May 2007 Wine Tasting Notes:
2005 Costa de Oro, Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley.
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This Pinot Noir is medium depth garnet in color. The nose starts with intense, snappy caraway and a pepper edge. With time and airing, this bows to cola. Medium intensity cherry and light strawberry are backed by hints of earthy heather and lavender. The palate sparkles with mineral notes and medium intensity cherry and lighter cola. Fine, waif-like tannins coat the teeth and and zesty acidity makes a lively underpinning to the fruit flavors. Still, the mouthfeel retains just the right amount of fleshy curves. A medium length finish of rosehips and cola ends with a bold, mineral exclamation point. |
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Cumulative Score: 92 breakdown 14.2% Alcohol $27.00 Retail (from winery); Production volume unknown. |
In jazz there are no wrong notes - there are just notes in wrong places. Gary Burk uses numerous passes through the vineyard to give this Pinot Noir a complex structure the way a master guitarist fingers a complex voicing of a chord. You could just sit and smell this wine, soaking in its nuances now or over the next 5 to 7 years. |
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More Costa de Oro reviews. More about the Santa Maria Valley AVA |
Sourced from the Gold Coast Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, the fruit for this wine was picked in 10 passes for optimal ripeness and each lot was fermented in separate lots, aged in French Oak for 10 months and blended.
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. The tiny (~60 square miles) Côte d'Or in Burgundy, France has been the benchmark for Pinot Noir for centuries. Nonetheless, it is planted worldwide. 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. Most California Pinot Noirs made today (with some exceptions) rarely have the make up to last past a decade but with age they can show tobacco and smoke characteristics. (read more)
Planted in 1989 by the Burk and Espinola families, the 30 acre Gold Coast Vineyard supplies the core of Costa de Oro’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir programs. It is located some six miles east of Santa Maria, on Foxen Canyon Road at a place called Fulgar’s Point which is on the western bank of the Santa Maria river, across from the Bien Nacido Vineyard. This is not too far from the Garey township and the vineyard of the same name in the mid-western part of the Santa Maria Valley AVA – near the confluence of the Santa Maria, Sisquoc and Cuyama Rivers. 19 acres of Pinot Noir (Martini clone cuttings from Sierra Madre Vineyard and Dijon clones 115 and 777 from Le Bon Climat Vineyard) and 11 acres of Chardonnay (USD 4 and Wente clones from the Sierra Madre Vineyard) are vertically trellised and planted on well-drained sandy loam soils of the bluff at Fulgar’s Point.
The 2005 year saw an increase in crops over the preceding years. The year is being compared to the acclaimed 1997 vintage because of a very long and generally cool growing season without heat spikes. This long season resulted in extended hang times in even temperatures which gave the fruit good extraction but lower sugar levels. The slow ripening of the fruit is expected to make for elegance and balance in the wines of this vintage.
Wine maker Gary Burk has come full circle to his roots. He left home to study business at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and then moved on to Los Angeles to pursue his passion in music as a guitarist. During Gary’s time in Los Angeles, his father and Bob Espinola planted Gold Coast Vineyard. A dinner during Gary’s 1993 visit home changed everything: He met Jim Clendenen (Au Bon Climat) and Bob Lindquist (Qupé). At that time, Gary was already helping sell fruit form his family's Gold Coast Vineyard. Whatever was said during that dinner changed the trajectory of Gary’s life. Obviously bitten by the wine bug, he moved back to Santa Maria and spent eight years (from 1994 to 2002) working with Clendenen and Lindquist as assistant winemaker. He also was involved in marketing those two labels. Over the years, he grew his label’s production and in 2002 he left Au Bon Climat/Qupé to focus on Costa De Oro. Currently, Costa de Oro produces some 6000 cases of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinto Noir annually at the Central Coast Wines Services facility in Santa Maria. In striving to make “wines with balance, elegance and texture, reflecting Old World style and terroir of the vineyard”, Gary borrows on his musical experience saying: “.both rely on a blending of technique, artistry and feel".
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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 |
3 points |
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Overall quality |
9 points |
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