Babcock 2009 Pinot Noir “Rita’s Earth” (Santa Rita Hills) – 13.6%, but tastes much, much bigger…a good lesson in how fruit intensity and extractive winemaking can fool the palate into thinking that excess body is alcohol-derived (which, to be sure, it often is). Purple, black, swollen…this is like drinking a bruise. (11/11)
Browse Tag
santa rita hills
Fe Dunawe
Longoria 2008 Pinot Noir Fe Ciega (Santa Rita Hills) – 14.2% Earthen, blossoming into a more expressive form of earthfruit (morel and cèpe, that is). Supple, complex, and decidedly Old World in inspiration. I adore this wine.(11/11)
Gordo
Longoria 2009 Pinot Noir Rancho Santa Rosa (Santa Rita Hills) – 13.4%. Rough and rustic, definitely unpolished; a wine more about potential than form. The balance and material (quantitatively) seem to be there, but it’s all a jumble at the moment. (11/11)
Philosophers’ drinking song
David Bruce 2004 Pinot Noir (Santa Rita Hills) – Dirt, minerals, and structure overpower beet and orange. Highly ungenerous, but not overly off-putting. (2/08)
Alma for the poor
![[label]](http://www.almarosawinery.com/wines/labels/PN05SRH.jpg)
Alma Rosa 2005 Pinot Noir (Santa Rita Hills) – These days, my typical complaint about pinots from this region is that they taste like someone spilled a combination of cherry syrup and whiskey in the fermentation vessel. This wine reminds me of my complaints from the old days: that fruit cola wasn’t something I was interested in buying at pinot prices. This wine is all over the place, showing intense but candied strawberry and raspberry, then sticky soda, then a gritty, sandy texture, haphazard structure, and an overly child-friendly finish. I sorta want to like it given the backstory (it’s the new Sanford wine), but I just can’t. (8/07)