I got in on last Friday nightʼs Pinot Fest barbecue at Husch with a little help from my friends, complete with tinted window ride service thanks to Junior Ibarra. I rolled in with a cracked Red Seal and a bottle of homemade Corby Vineyards 2010 Pinot plus the leftover Goldeneye 2011 Vin Gris stash.
Like yellowjackets, the attendees were swarmed around two large pour-your-own tables full of everyoneʼs wines while a cover band rocked on. A breezy, copper colored evening was upon us in the deep end. Iʼd heard that youʼve gotta get on it early to make this gala event worth the $50 pricetag. Itʼs always amusing to see what gets drained first: Knez, Baxter, Roederer and Goldeneye bottles were dry within an hour. I enjoyed an awfully random Tardieu-Laurent Rasteau that hovered beneath the collective radar and got into a mighty memory lane chat with Jim Klein of Navarro about San Luis Obispo and such. He brought a 2005 Navarro that was holding up well. Knezʼs 2011 rosé was dynamite as was the Witching Stick Zinfandel from Anne Fashauerʼs Mendocino Ridge Vineyard. By the time I got to the food line all that was left were toasted buns and mayonnaise. I whipped one up anyhow and darted into the shrubbery to eat something sans shame and cruel on the colon. Oh well. It happens when wines are the focal point.
The khaki shorts were belted up tight on the 50something dudes looking for that taste of terroir on Saturday at the Pinot Festivalʼs Grand Tasting. With 500 plus tickets purchased and a sold out status, respect should go out to the AV Winegrowersʼ Associationʼs Janis, Floriane, Kristy, and Zach “Snowball” Rasmuson for putting on a wholly unique smash of a wine event. Upon entering the festivalʼs grand tasting on Saturday Janis said to me “Write something nice.” Not knowing what exactly she meant by that remark, I assume it was a result of the rousting that I inflicted upon the association for denying me entrance to the Alsace fest in February.
Fair enough. With stem in hand I went straight to Baxter and Phil himself greeted me warmly and said “My dadʼs been saving your articles for me to read when I get around to it.” Until this event I knew of precisely two people who actually read this shit. He poured me his three wines and I moved on down the line to Mike Lucia at Copain. Iʼd drunk late into the night with the likes of him, Francisco Ibarra and Zach post-Husch, and I was happy to taste through his 2011 rosé, 2009 Monument Tree Pinot Noir and the 2009 Kaiser Permanente Vineyard. Good wines. Jason Drew was right next door and I thought my previous relations with him and Molly might garner more than the resulting quarter-ounce pours. Maybe they only brought a small amount of their wines for the four-hour tasting, but in the big goblet shaped glasses it was hard to truly admire the underlying beauties. I checked into Fulcrum and tried the racy, high alcohol Londer Vineyard designates from 2009 and 2010 that are made down in Napa. Cool looking labels.
Some of the best wines at the event were the 2006 and 2007 MacPhail Ferrington Vineyard Pinot Noirs. Poured from decanters, these wines were concentrated, individualistic show stoppers. They had a collection of three 2010s out too, and aside from the Toulouse Vineyard wine, it was proof that they were still a fine force in the California Pinot game. James MacPhail knows how to tame these clones and seems to be tapping into Anderson Valley much more than his local Sonoma terrain. Breggoʼs 2009 Ferrington Vineyard Pinot Noir ($55) outshone MacPhailʼs of the same vintage ($49), and the 2007 bonus pour was still strutting its stuff at five years of age. My professed love of their whites scored me a Breggo hat to boot. Littorai was packed and for good reason: their 2009 Roman Vineyard. Twomeyʼs 2009 and 2010 Anderson Valley bottlings were concentrated little beasts of fruit and acid, and the Walt Wines Hein Vineyard was top notch.
On Sunday the open houses were happening, with good things said about Black Kiteʼs affair and their 2009 Angel Hawk reserve, Baxterʼs scene up Philo-Greenwood Road, the Balo lamb roast, and happenings at the Madrones. Tasting room sales were bustling. Lemonʼs got in on the residual action. When all is said and done, Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival is good for business and the region in the grand scheme of things. Iʼll be there next year.
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