2003 St. Joseph Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir
Grand River Valley
Thompson, Ohio
$27.00
www.saintjosephvineyard.com

A visit to Northeast Ohio won’t provide your typical wine drinker with a whole lot of satisfaction. Palatial wineries, gourmet restaurants and boutique shopping à la St. Helena aren’t part of this region’s featured attractions. In fact, the Napa Valley “experience” that gets a casual wine enthusiast to hop on a plane for the weekend, knock back some big ticket cabernet and have some friend take their picture while they pose in front of Groth, Opus and Cakebread is completely absent here. In many ways, I wonder if visiting the Grand River Valley today will prove to be as prophetic an experience as what wandering about the Willamette Valley must have been in the middle 1970’s. On a cold winter’s day you might be warming your hands over a space heater as you talk excitedly with winery owners, people whose daily “to-do” list includes growing grapes, making wine and entertaining tourists, many of whom still thirst for sweet local hybrids like vidal blanc and pink catawba. These are folks that wear many hats throughout their day and all for the seemingly thankless pursuit of producing world class wine in an increasingly abandoned corner of the country.

I first met Doreen Pietrzyk on a cold and snowy winter afternoon during Christmas of 2004. She was kind enough to open their modest tasting room set behind their home, pull some corks so that I might try their wine and share a good couple of hours with a perfect stranger. My most recent visit this past Christmas was made all the more pleasant by Art’s addition to the scene. He was sweeping the floor as we walked in, having just stoked the wood stove in the corner of the frigid tasting room, and quickly set me at ease with his smart wit and wry smile. After sampling various vintages of their estate grown wines, including some exciting pinot noir, I was again struck by the seriousness with which Art and Doreen approach their craft. It’s this kind of focused determination that paid off big in Oregon.

Saint Joseph’s 2003 Reserve Pinot Noir was a brilliant garnet, plum red color in the glass. At first a bit tight, it showed very interesting gauze and underbrush aromas after some much needed aeration. Additionally, great woodsy and dark fruit scents like black cherry, plum and blackberry were here showcased to good effect; this pinot noir was very appealing to the nose. However, I did find the degree of new oak here used, albeit of very high quality, to be a bit too much for my liking (other drinkers will certainly disagree). This wine’s mouthfeel, supple and with fine tannin, was beautifully rich and densely stuffed with sweet cherry flavor. The wine was equally impressive for its long and lingering finish. This pinot noir from Thompson, Ohio has the concentration of fruit, balance of palate and aromatic appeal to benefit dramatically from additional bottle age. With balance and stuffing such as this, three to five more years in the cellar should flatter this good wine. Saint Joseph’s 2003 Reserve is serious, complete and satisfying pinot noir.

I grew up in Northeast Ohio and moved away nearly ten years ago. Yet, the place you’re from is kind of like your family: you carry it with you all your years and it shapes you in important ways. While Northeast Ohio is no Napa or Sonoma or Willamette Valley, a few of the region’s wineries are now proving that this post-industrial pocket of America can achieve remarkable results when determination meets passion and integrity. Saint Joseph Vineyard doesn’t make good “Ohio wine” but rather crafts seriously good pinot noir with Old World inspiration. Sadly, with the drinking of this 2003 Reserve, my last bottle, comes the realization that I’ll have to wait until next Christmas to enjoy more. Talking shop in winter’s frosty air, I’ll again share good pinot noir with Art and Doreen as we warm our hands over the wood stove in the tasting room set behind their home. Highly recommended!

2002 Calera El Niño Pinot Noir
California
$13.99
www.calerawine.com

I heard some terribly upsetting news a couple of weeks ago. At first I questioned its source, thinking my informant confused by a malicious rumor possibly overheard from some misinformed third party; he couldn’t have all the facts I hoped. Yet, just last week I heard the same sad words again. I’ve had to come to terms with what I now know to be true: Calera’s El Niño Pinot Noir is being “retired” as soon as the current vintage sells through. I even remember where I was when I first heard those unsettling words. This is sad news for us all. I’ve tried not be spiteful or petty or bitter but it’s hard and I’m looking for someone to blame. Why would Josh Jensen de-list a wine that has stood as THE benchmark for inexpensive and reliable California pinot noir? Granted, I’ve never been invited to take a peek at Calera’s balance sheet but this is simply too hard for me to stomach. What pinot am I to drink now on the cheap, Echelon? Give me a break Josh Jensen.

