1997 Caymus Pinot Noir-Blanc

[RAD]

My wife and I recently finished a trip to Napa / Sonoma, and I've got to tell you about a wine we love from Caymus.

When we're out there, we like to pick things up that we can't find back in NYC--NY is not a reciprocal state, so the wineries can't ship back home direct.

Anyway, we first visited Caymus back in March, and at the tasting, tried this Pinot Noir-Blanc. We bought half a case then, and it was the primary reason that we visited Caymus again this trip, as the wine is only available at the winery (OK, truth be told, I also wanted to taste the 97 cab, which, despite the June 1 release date, I still have yet to see in NYC--but that's another story).

Anyway, back to this Pinot Noir-Blanc: 14.2% alcohol, barrel fermented, from fruit that Chuck Wagner gets from down in Carneros, I think they said. Anyway, this wine--also called Oeil de Perdrix (Partridge Eye) due to its salmon/coral color (there is a picture of a partridge head with that color eye on the label)--this wine is incredible. We were told that Chuck (or perhaps Charlie, his dad) made this wine as his "house wine", his everyday drinking wine--they make 1000 cases and sell it only at the winery, for fear that retailers would plop it beside a white zin on the shelf. The folks at the winery say that it's a "picnic" wine, or better yet, a breakfast wine, but we beg to differ! It's great stuff!

We love it! Has anyone else tried it?

[This message has been edited by RAD (edited 07-15-2000).]