I’m very happy to announce that one of the coolest wine events of the year is coming back to the Bay on 02/26/2011 with the arrival of the 9th annual installment of The Pinot Summit (Twitter). Spanning three different segments that day, attending the whole Summit gives you access to almost 9 full hours of delicious Pinot and tasty morsels. It is one of the most educational and complete consumer trade events that I’ve ever seen and it will definitely leave your bellies and brains full of new flavors of and knowledge about Pinot Noir. Best of all?! I’ve got an awesome contest to win some wine from one of the Summit finalists! More after the break…
Run by Barbara Drady (Twitter) of Affairs of the Vine, the event is meticulously designed so that only the most highly rated wines out of three elimination rounds of blind judging make the cut for the Pinot Summit. I was fired up to be chosen to judge the finalists for the Summit in the last round Pinot Shootout, held at Fort Mason Center on 01/15/11. We tasted in 3 teams (mine was Blue) and each team tasted 4 flights of 8 wines, completely blinded. We were instructed to score using the 100 point system and to write copious notes to back up our scores.
I found the quality very high for the vast majority of the 32 wines that I tasted that day, most of them from the 2007 and 2008 vintages and rather on the fruit forward side. I also discovered a few favorites that exhibited some incredible balance, earthiness, fruit, fine tannins and bright acidity, aspects that are right up my pinot alley (and a couple dogs). I was also pleased to see wines made it to the Grand Sweepstakes at the Summit from some previous favs, like Hahn SLH and Wild Horse Winery.
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My favorite of the whole judging was the ’07 Athair Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. Exhibiting all of the characteristics that I geekily reeled off above and ringing in at only $36 (or even less), this delivers so much tastiness that I gave it a coveted AwesomeWK from the WKBadges. You can check out all of the wines at the end of the article to add them to your own WineLog. All of the wines that I judged that day are tagged with “PinotShootout2011” and the wines that I judged that also made The Pinot Noir Summit are tagged with “PinotSummit2011“. I’ll also be moderating a panel entitled “A Question of Style” featuring one of the wines that I tasted, the 2007 TR Elliott Russian River Valley Burgonet Pinot Noir. It will feature Ted Elliott from TR Elliott, Christy Griffith from Lazy Creek Vineyards and Marc Goldberg from Windward Vineyard.
So what’s this contest that I talked about earlier? Well it’s pretty super cool if you ask me. You can win a two pack of vino from one of my favorite wineries that also made the Summit finals, Wild Horse Winery! One of the wines will be their Grand Award winning wine, the 2008 Wild Horse Central Coast Pinot Noir, winner of a QPRWK badge. Sweeet! All you need to do is to enter the code “drxeno” when you check out to buy your tickets and you’ll be entered to win the wine. You can pick it up at the Summit. You’ve gotta hurry though, only 300 tickets will be sold and it sells out every year. Good luck!
Hilton San Francisco Financial District
750 Kearny Street
San Francisco, California 94108
Full Day: 11:30 PM to 6:45 PM
Sparkling Wine Reception: 4:00 PM to 4:45 PM
Grand Awards Tasting: 4:45 PM to 6:45 PM
Click here for directions – convenient parking is available at the garage attached to the hotel and the Portsmouth Square Garage located across the street (733 Kearny Street). There are lots of other garages in the area.
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| Pinot Noir Summit $125 (includes Blind Tasting, Workshops, Sparkling Wine Reception, & The Grand Awards Tasting) |
Pinot Noir Shootout Grand Awards Tasting $80 |
Meet Pinot Noir winemakers in an intimate setting $125 |
Wines that I judged at the 9th Pinot Shootout (PinotShootout2011) for The Pinot Noir Summit 2011 (PinotSummit2011), listed by highest rating:
Athair Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2007
Color: Medium garnet to brick core, lighter brick red edges
Nose: Musty, leather nose, loam and slight brett, baked rhubarb, dried cola
Palate: Very good. Love the mushroomy, and loamy notes, medium mouthfeel, balanced acidity, fresh tobacco and darker rhubarb fruit. Finest of tannins, quite good!: AwesomeWK
Lost Canyon Russian River Valley Morelli Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008
Sequana Green Valley Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir 2008
David Noyes Sonoma Coast Crane Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007
Bogle Vineyards California Pinot Noir 2007
Color: Light ruby core, lightest ruby to clear edges
Nose: Cola and rhubarb are all over this nose with some char and dried florals underneath.