Calera’s 2002 El Niño was brilliantly clear and a lightly fading raspberry-red color in the glass. While sweet red fruits like cherry and raspberry fill the nose here, this wine presents pinot fruit that’s fresh and pure in quality. It offers light leaf, orange rind and an aromatic purity that will maintain your interest and not overwhelm. Made with little oak, this pinot noir showcases delicate red fruit flavors in a lightly extracted style. El Niño is slightly sappy, light-to-medium in weight, and finishes with good length and enough acidity to carry you through dinner. El Niño has always been bright and focused, pure and simple California pinot noir. This bottle was no exception.

I’ve always enjoyed Calera’s pinots (as I sit and write these words more than a few good bottles lay close by), but I don’t really have the splash for the Mills, Selleck and Jensen single vineyards. While I will splurge on occasion and live a little large, it was the El Niño and Central Coast bottlings that most frequently received my monetary affections. That I found El Niño’s 2002 vintage to be one of its best makes this goodbye all the more tearful. You will be sorely missed. Highly recommended!

2003 Standing Stone Vineyards Pinot Noir
Finger Lakes
$25.99
www.standingstonewines.com

When I spent the better part of a day last summer visiting Finger Lakes wineries I had done my research. Days prior to departing my New Hampshire home, I surfed on-line and made a “wish-list” of wineries I needed to see. Standing Stone Vineyards was one of about seven wineries visited that one day and, as it provided the backdrop to a pleasant afternoon, it quickly became the highlight of that summer weekend getaway. Meeting Marti Macinski, one of the winery’s owners, served only to make this stop all the more special. Being a convivial ambassador for the region’s wines, her spirit and enthusiasm were infectious (she shares the same hopeful vision I found at other vinifera producers in this region). Pearched high above the eastern shore of Lake Seneca, visitors here are immediately struck by expansive views of vines, fields and shimmering blue water below. At the far end of their friendly tasting room, set in a converted barn with vaulted ceilings, sits the deck that we found so inviting on that sunny August day. Where better to enjoy a good bottle of riesling, some Hudson Valley sheep milk cheese and leisurely admire the sweeping view?

Standing Stone’s 2003 Pinot Noir was a brickish, amber-red color in the glass. The wine looked like it could have seen nearly 10 years of bottle age! To the nose, this pinot showed dried fruits such as cranberry, cherry and orange peel that were candied in character. When tasted, I found its fruit to have a “sweet & sour” quality. Sour cherry and cranberry flavors were infused with balsamic vinegar sweetness. Sadly, this pinot noir was beset by volatile acidity. Although this pinot’s moderate alcohol level helped mitigate the effects of the VA (with higher alcohol content it would have been even more conspicuous), it was, unfortunately, very difficult to enjoy this wine. Obviously this wine was problematic in both appearance and flavor, and while this could have certainly been caused by an “off” bottle, I do remember this wine showing similar oxidized color and flavor when tasted at the winery last summer.

First impressions, be they correct or not, are nearly always lasting. I had a great time at Standing Stone Vineyards when I visited last summer, finding most of their wines consistently high in quality and among the better ones I enjoyed that August weekend. Their dry riesling was as excellent as their hospitality was generous. The next time I’m bound for Hector, New York I’ll stop back for sure. Regrettably, their 2003 pinot noir didn’t show very well. Perhaps I should just chalk-it-up to having the odd “off” bottle, and I do hope that’s the case, but I sense that something went awry in the production and/or packaging of this wine. Roll the dice if you like with this vintage, but I think you’d be better served by their crisp and quenching riesling. It goes great with Old Chatham Sheepherding cheeses!