Belmont Brewing Co.
The Wines
93 Nuits St. George Boussoulots
93 Hitching Post Bien Nacido Vyd
94 King Estate
96 Ojai Bien Nacido Vyd
95 Foxen Bien Nacido Vyd98 Longoria Bien Nacido Vyd
By vote for top three:
98 Longoria
96 Ojai
93 Hitching Post
Roll Call: Susan, Matthew, Brad, Eric, A. David
My Tasting Rating (0-10): 7
A most pleasant wine dinner! All wines very good and of course the duck pasta was excellent.
Notes: The selection of pinots seems to have revolved around the Bien Nacido vineyard, so you would expect there to be some commonality in the flavors and terroir of the area. There should be common themes in the nose and on the palate of at least these four wines even considering the different vintages. But nooOOOooo! All of these wines bore no resemblance to each other and in fact didn't even taste like pinot noir! If I had gotten these blind, I would have thought they were bizarre blends of other varietals.
Longoria was a clear stand out. Everyone picked it in their top 3 with 4 out of 5 number one votes. It was the most pinot-y and had the best fruit. The Bien Nacido nose was most prominent in this younger wine. Pleasant touch of spice.
Ojai was next most pinot-y, but did not have the Bien Nacido pinot noir fruit nose as expected. Very good, but only a shadow of its former self. This used to be a killer pinot! Maybe this is proving Bien Nacido pinot noir is not age-worthy.
Nuits St. George was very closed on opening, but finally started to open up. Rather disappointing product from an excellent appellation. Should have been a crisp wine with red fruit flavors and a great finish. Still very drinkable, just not as good as expected.
Foxen was the most disappointing. I have had this wine before and this one was not close. Should have had a big Bien Nacido nose and berry/cherry flavors, but it was flat. Still very drinkable, but should have been great!
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