Spring Dear Club Members,

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Spring Dear Club Members,"

Poppy Martin
6 years ago
Views:

1 Spring 2016 Dear Club Members, This is truly a great time to be a California Pinot Noir lover! I was thinking about this as I was writing this in my 20+ years of making California Pinot Noir I don t recall 3 such fantastic vintages in succession such as 2012, 2013, and Oh sure, we ve experienced great vintages back-to-back, but to have 3 in a row is unprecedented in the last two decades. With this Club Babylon Shipment, we showcase a number of Pinot Noirs from the 2013 and 2014 vintages. Comparing these vintages is fascinating as they are close to carbon-copies of one another with both being large crops (many clusters, small berries) and early ripening. Both vintages ended up producing outstanding wines with perhaps a tad more structure in the 2014 versions. We would love to hear your thoughts and comparisons on the wines from these vintages as you open the bottles! Of course, these years were pretty superb for wines other than Pinot Noir as well. Tim Fish of the Wine Spectator recently wrote a blog saying the 2014 might be the finest year ever for Zinfandel and 2013 is looked upon incredibly highly for just about everything in California, including Rhone-grape wines. Thus we have two great Novy wines in this offering as well, the 2014 Zinfandel and the 2013 Rosella s Vineuyard Syrah. When you re cooking something on the grill this Spring that seems too big for a Pinot Noir we encourage you to pop one of these wines and pair it with dinner! Finally, thank you again for your unending support of SIDURI. We appreciate you all so much and hope to see you here at the winery at some point in the not-to-distant future! Cheers, Adam Lee and everyone at SIDURI

2 Club Babylon 2016 Spring Shipment Below is a list of the wines in this 2016 Spring Club Shipment. You are receiving one (1) bottle of each wine in your Club Shipment. As a Club Babylon member you receive a 30% discount off the retail prices. The total cost is $ before taxes and shipping. Retail Club Babylon 2014 SIDURI Betty Ann Vineyard Pinot Noir $45 $ SIDURI Limerick Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir $50 $ SIDURI Parsons Vineyard Pinot Noir $50 $ SIDURI Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir $33 $23.10 Sonoma Coast 2014 SIDURI Pratt-Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir $50 $35 Sonoma Coast 2013 SIDURI Pinot Noir $33 $ SIDURI Garys Vineyard Pinot Noir $55 $ SIDURI Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir $60 $ SIDURI John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir $50 $ SIDURI John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir $50 $ Novy Family Rosella s Vineyard Syrah $29 $ Novy Family Zinfandel $24 $16.80

3 Club Shala 6 Bottle 2016 Spring Shipment Below is a list of the six (6) wines in the upcoming 2016 Spring Club Shala Shipment. You will be receiving one (1) bottle of each wine in your Club Shipment. As a Club Shala member you receive a 15% discount off the retail prices. The total cost is $ before taxes and shipping SIDURI Betty Ann Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $45 Club Shala: $ SIDURI Parsons Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $50 Club Shala: $ SIDURI Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Retail: $33 Club Shala: $ SIDURI Pratt-Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $50 Club Shala: $ SIDURI Garys Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $55 Club Shala: $ SIDURI John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $50 Club Shala: $42.50 We do hope that you enjoy the wines in this Club Shala offering. Thank you so much for your support!

4 Tasting Notes 2014 SIDURI Betty Ann Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $45 Club Babylon: $31.50 Club Shala: $38.25 The 2014 SIDURI Betty Ann Vineyard Pinot Noir is a new name for us, but not a (brand) new vineyard. In 2013 we produced a superb Pinot Noir from this site and received 93 points on the wine from Wine Spectator. However, in 2014 the vineyard sold and changed the name to the Betty Ann Vineyard. We rather like the new name, but that is really secondary, we truly love the wines that emerge from this site. Planted to all 828 clone, this is a location within the southern end of the Santa Rosa Plain, that looks rather..plain. Fortunately for us it is farmed meticulously and the grapes and wines that have emerged from this site are simply superb. We picked the 828 clone from the Betty Ann Vineyard fairly late in 2014, on September 20. The fruit was ripe, but not extremely so. Most important, the canopy was in very good shape. During the off-season we had the vineyard manager disc the rows between the vines, breaking up the soil and allowing the vines to thrive more than they had in previous vintages. Winemaking was relatively straightforward, with one exception. As the skins on the 828 clone were particularly thick we chose to use rollers on the fruit, crushing it open early in the process. We were also careful on punchdowns during fermentation so as to not extract excess tannins. We added yeast to the mix and, at the end of fermentation, pressed the wine to barrel. During blending we picked the 9 best barrels (out of 30) and bottled the wine at the end of January, 2016 without fining or filtration SIDURI Limerick Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $50 Club Babylon: $35 Club Shala: $42.50 The 2014 SIDURI Limerick Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir is a testament to our friendship. Our good friends, the Bilbros, own the Limerick Lane Vineyard and have been kind enough to sell us Zinfandel from this property for several vintages (all the while producing some fantastic wines under their own label). Much to our surprise, we learned that they had a small amount of Pinot Noir planted in the middle of the property and were planning on pulling out and replanting those vines. However, they weren t able to do that until 2015, and were looking for a home for their 2014 grapes. Over a few glasses of wine, we came up with the idea to make the last Limerick Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir as a tribute to these vines and to our friendship. This special, one-time Pinot Noir shows vibrant red fruit character right off the bat. On the mid palate the wine begins to exhibit a complex woodsy, cedar character that carries through on a long finish. This wine is still a baby, and should improve well into 2018.

