Smoky 2008 Pinot Noir from Mendocino

Looks like you need to stay away from 2008 Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs

I don't remember hearing about this anywhere else. Anyone else know about this? I usually buy pinots from Anderson Valley. Thoughts?

Yes. It is well known but not well publicized, if that makes sense. If you were a grower, you would not want to shout it out and if you were a vintner locked into a contract to buy the fruit, you would not want to play it up either. A lot of wine was sold to the bulk market, i.e., Two Buck Chuck and the like. I would not recommend buying wines from Anderson Valley from the 08 vintage unless you can taste first.

I was at Goldeneye two weeks ago and they were concerned about the'08. They are bottling 1/3 of their normal volume. They were tasting/ selling the '07. The Confluence Vineyard PN was wonderful.

I think it is going to be true for most places who had major fires.

Jamie Kutch bulked out over half of his 2008 pinot, and didn't offer one SVD for that vintage. Looks like more people should have done the same!!

This does seem to be under the radar screen. I am not hearing about it in Sonoma County and discover it from a Wall Street Journal article.

Originally posted by Arsenal4ever:

quote:

I was at Goldeneye two weeks ago and they were concerned about the'08. They are bottling 1/3 of their normal volume. They were tasting/ selling the '07. The Confluence Vineyard PN was wonderful.

I can tell you that the '06 Goldeneye PN is absolutely outstanding...going to have to buy a case regardless of the $45 price tag...

It's not just limited to North Coast Pinot. As Pinot got the one of the thinnest skin, they get smoke taint the easiest. There are plots of Cabernet Sauvignon that was hit as well, even on the Napa side.

quote:

Originally posted by budman:
Jamie Kutch bulked out over half of his 2008 pinot, and didn't offer one SVD for that vintage. Looks like more people should have done the same!!

Hey bud.

He was right up front about it. Seems he was one of the few. Probly took a big hit for it.

Indeed he was. Let's see. 20 barrels = 500 cases at about $40 per bottle... you do the math.

We had a bottle of Decoy Pinot returned due to smokiness. It sure was smokey. It wasn't terrible, to me.

I know Radio Coteau and Benovia bulked out their '08 Savoy (Anderson Valley) pinots. We had a thread on this here a month+ ago and this is pretty well known in the region I thought.

quote:

Originally posted by Berno:
We had a bottle of Decoy Pinot returned due to smokiness. It sure was smokey. It wasn't terrible, to me.

The Decoy is the only 2008 Anderson pinot I've had. While it was definitely smokey, it wasn't more than you'd find in a syrah. But if you hate all smokiness, avoid.

I've had several 2008 Navarro Vineyards Anderson Valley wines, all whites: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Muscat Blanc, and Gewurztraminer. Despite having tasted 2 to 4 bottles of each of these, I've detected no smoky aromas or flavors at all. Rather, these are all very clean, well-made wines, typical of Navarro.

I can't imagine why the smoke would affect only red wines, and indeed it would seem that any such taint would be more obvious in whites -- unless, of course, one is predisposed to expecting to find smoke.

Is it hysteria? Or is there some reason reds would be affected by smoke, but not whites?

Maybe it's the longer skin contact with the red wines.

I've tasted smoke affected wines, and the smokiness is distinct and different from barrel char. The wines smell like your clothes after you have sat next to a campfire. If one is anticipating smoke taint, I'm sure toasty oak could set off sensory alarms.

I suppose that makes sense.

Was talking to a guy who frequents the Anderson Valley area...

He told a story of a vintner debating whether to salvage or dump his whole 08 pinot. He took a barrel sample and put it in one of the offices. He left for a few hours. When he came back to the office with some guests, they asked if there was a fire somewhere...

Next day he dumped all his 08 barrels...

Had the 08 Anthill Farms Anderson Valley and it definitely had a cigarette finish. Pretty unpleasant. I was a little better on day 2, but not enough to make up for the cost of the three bottles.

