Gary, sounds like you had quite an interesting childhood!

Ok, Boonville, here we go: a little town of for about 17 houses, a common stable for the cattle, mainly sheep, friendly, if a bit old-fashioned folks that sit in their front porch watching the nearby forest border as if they could happily sit there all day. The town’s elders are the doctor(in black with silver rimmed round spectacles), the headmaster (grey beard and in waistcoat), the herbs woman (always in purple skirt, lovely round face, hair in a chignon), the pub owner (bit of blush on the face, always laughing) and the local arm of the law (in boots and heavy belt, with hat). Their’s onlt one road, a narrow asphalted one, the rest is all lawn, no seperate gardens. Their is a village loon, friendly guy, but always has to be watched, often accompannied by his red haired, lovely sister who is actually blind. Then, there is also a silent, brooding, young guy with a harelip who is actually pretty smart, but to shy to really show himself. Around the village are vineyards and old wooden watch towers close to the woods …
That being said … the Bourgeuil is still awful 😕 !
C ya.

I understand that in 2004 Alma Rosa became certified as organic, so 2005 is their first organic vintage. They feel strongly that is the way things should be anyway, so they don’t advertise it on their label. It’s good to see good quality organics appearing.

I hate Hollywood for Sideways and what they did to P.N. prices. All of us long time P.N. fans got shafted by that movie. Maybe WLTV (with its enormous, and growing, cache) could start trashing P.N. so that the prices would drop back to reasonable levels??

What I remember about kasha is kasha varnishkes. That is what I think you are describing. That sound you made was common to Space Invaders and Dig Dug.

I love Pinot with food. But because of price, buying anything good needs to be done on futures and that is always a risk. The past few years I’ve bought most of my Pinot at a Santa Barbara Barrel Tasting. I try everything but end up buying my favorites like Au Bon Climat, Foxen, Lafond and Drew which tend to be more old world than the Sea Smoke and Loring Pinots which are sometimes too extracted for food.
Then I spend all the rest of my money buying Rhone blends. I’m just glad that Miles didn’t drink Granache or that would be out of my price range too!

Gary-
Great show! Your tasting notes were money as always! I love the arcadian wine.

Joe Davis , the winemaker at Arcadian, is making the most age worthy beautiful pinots, syrahs, and chardonnays in all of the Santa Maria Valley. We popped a 1999 Arcadian Gary’s Vineyard Pinot next to a 1999 Drouhin Chambolle-Musigny and I must say the Gary’s was drinking amazing while the Chambolle was really showing its age although still stunningly beautiful. His current release on the Gary’s in my state is the 2001. He’s a winemaker that understands that great wine takes time and he’s even willing to age it a few years for you. Arcadian has a bright bright future!

I think old and new word pinot lover should seek these wines out! They are really something special!

Cheers

Eugene, I remember the cream of wheat from my kindergarten as well. That smell combined with the early morning scent of old fish frying still makes me nauseous to think about it.
Does this mean that that youve gotta spend $40 to get a decent pinot noir? 🙁

Ok east coast denizens. Boonville is a wonderful little place in the western end of Anderson Valley on Hwwy 128, on the way to Mendocino. It’s about 20-25 miles from the coast. Sparsely populated, mainly by long-term locals and recent fugees from the Bay Area/Napa. They do indeed speak their own language called Boont, or Boontling. A telephone is a “Bucky Walter”, snobby people are “highpockety”, people who live in San Francisco are “brightlighters”, your girlfriend is an “applehead” and her panties are “golden eagles”. Supposedly there’s still a couple of dozen people in the valley who are fluent. It’s a beautiful little valley. Apple orchards used to be the big crop, along with a certain other more dubious “cash crop” grown up in the hills around the valley. Now the home of quite a bit of nice Pinot Noir vineyards, but most of that has been planted in the last 10 years or so. Navarro, Goldeneye, Lazy Creek, and several others are all here (Lazy Creek is great stuff if you can get it). Oh, people from Navarro (just west of Boonville) are called “Deependers”. Robert Mailer Anderson wrote a funny novel about the whole place back a few years ago called “Boonville” About as far from Napa as you can get. If you’re visitng NorCal, I would highly recommend visiting. And stop off at the Anderson Valley Brewery. The beer is fantastic.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
and thanks!