5 2014 SIDURI Parsons Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $50 Club Babylon: $35 Club Shala: $42.50 The Parsons Vineyard has some similarities to the Betty Ann Vineyard in that the vineyard is rather plain from a topography point-of-view. However, the Parsons Vineyard is surrounded by some fantastic, historic old vine Zinfandel vineyards, and this provides some hint at the special nature of the site. Interestingly enough, the Parsons Vineyard is the one site that has been trending later and later as far as harvest date goes, even though the vintages have been trending earlier. This is because we have moved pruning later to avoid the frosts that can plague this part of the. This later pruning and later harvest have allowed the fruit from the Parsons Vineyard to become truly physiologically ripe. We ve combined this riper fruit (from the Dijon clones primarily) with some whole cluster fermented Pommard Clone Pinot Noir to provide the overall wine a bit of structure. This combination has produced one of our most compelling Parsons Pinot Noirs combining richness and a backbone that should allow the wine to age for some time SIDURI Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Retail: $33 Club Babylon: $23.10 Club Shala: $28.05 The key factor in all of our Appellation wines is blending! In the case of the Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, we have some really fantastic vineyard sources that go into this wine. In 2013, over half the wine comes from the Sonatera Vineyard with the remainder split between the Hirsch, Pratt Vineyard Sexton Road, and Bonnie Ann Vineyards. This combination, from different parts of the Sonoma Coast AVA work on many levels, combining the earthy, forest floor character of the far Coast with the richer flavors in some of the slightly warmer inland areas SIDURI Pratt Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Retail: $50 Club Babylon: $35 Club Shala: $42.50 The Pratt Sexton Vineyard is on Sexton Road, between Sebastopol and Occidental on the Sonoma Coast. This hillside vineyard is farmed by Jim Pratt, one of our best friends in the wine business and one of California s finest grape growers (Jim also manages the Ewald, Parsons, and Betty Ann Vineyards for us). We harvest 3 different clones at the Pratt Sexton property including a somewhat mysterious Jackson clone which was isolated from old Pinot Noir plantings in Jackson, California. We fermented each section of the Pratt Sexton Vineyard separately, and then blended them back together after blind

6 tasting every barrel. This allowed us to ultimately come up with the best representation of the vineyard for the final wine. At this vineyard this means a big Pinot Noir with great levels of acidity. In fact, one of the reasons the Pinots from this location are big is because the acid levels are so high here that the grapes need to achieve higher sugars for the acids to be low enough to successfully complete malolactic fermentation. This wine shows all of those characteristics and more, with additional earthy complexity from the use of whole clusters in Pommard clone. Put altogether this is one of our most hedonistic, complex, and complete Pinot Noirs of SIDURI Pinot Noir Retail: $33 Club Babylon: $23.10 Club Shala: $28.05 The SIDURI Pinot Noir is often one of our most forward Pinot Noirs, but we also work hard at blending in hopes of adding in additional layers of complexity and interest. In 2013, almost 30% of the blend came from the Pisoni Vineyard, the oldest vines that we source from in the region. That alone helps transform the wine from simply an immediate drinker to a wine with additional depth. In fact, 63% of this wines comes from vines that are at least 14 years old. This, combined with the more forward younger vine fruit, make a wine that is both immediate and yet full of complex flavors SIDURI Garys Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $55 Club Babylon: $38.50 Club Shala: $46.75 The Garys Vineyard Pinot Noir needs no introduction. It is, quite simply, one of California s finest Pinot Noir vineyards. It is unique for us in that it is one of the few vineyards that we deal with that is planted to one clone the Pisoni selection. That seemingly minimizes our blending opportunities, and yet we make up for it by being one of only 3 wineries to source fruit from two different rootstocks on the property. Moreover, these two different rootstocks are planted in two vineyard different parts of the vineyard with one being near the top and the other being far closer to the bottom. This difference in elevations provides significant differences in fruit character as well. We have found that the top section of the vineyard usually provides us with riper stems and this was the case in 2014 as well allowing us to utilize some whole clusters in that ferment. We combined that with the effusively fruit lower section (known as Christian s Block after my son) and we arrived at what we believe to be a truly superb 2014 Garys Vineyard Pinot Noir!

