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
