Pinot Noir around the world

[wondersofwine]

At Ballantyne Resort Allen Meadows (Burghound) hosted a panel with winemakers or owners from Saintsbury (Dick Ward), Fiddlehead Vineyards (Kathy Joseph), Domaine Serene in Oregon, King Estate in Oregon, and a representative of Louis Jadot in Burgundy, France. We had eight or ten wines to sample. From New Zealand a Felton Road and one I can't recall the name. Felton Road is from Central Otago and the other was from Martinborough. I was not impressed with either.
California Pinots included a Saintsbury Brown Ranch, a Fiddlehead from Santa Rita Hills, a Landmark Kastania from Sonoma and possibly one more I'm forgetting (maybe a Saintsbury Carneros?). From Oregon we had the Domaine Serene Evanstad and the King Estate Pinot Noirs. From Louis Jadot a Chambolle-Musigny Les Feusselottes 1er Cru (sells for about $59 at one USA website)and a Gevrey-Chambertin (not sure if this was a village wine or the premier cru Clos Saint-Jacques or another). My favorites were the King Estate above all others, then the Landmark Kastania, the Saintsbury Brown Ranch and the Louis Jadot Chambolle-Musigny in undetermined order. I scored the King Estate 18.5 out of 20 and the other three mentioned as favorites around 17.5-18. The Louis Jadot representative spoke about the different soil of Chambolle-Musigny and Gevrey-Chambertin and how this terroir difference leads to a smooth, fragrant C-M and a more muscular Gevrey. I usually end up preferring the more velvety style as I did in this case (but there are exceptions to that for me). Very impressed with the King Estate (possibly 2004). The Oregon winemakers also called 2003 a difficult or challenging vintage.

[dananne]

Thanks for the notes. We've had and enjoyed the Evenstad in past vintages, but have not tried the '03. We have Domaine Serene's Yamhill Cuvee from the '03 vintage, but we've yet to pop it. We heard while out there that '03 was challenging because of the heat, with many wines out of character. We've also tried Fiddlehead, I believe the Fiddlestix from '02. I'll look to try the King Estate -- widely available in these parts, though we've looked past them in recent years. Good QPR, though.