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Red Ink and Lights Out at HQ
Offers like this make little sense from an ROI perspective. They do little to keep the lights on at HQ. But if we ignore what you're telling us, WineAccess will just become another one of those listless wine websites. Last we checked, listlessness makes for red ink, and we like this gig. So here goes.
Requests for top flight California Pinot Noir continue to fill our Inboxes. In and of itself, that's not a problem. The friendships we've made with top coastal estates over the last few years continue to make for scintillating single vineyard offers. Dan Goldfield, Luc Morlet, Dutton Estate, Benovia, Ojai, Greg Brewer, Rick Longoria and Ken Freeman remain on speed dial. Even with back-to-back-to-back low yield vintages, while our allocations have been trimmed in keeping with production levels, we're getting our fair share.
But most of those email missives aren't addressing the $50+/bottle stuff. The vast majority is coming from bargain hunters, continuing to ask for under-$25 bargains at a time when that arithmetic no longer adds up. So to those who have been badgering us, we're just going to lay it on the line. There are no 100+ case treasure troves of excellent under-$25/bottle Pinot Noir in Sonoma Coast cellars. What we have found are "bits and pieces," 120-180 BOTTLE lots that a few producers are willing to offer at bargain prices just for a cameo appearance on WineAccess.
If you're shut out today, we're sorry. But at least you know we're listening!
The 2008 Baker Lane Pinot Noir, drawn from tiny Ramondo Vineyard set just a few clicks from the brisk breezes of the Petaluma Wind Gap, is deep ruby in color. The aromas are of ripe, red raspberries, black tea, and sweet spices. In this cool, drawn out harvest that would yield less than 1.5 tons per acre, Stephen Singer and Greg Adams treated these small berry clusters to a long, cool Burgundian vinification, nursing out stunning wild raspberry concentration. Not just rich, but wonderfully broad on the palate. The texture is plush, the mid-palate high-toned and firm, with a finish true to its cold climate origin.
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Tasting Notes
2008 Baker Lane Vineyards Pinot Noir Ramondo Vineyard Sonoma Coast
"Deep ruby in color. Broad aromas of ripe raspberries, black tea and sweet spices. Rich and compact on the attack, packed with crushed raspberries and black cherry, plush and finely muscled. The finish here is classic -- firm, and lengthy, buttressing marvelous opulence with top pedigree cold coast persistence. Drink now-2017."
-- WineAccess Travel Log -- October 2012
"Vivid red. Smoky red berry and cherry aromas complemented by dried rose and anise. Fresh and energetic on entry, then deeper in the middle, offering pungent redcurrant and bitter cherry flavors and showing good mineral spine. Finishes with good clarity and cut, leaving herbal and floral notes behind."
90 points -- Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar -- May/June 2011
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