MOCK SOMM: Thomas George Estates, Cresta Ridge Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Estate Wine, Pinot Noir, 2012

This Pinot caught me, instructed me with its night-noted poetry, soft but coercive palate.. wish I had it in front of me now to sip but I look down at my notes and read two words: “diffident” and “daunting”. I know, ‘diffident’ can be read negatively but it’s hardly the matter with this bottle, as it’s not at all shy or coy with the amorous and melodic progression from initial contact to sip’s conclusion; you’ll be caught, too. Okay I know, descriptors.. uh….. Spicy cherry and blackberry, undercurrent/subtext jam-reminiscent texture and pace aligned with cooking spices, light black pepper and earth, or the soil type at the vineyard itself which strains the berries and limits yield, so the most forward and fervent of clusters see the bottle– What kind of “earth”? [And shouldn’t ‘earth‘ be capitalized?] The romantic kind, the type of Earth, or earth, with all sensory antagonizations.

I sipped this bottle toward the end of my tasting in that incredibly atmospheric and literary cave, with my friend and we both affirmed this was the more impressive Burgundy in the flight.

When I taste Pinot I really never know what to expect or if I should expect much from a Pinot and if I have the right to “expect”. I mean what do I know, I’m not a somm… Do I have the right to have a critical or professional opinion about a wine, any wine, especially a Pinot which is hardly the varietal for the beginner. I’m not a beginner, I don’t think, but I know I’m not an expert, or a Master, or.. whatever I am I’m made insecure by Pinots, especially ones with this confirmed and confident a character; making me a bit more confirmed and confident, hence the pedagogical facet of wines like this– So I’ll go back for some soon, add to the already ultra-condensed Pinot frame in my bottle colony. Can’t remember if I had any expectations of this ’12 right before sipping it, but if I did they were trumped by the sipped actuality, the tangible and savory rhetoric of the Pinot itself.

MM90

(5/26/15)