7 2014 SIDURI Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $60 Club Babylon: $42 Club Shala: $51 The Clos Pepe Vineyard in Santa Barbara s AVA is undoubtedly one of our most famous vineyards. Sometimes fame is undeserved and sometimes it is fleeting, but neither of those is anywhere close to true when it comes to Clos Pepe. This vineyard is the real deal and we ve been incredibly fortunate to have worked with fruit from Clos Pepe since We source fruit from 3 different sections of Clos Pepe, two of them are planted to 115 clone with one section planted to Pommard. While this clonal difference is interesting, the most fascinating aspect is the location of the grapes within the vineyard, with the 115 clone being the earliest ripening section and also the latest ripening section. In 2014 these sections ripened over 3 weeks apart! This combination of earlier, middle, and later ripening sections makes for a far more interesting wine with different sections doing better in some years than others. In what was generally an earlier ripening year like 2014, the lower later section performed extremely well and made up a higher percentage of the blend than is normal. Overall, this sectional diversity allows us to produce a more consistently interesting Pinot and that is certainly the case in 2014 where Clos Pepe shows the complexity that comes from the longer hang time that the later ripening section provided SIDURI John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $50 Club Babylon: $35 Club Shala: $42.50 The John Sebastiano Vineyard is one of California s rising star vineyards. The grapes from this steep, westward facing vineyard in Santa Barbara County s are truly stunning and sold to a wide array of fantastic wineries. At SIDURI we are fortunate to have been part of this vineyard from the very beginning, selecting each section prior to planting. We source fruit from 3 different sections, harvesting them each individually and producing the best wine possible from each. We then work to combine them together, coming up with different potential blends and tasting those blind, deciding on one to be the final blend. The vast majority of the 2013 John Sebastiano blend came from the earliest ripening section of the vineyard, with just 11% coming from the latest ripening section (and the section in the middle not being used at all in the wine). That means that this wine is a blend of primarily 667 clone (which seems to be the trendy Dijon clone currently) with the additional 11% being the non-dijon Pommard clone. This combination of Dijon and non-dijon fruit seems often to work in our blends.

8 2014 SIDURI John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir Retail: $50 Club Babylon: $35 Club Shala: $42.50 This wine, tasted with the wine above, is a great opportunity to compare the outstanding 2013 and 2014 vintages. At the John Sebastiano Vineyard, we found that the 2014 vintage was an even earlier ripening vintage than 2013 but that the wine didn t suffer in moving ahead a few days. In fact, just the opposite. The 2014 SIDURI John Sebastiano Vineyard shows all of the rich fruit character of the 2013 but also a bit more backbone and tannins. This makes for, in my opinion, an even more compelling and overall balanced wine than the But we will let you decide. Open these two wines side by side and let us know what you prefer! 2013 Novy Family Rosella s Vineyard Syrah Retail: $29 Club Babylon: $20.30 Club Shala: $24.65 The 2013 Novy Rosella s Vineyard Syrah is our most structured 2013 Syrah. The wine comes from nearer the northern end of the and thus is closer to Monterey Bay and the cooling breezes and fog. This leads to a wine that is less immediately fruit and more about dried herbs, earth, and structure. That means it isn t a pop and pour, but rather a cellar and enjoy or pop it in the morning and enjoy it in the evening. In my opinion, that makes this a welcome anomaly in California Syrah, rather than a fruit bomb the Rosella s Vineyard produces Syrah that truly benefits from food and time Novy Family Zinfandel Retail: $24 Club Babylon: $16.80 Club Shala: $20.40 The 2014 vintage is already being heralded as one of California s finest ever for Zinfandel. Tim Fish of Wine Spectator recently wrote this about the vintage, I've been drinking Zinfandel for 30 years, and reviewing it for Wine Spectator a decade now, and the 2014s just might be the most pleasurable Zins I've ever tasted. The 2014 Novy Zinfandel is a blend of fruit from the Elsbree Vineyard at the far northern end of the, and three incredible old vineyard vineyards, Carlisle, Limerick Lane and Papera Ranch. These great vineyards combine together to produce this fantastic Zinfandel. This wine is rich and forward and immediate, one to enjoy tonight and maybe even open a second bottle if friends drop by!

