Cedar Valley Wine Lovers


Siduri Pisoni Vineyard Vertical (& Pisoni Vineyard Horizontal) Tasting



30 members of the Cedar Valley Wine Lovers met Saturday to have a night of Pinots. We started with
a horizontal of 2001 Pisoni Vineyard wines with one Carneros added by a member. After the pre-tasting wines, we settled in for a non-blind tasting of Siduri Pisoni Vineyard Pinots 1998-2003. All wines had been opened and decanted about 2 hours (as they nearly always are tight when first opened and seem to benefit from some air time).


Pre-Tasting



2001 Patz and Hall Pisoni Beautiful, flowery, perfumed nose with spices at the end. Medium ruby color, but loaded with flavor! Dense layers of blackberry, and raspberry flavors. Extremely well balanced with a long velvety finish ending with a nice touch of spice. My favorite of the pre-tasting wines.



2001 Pisoni Pisoni Very dark, nearly purple. Exotic nose of spices and black fruits. Medium bodied wine. Loaded with flavors of blackberries, blueberries and smoke. A little short in the finish and slightly bitter in the follow.



2001 Tandem Pisoni Not much of a nose. Dark ruby color. Black cherry and raspberry flavors. Thin in the finish.



2001 Scott Paul Pisoni Medium ruby color. Plum, rose petal and black cherry aromas. Plum, black cherry and spice flavors. Well balanced, with a long finish.



2003 Solaris Special Reserve Pinot Noir A late addition to the pre-tasting wines. This is out of carneros district. Medium ruby color. Cherry and strawberry aromas. The flavor reminded me of cherry cough syrup, strawberries and spices. Nicely balanced with a medium length finish. This is an amazing Pinot for only $12!


Siduri Vertical Tasting




1998 Dark ruby with no browning at the edges. Asian spice, plum and black cherry nose.
Flavors of plum, black cherry, and wild berry. A little thin on the body. A little firm on the finish, but nicely balanced. Starting to fade, but still drinking nicely.



1999 Huge nose of ripe plum, black cherry, blackberry, and spice. Very full bodied with great mouthfeel. Layers of flavor with black cherry, blackberry and asian spices. Comes up a little bitter in the finish. My favorite of the night.



2000 Slightly lighter in color than the 99. A little more restrained in the nose, with floral, plum, black cherry and spice. Slightly lighter in the flavor with plum, followed by black cherry, leather, and cola. Slightly shorter follow than the 99; however, this wine sings of balance and finese. Silky smooth finish. An amazing wine for a difficult vintage.



2001 Very dark, nearly purple. Great nose dominated by plum, blackberry, spice and mocha (the only wine tonight to show that). More colplex flavors with the plum dominating (much more than in any other wine tonight), with blackberry, black cherry, and that mocha shows up again. Long finish that again ends with a hint of bitterness.



2002 Another very dark wine. The nose was a mix of black cherry, berry, plum, smoke and spice. Complex flavors dominated by black cherry and black berry with the smoke and spice showing up in the finish. This wine seemed a little softer than the other years and just a little bit flat with not as much acid to balance the flavor.



2003 The darkest wine of the night. Very tightly wound even with several hours of decanting. Not giving up too much on the nose. I could pull out black berry and black cherry with spices. Very dense fruit on the palate. Black berry, black cherry, smoke, asian spices (this one had no plum). Everything seems in great balance. A little tannic in the finish, but I think will soften with a few more years and may become the best of the flight.




Final thought: Every wine was very well made. There were no bad wines on the night. Many of the "flaws" are nitpicking to try and find differences between the wines. Some thought the "off-vintages" were better as it may have challenged the winemaker to do their best work.