Corks Crew September '12 - Pinot Piñata Party

At the first wine party, we decided that subsequent Corks Crew themes should be chosen at the end of each event, when we are especially imbibed. The August Corks Crew theme: "Spherical Spearable Bubbly Brunch" very well highlights our ability to come up with confusing and fantastic themes. That theme was so fantastic, that I forgot to take pictures or notes. The synopsis of that event - bubbly wines taste good, and so does breakfast food. Domaine Chandon Brut Classic was the favorite wine of the afternoon.
At the end of that event, we came up with the theme for September: "Pinot Piñata Party." Simple theme, bring a red Pinot, and take a whack at the piñata. This time around we were a bit more wine-focused. Everyone sat inside with the AC (too damn hot that day), drank each one together, discussed their thoughts, and rated the wines on a 100 point scale. Nine people participated in the ratings. Here are the results, in order of the most to least liked, with some of my tasting notes:

'10 Laetitia Estate Pinot Noir - avg. score - 90.6 (high 98, low 85)
Good balance and variety, not amazing but very solid.
'09 Cold Heaven "Nevertell" Pinot Noir - 88.8 (high 91, low 80)
Bright and fun, shifting flavor intensities, sweet and friendly. 
'08 Ampelos "Rho" Pinot Noir - 86.6 (high 93, low 82)
 Exuberant, a bit silly/rowdy, quality notes, monochromatic finish.
'11 Hahn "Nicky Hahn" Pinot Noir - 85.9 (high 96, low 75)
Silky with kick, not that well-built, moderate quality.
'10 Castle Rock Pinot Noir - Mendocino County - 85.7 (high 89, low 80)
Big and upfront, lots of nice acid kick.
'10 Cave Des Onze Communes Pinot Noir Valle d'Aoste - 84.4 (high 91, low 78)
Crazy petrol nose, big sweetness tempered by earth and mush, watery back.
'07 Attilio Ghisolfi Langhe Pinay - 81.6 (high 88, low 70)
Mature darkness, fun tartness, moderate lengthy finish, a bit bland.

Some very interesting takeaways. Big ups to Laetitia - that was a solid wine. I'm familiar with Cold Heaven, but only knew about their viogniers - which are very good. A large number of the wines were from California Laetitia, Cold Heaven and Ampelos are all from the Santa Barbara area, Castle Rock from Mendocino, and Hahn is a California designate. With all those young fruity wines, the two Italian wines were rather panned by the tasters - but it would be curious to see what people would think if those wines stood on their own. It was a hell of a party, people dug the opportunity to do side-by-side comparisons.
Next month's theme: Wine and Ceviche Pairing