Au Bon Climat, Los Alamos Vineyard, Santa Barbara Historic Vineyard Collection, Pinot Noir, 2017, 13.5% abv.
Nose: initially sour berries, sour earth, forest floor, tree leaves, mushrooms in particular wet portobello mushroom caps and wet fresh shitake mushrooms, black vinegar, but with air time the sourness diminishes.
Palate: light to medium body, entry is onions, pickled greens, wood juice, mid palate shows earthy juice, a good amount of leafy herbs, sour bay leaves, pickled star anise, fermented basil, honey, back palate is more tart, showcasing some pickled red fruit. With more time, the entry is still onion juice with feint red berry support, but the mid and back palate have additional red fruit and light tar to accompany the herbalness, forest floor, and mushrooms that permeate the tongue.
Finish: medium, tart, pickled raspberries, onion juice, residual herbalness, sour earth, light mushrooms.
Vernacular (satire): nose appears to be in the later stages or evolution, little to no primary notes, no secondary notes, and a majority of tertiary aromas. Light to medium body, high acidity, polished fine grained tannins, little to no minerality, oak influence, and alcohol. Not energetic and not fresh. Finish is of medium length, showcasing similar yet lighter elements on the palate.
To be honest, this is better than many Burgundian PNs, but surprised that at 8-9 years it is already so evolved. I really appreciated that even at 13.5% abv, I didn't get alcohol, whereas with modern PNs, even a 13% tastes like it was 20%. Even so, the acidity was too much and it lacked complexity in my opinion, sticking to a story of pickled tertiary elements. Got this for KRW₩99K, or about USD$70, in South Korea.
by starvinggigolo
2 Comments
Yummy, love that vineyard when it’s a much younger vintage bottle 🙂 it’s very interesting to read about one that is this old, I don’t see older ABC for sale anywhere except the winery itself in the states.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the shipping of that wine to Korea has aged it a bit, their Pinots can be quite bright when young so it’s really cool to read about one that’s really left that phase of its life. I know ABC has a large presence in Asia due to the son of Jim, Knox, studied in Japan and seems to push Asia wine export of their stuff. Did you have other options from ABC/older bottles where you picked this up or was this the only of its kind?
That’s a warm site, in general. Chanin makes nice wines from there but I generally drink at 4-5 years of age. They also can be overly acidic to some, but I don’t have that complaint.