Readers will find a big wine in the 2010 Pinot Noir Rancho La Vina Vineyard. At times, the La Vina is more reminiscent of Syrah than Pinot Noir. Dark fruit, herbs, spices and mint are all woven together in a distinctly cool-climate, juicy, extroverted Pinot of incomparable class. The tiny berries yielded a wine that is at once intense, jammy and structured. Elements of unrestrained wildness only add to the wine’s exotic personality. The 2010 is unusually big and dark. It is also a showstopper. The La Vina was made with 100% whole clusters. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2018.
Samsara is without question one of the hottest boutique wineries in California’s Central Coast. Proprietor Chad Melville splits his time between Samsara and his family’s Melville estate, an approach that seems to work. The 2010s are the product of a very cold year with heat spikes in October. Except for the Rita’s Crown, the Pinots were harvested in October, but before the spikes. The Syrahs (which I will revie next year) were picked much later, into December in some cases, and benefited from the kick of heat earlier in the growing season. Overall, yields were down dramatically, but that may have turned out to be a positive, as normal yields might not have ripened under these conditions. The wines were fermented with natural yeasts, and bottled without fining or filtration. Melville used 25-100% whole clusters for most of the wines. The top selections saw a maximum of 50% new oak.
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