story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 3/10/16
Each year, World of Pinot Noir spotlights the overarching appeal of Burgundy’s favorite red grape. For winemakers, pinot can be pernickety and challenging. But the sense of place it delivers in the bottle – nuances imparted by the nature that surrounds it as it grows – makes mastering its expression the ultimate payout. And for consumers, the inimitable elegance it delivers in the glass is little less than addictive.
I sipped a
bevy of really good pinots at this past weekend’s WOPN, the annual powwow of
the world’s best pinot makers that features, among star-studded seminars and
dinners, two days of wall-to-wall tasting.
The experience, hosted by Bacara Resort, was intimate and informational,
especially on day one, which is always limited to about 100 producers and draws
a smaller consumer crowd. Here are five local
pinot projects that really stood out.
Dolin Malibu's Kirby Anderson & Elliott Dolin |
Dolin Malibu Estate Vineyards: This was
the Dolin label’s first showing at WOPN, and if they came to impress, they
succeeded. Entrepreneur Elliott Dolin established
his label when he planted a one-acre chardonnay vineyard in the backyard of his
Malibu home. The label has since
expanded to also feature four pinots, each carefully sourced by winemaker Kirby
Anderson. “We’re all about the
expression of each vineyard,” Anderson told me.
The Bien Nacido, the Solomon Hills and the Talley-Rincon Arroyo Grande
pinots, all vintage 2012 (and all $45), expressed remarkable texture and
richness, each with a luscious mouth feel and their distinct balance of fruit
and spice. Santa Barbara restaurateur Tom
Dolan, who came to discover bottles for the wine list at his popular Toma
Restaurant, seemed especially impressed by the John Sebastiano Vineyard pinot
from Sta. Rita Hills ($32), with beautiful cherry and berry character.
Lumen's Lane Tanner & Will Henry |
Lumen: She’s back! Well, I guess
celebrated winemaker Lane Tanner never really went away, at least not for long. Although she attempted to shift professional
gears and leave wine behind in 2010, her knack for making pinot brought her
right back. Tanner now makes Lumen Wines
with Will Henry, whose family owns the Henry Wine Group distribution
company. Their 2013 Sierra Madre
Vineyard pinot ($49) is wonderfully complex, with a pretty perfume and a palate
experience driven by dark berry flavors and a lengthy finish. It’s lovely now, with great aging
potential. The label is one to keep an
eye on, with a portfolio that also includes chardonnay and grenache. (Tanner also treated early visitors to a
magnum of a Sierra Madre pinot dating back to 1990, “the first vintage I made
wine totally on my own,” she told me.
Even 26 years later, the wine’s fruit and balance were inescapable.)
Brewer-Clifton: A two-fisted Greg
Brewer had no problem drawing a crowd.
From the famous eponymous label that he mans with co-winemaker Steve Clifton,
Brewer poured both the 2011 3-D pinot ($80), delightfully perfumed and spice
rack-driven, and the 2013 Machado pinot ($90), an exuberant, bouncy, textured
wine. The Brewer-Clifton wines, with a
vineyard-specific and super-small production focus, always impress.
Pinot phenoms Greg Brewer (Brewer-Clifton) & Bob Cabral (Sonoma's Three Sticks) |
Kita's Tymani LoRe & winemaker Tara Gomez |
Kitá Wines:
I’ve really enjoyed watching Tara Gomez’s label grow; I’d sipped on her
whites and cabs before, but WOPN was my introduction to a wonderful lineup of
pinots. They all come from the Hilliard
Brice vineyard in Sta. Rita Hills, a celebrated site where “the soil bring out
freshness” in the Kita pinots, according to the winemaker. There’s delicious commonality to the 2011,
2012 and 2013 pinot noirs poured by Gomez and assistant winemaker Tymani LoRe:
vibrancy, minerality and lusciousness. The
’12 rendition ($55) spent 18 months in mostly neutral French oak. They also shared sips of the
yet-to-be-bottled 2014 pinot, which also exhibited a fresh, floral, Old World
style. Gomez is a member of the Chumash
tribe and the fruit source for her other wines – a portfolio that also includes
syrah, grenache and sauvignon blanc – is the famous Camp 4 Vineyard, which the
Chumash own.
Alta Maria: James Ontiveros, the man
behind the Alta Maria and Native 9 labels, had just touched down at the Santa
Barbara airport when I stepped up to the tasting table, so it was up to the
vivacious Stephanie Varner to pour a few treasures for me. The Native 9 wines are sourced from a
vineyard Ontiveros planted himself. It’s
on land that was once part of an 8900-acre land grant once bestowed upon
Ontiveros’ ancestors, some nine generations ago; Ontiveros bought back a slice
of it and planted vines on it a couple of decades ago. The pinots it yields, the product of
meticulous low-yield farming and crafted by winemaker Paul Wilkins, are
consistently complex, high-acid and fruit-driven; the 2012 pinot I tasted ($64,
$130 for magnum) was aged in 40% new oak and was deliciously fleshy, nuanced
and layered. And the 2014 Alta Maria
Carbonic Pinot ($24), which employs a Beaujolais-inspired, carbon
dioxide-driven fermentation technique, was fresh and animated!
Santa Barbara's C'est Cheese offered up an outstanding spread |
The tasting on Day 1 of WOPN offers lots of elbow room and plenty of winemaker one-on-ones |
Napa's Ancien Wines was one of my favorite beyond-Santa Barbara finds |
The 17th
World of Pinot Noir will be held at Bacara Resort & Spa on March 3rd
and 4th, 2017. For info, check out WOPN's website.
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Dumb ass Elliott Dolin is a convicted felon, caught by the Feds & FBI in an international money laundering FRAUD scheme whereby millions of Dollars were illegally funding the Yeshiva & Spinka cult with 90% of it being returned to the “donors” such as fraudulent Elliot Dolin in ILLEGAL kickbacks “under the table” and an IRS fraud.
ReplyDeleteElliot Dolin was incarcerated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons at Taft Prison for his felony conviction, and is a CONVICTED FELON for life!
Or you can also review most of the files here or on https://malibucriminals.wordpress.com
OR
www.convictedfelonelliottdolin.wordpress.com
or just go to Los Angeles County Court website for full access to same public files
Elliott Dolin is a convicted felon, caught by the Feds & FBI in an international money laundering FRAUD scheme whereby millions of Dollars were illegally funding the Yeshiva & Spinka cult with 90% of it being returned to the “donors” such as fraudulent Elliot Dolin in ILLEGAL kickbacks “under the table” and an IRS fraud.
ReplyDeleteElliot Dolin was incarcerated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons at Taft Prison for his felony conviction, and is a CONVICTED FELON for life!
Or you can also review most of the files here or on https://malibucriminals.wordpress.com
OR
www.convictedfelonelliottdolin.wordpress.com
or just go to Los Angeles County Court website for full access to same public files
Dumb as...
ReplyDeleteElliott Dolin of Dolin Estate is a convicted felon caught in an FBI sting along with both his partners David Hager & Adam Milstein for Federal tax fraud and he served prison time at Taft Federal Prison for his corruption. Extensive public documents on Elliott Dolin and his felony conviction and his convicted felon partners can be seen in the Los Angeles County court records, all public files. More can be seen on Elliot Dolin IRS and tax fraud and money laundering felony conviction at the Los Angeles County Courts website or at
http://www.malibucorruption.wordpress.com
or google Elliott Dolin Fraud…