9 SIDURI WINES & NOVY FAMILY WINES WINE CLUB MEMBER PRICING Spring 2016 SIDURI Oregon Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2013 SIDURI Chehalem Mountain Pinot Noir $22.40 $27.20 $32 SIDURI Sonoma County & Sonoma Mountain Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2013 SIDURI Van der Kamp Vineyard Pinot Noir $33.60 $40.80 $48 SIDURI Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2014 SIDURI AVA Pinot Noir $24.50 $29.75 $ SIDURI Ewald Vineyard Pinot Noir $34.30 $41.65 $ SIDURI Keefer Ranch Vineyard Pinot Noir 750mL $38.50 $46.75 $ SIDURI Keefer Ranch Vineyard Pinot Noir 1.5L $84 $102 $ SIDURI Lingenfelder Vineyard Pinot Noir $34.30 $41.65 $ SIDURI Parsons Vineyard Pinot Noir $34.30 $41.65 $49 **2014 SIDURI Betty Ann Vineyard Pinot Noir $31.50 $38.25 $45 **2014 SIDURI Limerick Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir $34.30 $41.65 $49 **2014 SIDURI Parsons Vineyard Pinot Noir $34.30 $41.65 $49 SIDURI Sonoma Coast & Fort Ross Seaview Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2013 SIDURI Sonatera Vineyard Pinot Noir $34.30 $41.65 $ SIDURI Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir $38.50 $46.75 $55 **2013 SIDURI Sonoma Coast AVA Pinot Noir $23.10 $28.05 $33 **2014 SIDURI Pratt Vineyard Sexton Road Pinot Noir $35 $42.50 $50 SIDURI Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2013 SIDURI Soberanes Vineyard Pinot Noir $34.30 $41.65 $ SIDURI Sierra Mar Vineyard Pinot Noir $35.70 $43.35 $ SIDURI AVA Pinot Noir $24.50 $29.75 $ SIDURI Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir $42 $51 $ SIDURI Rosella s Vineyard Pinot Noir $35 $42.50 $50 **2014 SIDURI Garys Vineyard Pinot Noir $38.50 $46.75 $55 SIDURI Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2013 SIDURI AVA Pinot Noir $23.10 $28.05 $ SIDURI Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir $38.50 $46.75 $55 **2014 SIDURI Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir $42 $51 $60 **2014 SIDURI John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir $35 $42.50 $50 Novy Family Wines Syrah Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2013 Novy Family Sierra Mar Vineyard SLH Syrah $24.50 $29.75 $ Novy Family Susan s Hill Vineyard SLH Syrah $24.50 $29.75 $35 Novy Family Wines Zinfandel Club Babylon Club Shala Retail 2013 Novy Family Papera Ranch Vineyard Zinfandel $23.80 $28.90 $ Novy Family Limerick Lane Vineyard Zinfandel $23.80 $28.90 $34 **2014 Novy Family Zinfandel $16.80 $20.40 $24 **Wines in bold print are in the Spring 2016 club shipment

10 UPCOMING EVENTS 2016 SIDURI Fall Wine Club Pick Up Party Join us and taste all of the wines in your club shipment and enjoy chef prepared appetizers Saturday, October 15, pm to 4pm SIDURI Winery RSVP Required Complimentary for Club Members 2016 SIDURI Fall Wine Club Appreciation Dinner Details TBA late summer Saturday, November 12, pm to 9pm SIDURI Winery RSVP Required 2016 SIDURI Winter Open House Saturday, December 3, am to 4pm SIDURI Winery No RSVP 25 th Annual WINEROAD Winter WINEland Event January 2017 Go to for details

Spring Dear Siduri Wine Club Members,

Spring Dear Siduri Wine Club Members, Spring 2017 Dear Siduri Wine Club Members, Welcome to the Spring, 2017 Shipment! I am truly thrilled to offer you these wines, as I love the 2015 vintage. After several vintages of large harvests, 2015