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My post defending California Pinot Noir on Monday stirred up quite a bit of discussion. Good comments about Burgundy vs. US wines got me thinking about aging. It’s accepted that well-balanced wines, not blockbusters, are the wines that are supposed to age well.
So how does this apply to Pinot Noir?
Wine connoisseurs generally agree that Pinot Noir does not usually age well. Nor, for that matter, do most wines of the world. We writers frequently say that most California or Oregon Pinot Noir should be drunk within four to five years of the vintage date, which is not a long time, compared to the 10 or 20 years that good Cabernet Sauvignon can age.
But then anyone who’s had a well-preserved bottle of old Burgundy from Domaine de la Romanee Conti or Maison Leroy or a handful of others, knows that in fact Burgundy can age for a long time. Ten years easily for a good vintage, sometimes 30 for a good vintage and outstanding vineyard, even 50 or 100 years for a truly great bottle.
One of my earliest memorable experiences with mature Burgundy was a 1971 Musigny from Louis Jadot that my wife and I drank during a long dinner at a restaurant tucked away in the Burgundy countryside in 1986 with Pierre Henry Gagey, Jadot’s then winemaster in training. The wine was 15 years old, rather pale and slightly brown in color, but amazing in aroma, with a bottle bouquet that was all perfume, cinnamon, new leather and cranberry. It tasted fresh and lively, very palate-cleansing (uh oh, I’m geeking out on the terminology here) and satisfying at the same time.
I have to say not many memories of great, mature bottles of US Pinot Noir pop right up in my mind. In late 2006, however, I participated in a vertical tasting of Saintsbury, a Carneros Pinot pioneer, and had a great time tasting vintages back to 1986.
The regular Saintsbury 1991 was still terrific. The Reserve Saintsbury 1999 was the best wine of 21 poured, in my view.
The oldest wines had evolved dramatically over the years, developing an exotic, new-leather bottle bouquet that totally set them apart from newly released Pinot Noir. This transformation is the payoff for those few wine collectors who try to age Pinot Noir.
I was fascinated by the oldest, most mature wines because they were just so unusual, distinctive and complex in aroma, and wonderfully smooth and mellow in texture. You could find fault in them if you tried — a little madeirization here, a little Brettanomyces barnyard smell there — but to me these nuances added to the overall mystique of an aged wine, like the pungency of a blue cheese or gamey taste of wild venison: unique and distinctive sensory experiences that you don’t get to enjoy every day.
The Saintsbury tasting reinforced that Pinot Noir can age, and sometimes California Pinot Noir does, indeed, age well. I’d like to hear from you any raves on other Pinots from California or Oregon that have stood the test of time.
Filed under: Connoisseurship, Varietals
8 Comments
8 Responses to “Can Pinot Noir, Besides Burgundy, Age?”
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February 7th, 2008 at 1:07:47 AM
Hi Jim,
I have had some older saintsbury too. Hanzell is a vineyard originally planted with Romanne Conti cuttings above Sonoma which I have had some nice aged pinot they have a library that stretchs back to 1953 or there about. Kistler is another that has pinots that age well. Rochioli is another out in russian river. Davis Bynum, Gary Farrelll, who started as a cellar rat at Davis Bynum both make pinots that age well.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:48:41 PM
This is an interesting topic, and I’d like to hear more about tasting notes anyone has on older CA pinots – I have to admit, mine never last that long. I will confess to being a fruit freak, and prefer most wines, including pinot, at a younger age when all that luscious fruit is at its peak, just when the wine has come together. How many other folks out there prefer an aged pinot over younger (3-5 years old)?
February 7th, 2008 at 1:24:08 PM
I haven’t participated in many Pinot Noir vertical tastings, however, I did taste a very nice Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir from 1986 at the 2007 IPNC event. I was quite amazed by the delicious quality and life of the wine. Recently, we tasted some older vintages at Acacia Winery (dating back only to 1998). But, the wines also were holding up quite nicely.
February 7th, 2008 at 9:31:58 PM
A pot luck at one of the local wine shops in November 2007 featured a couple of Pinot Noirs; one from California and one from Burgundy. The Mount Eden was a great surprise with its color the only indicator that it was 15 years old. It will be interesting to see if more recent vintages age as well. Tasting notes below.
1991 Mount Eden Vineyards, Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz, California (12.2%) ($39.99USD)
Mahogany with an orange brown edge. Distinct spicy Pinot aroma over earthy notes, Quite ripe and very impressive. Does not seem very old at all. Really impressive presence of flavors on the palate, very firm tannins and great length. Excellent wine. 93/100.
1989 Nuits St. Georges, Emmanuel Rouget, Burgundy, France (13%)
Lighter colored, almost tawny, with an orange brown edge. Pinot Noir but the flavors are more in the burnt spectrum, caramel, bacon fat, freshly burnt gun powder. Medium weight with overt, juicy acidity. Lacks character on the mid-palate and fades a little on the finish. Not the quality of the previous wine. 88/100.
Mike
February 9th, 2008 at 9:18:07 AM
Only rarely have I had an aged CA pinot that stood up to the test of time. It is somewhat perplexing to me. In contrast, I’ve had many bottles of Burgundy that were great after 15 years. I’d like to think it was a matter of my palate, but I don’t think so.
Is a good aged CA pinot noir so expensive to be out of my reach, perhaps? Maybe their relative rarity makes them too expensive compared to the aged Burgundy.
August 4th, 2009 at 2:37:55 PM
I am drinking a 2001 Elliston Pinot Noir (their current release) Central Coast – just shy of San Francisco. It is a magical little wine…with cocoa and plum, dried raspberries and beautiful acidity. 8 years old and counting.
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:32:45 AM
The best balanced pinot noirs will absolutely age well, particularly in the better vintages (just as lesser vintages don’t generally age well in burgundy, the same is true in California.) Some of the old BV Private Reserves, Chalones and Louis Martini Special Selects aged exceedingly well. The Williams-Selyem wines have consistently aged well. I attended a vertical of Williams-Selyem Allen (and a few Rochioli’s thrown in) back to 1988 two years ago and all but the 89 were doing quite well. I’ve had 15 year old Talleys that were doing fine as well.
The key is having balance to start with. The heavily extracted ponderous fruit style of pinot noir self-destructs within a few years. Wines in the style of Williams-Selyem or Talley Rosemary’s or the Rochioli single vineyard wines will very easily last over a decade. On the wines I buy, I won’t even touch the pinots until they’re at least six years old and I find that the optimum drinking range is usually 6-8 years, although on vintages with higher acidity that window starts later and lasts longer.
July 13th, 2012 at 10:40:07 PM
I’m a little behind the times on this post, but wanted to share some recent and relevant observations. Just opened a 1999 Carabella (Willamette Valley) pinot in July 2012 and it was doing very well. A pleasant surprise considering the gamble we took by not opening it earlier. We have historically also invested in Stag Hollow pinot since it tends to posses an unconventional longevity, presumably from the Old World style in which the grapes are grown and processed.
Just like any other wines there are exceptions, but as a general rule don’t buy pinots to keep…unless you know a little something about the origin (e.g., winemaker and process).