January 2007 Wine Tasting Notes:
2004 Carmel Road Pinot Noir, Arroyo Seco.
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Dark ruby in color with a purple hue and excellent clarity. The nose offers up opulent cherry and raspberry aromas with a light cola element and a floral note of violets. The cherry and cola continue on the palate and are backed by light sweet oak notes. Delicate tannins and soft acids give this light bodied wine a smooth, plush mouthfeel. The medium length finish carry the cherry and cola theme and ends on a rosy note. |
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RWB Score: 91 breakdown 14.3% Alcohol $35.00 Retail (from winery); ~1000 cases produced |
This 2004 Pinot Noir is a sultry beauty with soft, full curves draped in flowing silk. Well-proportioned, this wine offers a balanced juxtaposition of earthy, fruit and floral characteristics that splay and scintillate on the palate. This wine will pair well with lighter flavor meat and sauce dishes for the next 5 years. Save some or the chocolate cake. |
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More Carmel Road reviews. More on the Arroyo Seco AVA |
The 2004 Arroyo Seco tier Pinot Noir was sourced from the Clark Ranch and Mission Trail vineyards. Unfined, this Pinot Noir was aged 14 months in French oak (41% new) and bottle-aged for 6 months.
For those that have not seen “Sideways”, Pinot Noir, the noble Burgundian grape, is often described as "difficult" to grow but the wine is beautiful and complex when circumstances are favorable. It is one of the oldest grape varieties to be vinified. Pinot Noir is, in fact, genetically unstable and its spontaneous mutations have given 46 identified clones in France alone. Worldwide estimates range from 200 to 1000 clones. Additionally, Pinot Noir is very susceptible to frost at budbreak, pests, fungal and viral infections. The berries of this cool climate-preferring variety are thin skinned and can dehydrate quickly and the wine may not retain its color for long periods or loose its aromas on bottling. Even fermentation is tricky as Pinot Noir has a tendency to very tumultuous fermentation which may cause it to violently bubble or “boil” up out of the container. The list is a litany of things that can turn a winemaker’s hair gray. The tiny (~60 square miles) Côte d'Or in Burgundy, France has been the benchmark for Pinot Noir for centuries. It is believed that the east-facing slopes of Burgundy make for optimal sun exposure without excessive heat and the chalky, well draining soils retain heat – all of which assist in ripening. Nonetheless, it is planted worldwide. (Perhaps Pinot Noir is like Golf: an endless and frustrating pursuit of something great and nearly elusive). It does well in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, In British Columbia and New Zealand. In California, it does well in Carneros and the Russian River Valley regions of the Sonoma AVA in the north. In the Central Coast, Monterey County (the Pinnacles and the Santa Lucia Highlands) and the Santa Maria Valley and Sta. Rita Hills produce outstanding Pinot Noir. It is often described as delicate and light bodied and having a soft texture. The aromas and flavors are the most distinct and identifiable and most complex of all varieties. Common fruit aromas are: cherry, raspberry, ripe tomato and strawberry. It can express floral notes or rose or violet. Spice is a big element of Pinot Noir: cardamom, caraway, cinnamon, cola, clove, nutmeg, pepper, rosemary and sassafras. Some also describe a peppermint quality. It can also show aromas and flavors that some sources place in the herbal category: beet, black olive, green tomato, green tea, oregano and rhubarb. More earthy elements found in Pinot Noir are earth (moist earth), barnyard, mushroom and truffle. In addition leather, meat (raw or grilled) can also be seen. Pinot Noirs rarely have the make up to last past a decade but with age they can show oak characteristics as well as tobacco and smoke.
The fruit for the Monterey tier of Carmel Road wines are sourced form vineyards in the Monterey: Mission Trail and Clark Ranch (in the Arroyo Seco AVA). These vineyards are meticulously farmed in a sustainable manner. Monterey's Salinas Valley opens onto Monterey Bay. This allows cooling fog to roll in between the Santa Lucia and Gabilan mountain ranges. Cool winds sweep through in the middle of the day. As a result, temperatures rarely exceed 75 F. Only the southernmost microclimates, in the hillsides, get warmer. The Salinas valley is a vast expanse of alluvial soils. This coarse, granular soil of decomposed granite prevents water reaching the deeper roots of the vines, allowing them to produce more concentrated fruit. There is minimal annual rainfall in this region and the Salinas River provides ample irrigation. This cool region has one of the world’s longest growing seasons, which allows for wines from grapes grown in the Monterey AVA to have great balance through slow ripening. The Clark Ranch vineyard is in the western edge of the Arroyo Seco AVA, at the mouth of the Arroyo Seco Canyon. This area is warmer than the rest of the Salinas Valley. The Arroyo Seco AVA is distinguished by much lower salinity soils than the rest of Salinas Valley. There is a gradient of salt and mineral content in the soils from east to west. This is attributable to the water of the Arroyo Seco River which drains the Santa Lucia Highlands, and flows into the Arroyo Seco AVA. The underlying water table dilutes the salinity of the high mineral soils of the Salinas Valley. The Clark Ranch vineyard sits on soils at the lowest salinity end of that spectrum.
Part of the upper-tier Artisans & Estates portfolio of wines offered by the Jackson family (headed by Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson), the Carmel Road wines are produced from the Monterey and Arroyo Seco AVAs. The winery is dedicated to showcasing the terroir of Monterey County by producing quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Bill Hammond is the vineyard manager for Carmel Road. Careful attention to appropriate canopy management and crop thinning is part of his contribution to the pursuit of "luxury, world-class wines". Winemaker Ivan Giotenov believes in minimal handling of the fruit: Night-harvested Chardonnay is whole-cluster, small lot fermented in barrel.
The two tiers are subjected to slightly different regimens. The Monterey tier Chardonnays are barrel aged for 7 months and the Monterey tier Pinot Noir is barrel aged for 10 months. The Arroyo Seco tier Chardonnay is 100% barrel fermented, allowed to go through complete malolactic fermentation and barrel aged for up to 15 months before being bottle aged another 6 months. The Arroyo Seco tier Pinot Noir is unfined and aged 12 - 16 months in French oak and bottle aged for at least 6 more.
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5 points |
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Nose |
4 points |
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Palate |
3 points |
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Finish |
3 points |
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Tannins |
5 points |
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Acidity |
5 points |
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Alcohol |
5 points |
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Aging potential |
2 points |
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Overall quality |
9 points |
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