Palate: Great structure here, more angular with good acidity, medium body and still smooth out to the finish. Unsweetened cherry cola with good fresh garden herbs of rosemary, as well. Good: QPRWK, OldWorldWK
Chamisal Vineyards Edna Valley Domaine Alfred Estate Bottled Pinot Noir 2008
Color: Medium ruby core, light ruby edges
Nose: Good earthy, cherry-wood nose, rhubarb and light florals.
Palate: Burnt cigar here and dried leather, with earthier rhubarb from the nose and more of a fuller, cigar box finish. Good tannins, great complexity. Good balanced acidity, as well. With air, juicy cherry comes through: OldWorldWK
TR Elliott Russian River Valley Burgonet Pinot Noir 2007
Color: Medium ruby with light ruby edges
Nose: Musty and murky dark red fruit here, charred toast: interesting.
Palate: Earthier here with some loam to it, dark red fruit here of black cherry with good toast that is balanced with the fine, medium tannins and medium acidity: OldWorldWK
Hahn SLH Estate Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2009
Color: Medium to light ruby, lightest ruby edges
Nose: Deeper and darker rhubarb and bigger cola here, with some black cherry poking through.
Palate: Bigger mouthfeel here with a coolness to the spiced rhubarb pie. Big, chewy and toasty root beer finish with dried florals and hops. Big but good: NewWorldWK
Lucas & Lewellen Santa Barbara County Goodchild High 9 Vineyard Estate Pinot Noir 2008
Bouchaine Napa Valley – Carneros Estate Vineyard Pinot Meunier 2008
Nth Degree Arroyo Seco Pinot Noir 2008
Asuncion Ridge San Luis Obispo County Pinot Noir 2008
Color: Darker ruby core, light ruby edges
Nose: Big red fruit medley here, ripe and juicy baked cranberry, fresh black cherry and sweeter rhubarb, toast underneath and distinct cinnamon. Big, but good.
Palate: Fuller mouth, with hoppy florals, baking spice, and ripe and juicy Bing and black cherry. Balanced, bigger yet fine tannins, cola all the way into the finish. Very Good: NewWorldWK
Summerland Santa Rita Hills Fiddlestix Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008
R. Stuart & Co. Willamette Valley Autograph Pinot Noir 2008
Fulcrum Sonoma Coast Gap’s Crown Pinot Noir 2008
Wild Horse Central Coast Pinot Noir 2008
Color: Ruby core, light ruby edges
Nose: Distinct fresh cherry pie, complete with toasty pie crust, very bright.
Palate: Cherry pie here as well, fuller body and smooth and chalky mouthfeel, toast out to the cola finish: QPRWK
Fess Parker Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2008
Davis Family Vineyards Russian River Valley Horseshoe Bend Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008
Paro Russian River Valley Indindoli Vineyards Pinot Noir 2009
Tarras Vineyards Central Otago The Steppes Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008
Erath Willamette Valley Leland Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008
Alysian Russian River Valley Rochioli Vineyard Allen-Rochioli Blocks Pinot Noir 2007
Claiborne & Churchill Edna Valley Twin Creeks Pinot Noir 2008
Armitage Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir 2008
Expression 39° Anderson Valley Annahala Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009
Windsor Vineyards Sonoma County Private Reserve Pinot Noir 2009
V. Sattui Winery Los Carneros Reserve Pinot Noir 2007
Leveroni Vineyards Sonoma Valley Seven Oaks Vineyard Estate Grown Pinot Noir 2009
Mueller Russian River Valley Emily’s Cuvée Pinot Noir 2008
Kenneth Volk Santa Maria Valley Nielson Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007
Beauregard Santa Cruz Mountains Estate Grown Pinot Noir 2008
Prix Napa Valley Fagan Creek: Block 38 Reserve Estate Bottled Pinot Noir 2007
February 6, 2011
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ward Kadel – @drXeNo and Tia Butts, Larry Chandler. Larry Chandler said: If any of you still have doubts about attending the #PinotNoirSummit, read this post by @drXeNo It will fire you up. http://bit.ly/hv0zj3 […]
February 14, 2011
Great job Ward. Would have loved to judge a few of those wines myself. Hoping to make it to the shootout, but I think tickets are sold out. Let me know if you find any… “floating around”
Cheers
February 14, 2011
Hi Mark! Thanks so much, I had a great time judging. There are still be tickets available as of today, so take a peek at the site to sign up. Cheers!
March 24, 2011
[…] on the heels of my panel workshop at the very successful 9th Pinot Noir Summit this past month, I’m involved in another new, […]