jwbblog: California Pinot Noir

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

California Pinot Noir

In the past, I've found that I don't care very much for most of the California pinots (many from Napa) that I've tried--they're simply too sweet--preferring instead the somewhat more austere pinots from Oregon. However, we recently tried some pinots from the Sonoma coast with Jenn's colleague Mike Rietbrock--a serious wine nut if there ever was one--and they were simply amazing--full bodied yet not too heavy, fruity yet not too sweet.

Serendepitously, the "Dining Out" section of today's Times has an interesting article by Eric Asimov about some of the winemakers who are making amazing wine along the Pacific on the Sonoma coast. The Times notes that they've been growing grapes in this area for some time--among others, the boutique wineries Williams Selyem and Kistler have been at it for a while. However, a bunch of new wineries have sprung up in the last few years--such as Peay, Faila, and Radio-Coteau--and they are making wines that are remarkable and worth searching for. (The article also discusses the efforts of established names, like Joseph Phelps and Kendall Jackson to get in on the action.)

Alas, these wines tend to be both expensive and hard to find. Most are only available to members of the wineries' mailing lists or to big spenders in restaurants with extensive wine lists. Further, if you can get on any of their wine lists, what should be a simple and straightforward task of actually getting your wine sent to you is complicated by our antiquated and anti-consumer shipping laws. (More on that another time.) Anyway, at Mike's urging, I was able to get on the lists at Peay, Radio-Coteau, and Kosta-Browne, and on the waiting list at Kistler. We'll see what happens--though now that the Times is on the case, these wines will be even harder to find.