MacPhail and Saintsbury also unveiled new programs. These push the known number of valley Pinots past the mid-century mark, with more to come.
Most interestingly, the new programs are almost uniformly dedicated to vineyard-designated wines. Some of those vineyards are just one or two acres planted to a single clone, bringing a welcomed new site-specificity to Anderson Valley Pinot Noir.
“There are so many great sites in Anderson Valley and other regions, and I believe they should be expressed,” says winemaker Phil Baxter, who joined his father in an eponymous wine label after a stint in Burgundy. “Blending makes interesting wines, but it negates site 100%. If we want to take California winemaking to the next level, we have to explore our best sites and see what they have to say.”
Doug Stewart launched Breggo Cellars to make wine in Anderson Valley from top vineyards, and quickly secured grapes from both Ferrington Vineyard and Savoy Vineyard. His 2005 production will include-vineyard designated Pinot Noirs from both sites. “These vineyards are not only completely different, they are also stellar and have proven that they can stand alone,” he says. “They have history with some of the grand-daddies of California Pinot, including Williams Selyem and Littorai, and we want to put our oars in that water.”
To put this new single-site trend in perspective, the Appellation Signature for Anderson Valley Pinot Noir in 2003 favored multi-vineyard, multi-clone wines. I was honored to be able to make this point at the Pinot Fest technical seminar on Friday, May 19th. During my talk, I explained that most of the seven 2003 Signature Pinot Noirs (selected in a blind tasting by winemakers working in the appellation) turned out to have a surprisingly common recipe. At its basis, it combines fruit from multiple vineyards – often at opposite ends of the valley – and multiple clones, typically a combination of Dijon/ENTAV plant material and older, established clones such as Pommard, Martini, Swan, and David Bruce. Even the single-vineyard Signature wines – from Savoy and Ferrington, not surprisingly – combined a mix of new and old clones.
Yet the trend is clearly to more specificity, both among and within the vineyards of the valley.
James MacPhail is one of the emerging leaders of the site-specific pack. He is now making Anderson Valley Pinot Noir from a one-acre site planted exclusively to clone 115 (Fratty Shams Vineyard) and a two-acre site planted exclusively to the Martini clone (Wightman House Vineyard). These are in addition to his single-vineyard wine from Toulouse Vineyard. He poured the Toulouse and Fratty Shams at the Pinot Fest, impressing tasters with complete, complex wines despite the Burgundy-like restrictions of his vineyard sources.
While many visitors were surprised to see the Saintsbury banner flying in Anderson Valley – the label has been near-synonymous with Carneros for more than two decades – it makes sense given the winery’s recent decision to ditch its “reserve” program in favor of vineyard-designated wines from the reserve sources.
Co-founder Richard Ward was on hand at the Pinot Fest, offering both a 2004 from Goldeneye’s Confluence Vineyard and barrel samples of a 2005 Pinot from Cerise Vineyard. This latter site, which has provided fruit for a growing list of premium producers (including Copain and Siduri), spoke with its usual eloquence even in a young barrel sample. In the hands of Saintsbury, it should gain even more power to impress in future vintages.
“We’re not coming in as experts on Anderson Valley, but with a real respect for and understanding of a particular grape,” Ward told me, referring with characteristic modesty to his quarter-century of experience with Pinot Noir. “We wanted to keep pushing ourselves in new ways, and Anderson Valley is an extraordinary place to be able to do that.”
~ Thom Elkjer, Mendocino Editor
To comment on Thom Elkjer’s writings and thoughts, contact him at t.elkjer@appellationamerica.com