Have to try the Alma Rosa. Other Pinot’s we enjoy: Littorai, Papapietro Perry, Du Nah, TR Elliott, Three Miners (Australia). I juuust watched Sideways and have determined that the Pinot reflects Mile’s fragile ego, whereas Merlot symbolized his failed marriage. It was only after he downed the Cheval Blanc (at the encouragement of Maya) that he could let go of the past. I don’t think that he hated Merlot at all. Although the prices for Pinot Noir have skyrocketed, Merlot is a bargain right now.

Booneville is a very laid back place on the way to Mendocino. Only locally owned shops – no Starbucks – and a fairground is all I can remember.

Chasing pigs in Cuba? Sounds fun. You can see pictures of this on Fidel’s department of tourism brochures. Too bad U.S. Citizens can’t go there to join in the fun. Put me down for a snout after he dies.

Hope yer having a jolly good time across the pond.

Great Job with Pinot.
I am still tasting – layed back drinkin South Tirol (alto adige) Pinot Noir of Laimburg.
Greetings from austria (South east styria)

Not a big fan of Pinots myself, but maybe I just haven’t had the right one yet. David Bruce makes a decent one, but still not my cup-o-tea…

Maybe it’s me but I the Almarosa just makes me think of that mean lady who was on that Donald Trump reality show and that’s just not someone I wanted to be reminded of when trying to enjoy a wine.

Interestingly, while Pinot Noir is undoubtedly hot right now, it’s still only the eighth most consumed varietal in the U.S., well behind Merlot.

A GOOD Pinot is hard to find.

Wow, Gary brought back Voltron. Incredible…

Awesome episode. Like someone else said, I need to stop watching WLTV. I’m running out of places to store all of this wine!

Flavor Ice! Boom goes the dynamite! Ha… right there myself watching two of my favorite cartoons ever… Voltron and Thundercats. Classics…

Great episode, Gary! I’m all kinds of excited about venturing futher into the Pinot Noir world, now!!! I mean, a blender, Wisconsin Cheddar, and gorgeous blonde twins on the nose! (Sounds more like a Penthouse Forum letter, than a wine. LOL!) Now, if I could only afford it… Hell, what am I talking about, I’ll pay $60 for that!!! 🙂

Dang… Where’s my gravatar??? I set it up two days ago! 🙁

QOTD: Boonville is a charming little town. The town center is really just a few buildings, most built in the 1960s. There are lots of pretty young girls in their late teens and early twenties who have no problem wearing very short skirts and tight tops. These girls are adventurous and always up for a good time especially when an out of towner has to stop because of car trouble and…oh, wait, I’m thinking of Poonville. Or maybe Poonvlile Pt. 2. Seriously though, where’s Willamette? Represent.

Gary – great episode, gotta try the Almarosa. I’m still exploring the NZ pinots for now. Great QPR. Great energy! Di you have ten lattes before taping?? Kasha varnishkes, kielbosa…how about some nice potato kugel to with it all? Hope you’re having a jolly old trip and some bangers and mash….

no avatar?

“Lev wrote:
Does this mean that that youâ??ve gotta spend $40 to get a decent pinot noir?”

Hell, no!

First of all there are plenty of other good wines,
Second you can still find good pinot if you have to for under 25.
I recently had 100% pinot from Loire that was very good. It cost 18 but was on sale for 12. It wasn’t marked as a pinot so nobody wanted it!

PS: My father tells me that I used to bring mannaya kasha home in my pockets from kindergarten.

gary…why not use the burgundy glass for tasting these wines? given that you experienced a pretty consistent discrepancy between the nose and the palate with these pinots, one can’t help but wonder if the burg glass couldn’t line those two up a little closer, while giving off more of these wines in general anyway?