All right, confession time. For a looong time I have been searching for a Pinot or not too expensive Burgundy with an unmistakable taste of smoke as a flavor component of the wine. One of my most memorable wine experiences early on was a Faively Beaune Bressandes, 1985 or so, that had a noticeable smoke flavor to it. I couldn't stop drinking it. I am not generally a big Pinot drinker, but when I read tasting notes with smoke as a descriptor, I have often bought it, only to be disappointed by little or no noticable smokiness to it. I'm thinking this may be my best chance to find something. I sat through a recent Gary VAY-NER-CHUK report of Toby Hill's, Phillip's Hill efforts including the "Ring of Fire" Pinot written about in the aforementioned WSJ article. GV raved about it. Has anyone tried this one? Also, if anyone tries a 2008 Anderson Valley Pinot with a pleasant smoke component, please post a tasting note. Thanks.

MnMark, try the 08 Anthill Anderson Valley PN. It has the smoke component you are looking for.

Tanglenet,
Thanks for the reply, I will look into this one. From what I was able to learn online, in more typical years it seems to have quite a following.

Interesting discussion on this topic here:

http://wine.woot.com/Forums/Vi....aspx?PostID=4231832

I live in the area and have had an opportunity to try many of these wines. Some have been very smoky, many winemakers (such as Toby Hill, referenced above) chose to bottle the wines without any change to their normal methodology, and the "campfire" quality is evident. Those that took mitigative steps (Breggo, Drew, and Mary Elke, to name three I've tried recently) produced wines that, while surely not their best ever, are very pretty and quite tasty. One thing that I'm selfishly happy about is that all the media hoopla surrounding smoke tainted wines has resulted in a fire sale of '08 pinots from the region. There are a ton of killer deals to be had. I can name at least 3 high end, well regarded wineries that are offering 50% off cases right now.

For what it's worth, I'm in for the offer in the link above. That's a killer price.

I was in Anderson Valley last weekend and tried through a number of wines from Jim Ball, Lula, Drew, Phillips Hill and a few others. There wasn't one wine from '08 I would pay money for, actually, now that I think about it, there isn't one wine I would voluntarily taste again for free.

quote:

Originally posted by lizardking:
I was in Anderson Valley last weekend and tried through a number of wines from Jim Ball, Lula, Drew, Phillips Hill and a few others. There wasn't one wine from '08 I would pay money for, actually, now that I think about it, there isn't one wine I would voluntarily taste again for free.

Jim Ball and Lula aren't pouring 08's, are they? Not too impressed with PH either, and I'm surprised you felt that strongly about the Drew. While they aren't their best wines ever, I don't find them offputting and certainly not smoky. Try Breggo next time you're up there. I think they did the best job in the Valley with their 2008's. The Ferrington (90IWC) and Donnelly Creek (88WS) are really good.

This is definitely a problem. Depending on where exactly the grapes were grown, some of them were pretty damaged by smoke. We were just out tasting this weekend in Sonoma County and talking to a wine maker about it. Best to taste first, if possible!

Who said not well reported? In the Sept. issue of WS, Adam Lee of Siduri stated that all Hirsch and Van der Kamp grapes were declassified due to smoke damage. Unfortunately I had already purchased some Siduri Rosella's, I wonder if it has that taste also?

quote:

Originally posted by chum lee:

quote:

Originally posted by lizardking:
I was in Anderson Valley last weekend and tried through a number of wines from Jim Ball, Lula, Drew, Phillips Hill and a few others. There wasn't one wine from '08 I would pay money for, actually, now that I think about it, there isn't one wine I would voluntarily taste again for free.

Jim Ball and Lula aren't pouring 08's, are they? Not too impressed with PH either, and I'm surprised you felt that strongly about the Drew. While they aren't their best wines ever, I don't find them offputting and certainly not smoky. Try Breggo next time you're up there. I think they did the best job in the Valley with their 2008's. The Ferrington (90IWC) and Donnelly Creek (88WS) are really good.

You're right chum, Jim Ball and Lula aren't pouring 08's. I should have made that more clear. I think Lula declassified theirs and Jim Ball's are sitting in a tank while they figure out what to do with it.

The 08's I am referring to were poured by Phillips Hill and Drew.

On another note, if anyone has a chance to visit the Anderson Valley, I highly recommend stopping in at Jim Ball and tasting through their lineup. All of their wines are good, with a special nod to the 09's in barrel, especially the Boonville.

I made the mistake of buying six '08 Anthill Farms Anderson Valley. Shame on me for trusting that they wouldn't release flawed wine. I'm very disappointed with them and wasted about $200. Had they warned customers, I wouldn't have bought them. They've lost some respect from me as a result.