The idea for the #PinotNoir Twitter smackdown was hatched over wine and wings in my basement with Joe (@SuburbanWino)  and was later fleshed out further over crawfish and shrimp at the Crawfish Shack on Buford highway.  There’s just something about filling our gullets with food that really gets the creative juices flowing.  Throughout the entire process a lot of jokes were made and many more fun and crazy ideas were discussed.  Of course, we needed a west coast correspondent so we brought in Tamara (@SipWithMe) who was fantastic in moving things forward from her Oregon HQ.  In the end, the Pinot Noir Twitter tasting created a buzz we could not have fathomed and we could not be more happy with the turnout.  Thanks to everyone who participated or followed along.  Without further ado:

Winner of the 2010 #Pinot Noir Twitter Smackdown:  

#WV (Willamette Valley)

Play-by-Play Summary:

• We saw a serious flurry of blows thrown immediately out of the gate as #WV (Willamette Valley) took the early lead and really never looked back
• #NZ (New Zealand) was hanging tough though in a distant second place followed by #GV (Green Valley) after the first 40 minutes of the night
• By the halfway point, however, #RR (Russian River Valley) had swooped into 3rd place followed by #GV and #SLH (Santa Lucia Highlands).  No doubt, the Belle Glos Las Alturas and Hahn submissions were behind the quick rise of Santa Lucia Highlands in the rankings
• #CN (Los Carneros) started making a late surge with 30 minutes to go, but couldn’t muster enough flying elbows to gain any glory
• #RR and #GV were gunning neck and neck for 3rd place — in hind sight, if the regions were aggregated, could #RR have provided more of a challenge to #WV?  No, not really.  #WV stole the show.

Event Stats:

• Total tweets during the 2-hour event:   2,073
• Total unique tweeters during the event: 323
• Tweets per minute: 17.3
• Tweets including a #hashtag region vote: 873 or 42.1%
• Several event sites, including ours, are reporting significant sales generated at the event – would like hear other results if you hosted an event or promoted a special offer as part of the event
• [UPDATED] 2,224 pageviews of the pinotnoir.eventbrite.com invitation

Top 8 Results during Event:

________________________________________________________

July 1 – July 15 #PinotNoir Stats: (incl. 2-hour event)

• Total tweets:   4,145
• Total unique tweeters during the period: 677
• Tweets including a #hashtag region mention: 1,461 or 35.2%

Top 8 Results during July 1 – July 15:

Notables:

• Mentions for #ARG, #FLX and #CdN were great to see and generated some interest from many on the stream
• Others include #Bacon, #Pinotentendre and #wewantthefunk

MANY THANKS TO:

Joe Herrig – SuburbanWino.com

Tamara Belgard – SipWithMe.com

Andrea Robinson – AndreaWine.com

Tower Beer Wine Spirits   

Paul’s Restaurant  

And most importantly  YOU  the participants, the pinotphiles, the wineries and the winemakers.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts and drinking along.

Wow, you are very attentive and detail-oriented aren’t you?  I did mean to use the plural version of the word Winner, because we had a tie at the top and, NO, we didn’t wuss out and crown a wine for each location just to be safe   I guess this can happen with so few “judges” but I think both wines are very deserving.  This weekend we arranged a blind throwdown to pit Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley against those from Willamette Valley just for a bit of fun and to educate the palates a little further in the process.  Here were the results:

T1st – 2006 Willakenzie Estate Kiana (WV) - $45 - Very light in color compared the rest of the lineup, tart cherries on the nose with just a little warmth as well as a hint of herbs, possibly mint.  The texture was very fine on the mouthfeel though I would still consider the body at a medium level.  The acidity was perfect leading to a long finish.

T1st – 2006 C. Donatiello Russian River Valley (RRV) - $38 – The only cuvee of the evening.  The nose was a little spicy and reminded me of jerky, with cherries and other red fruits.  The palate presented cherries, raspberry and hint of chocolate.  This was well-balanced as well with good tannins and long finish.

3rd - 2007 Papapietro Perry Peter’s Vineyard (RRV) – $49 – Literally only one point behind the winners, the aromas on this PP were just crazy (!) and separated it as unique among the competitors.  It had a very herbaceous nose and we all couldn’t really nail down specific herbs, but we settled on eucalyptus.  Black cherries and spice were there too.  Great acidity gave it a little zing, but a slight bitter ending probably cost it the crown.

4th - 2006 Bergstrom de Lancellotti (WV)- $60 – Darkest hue of them all, but with interesting mushroom, forest floor and vanilla aromas.  A second round of tastings surfaced some licorice as well.  The palate was luscious with black cherries and cassis, but a little bitter at the end too.  I think this could/should have been decanted and could have blossomed more on this evening.

5th - 2007 Halleck Vineyard Estate (Sonoma Coast)- $75 - OK!  I know, this isn’t technically RRV, though you can see the valley from the Halleck’s deck since this Estate vineyard is only 1 acre that surrounds their house in Sebastopol.  There were differing opinions and scores on this wine which was the lightest in color and body.  Light cherries and earth on the nose, with bright cherries and some spice on the palate.  Still a very good wine.

6th - 2007 Penner-Ash Shea Vineyard (WV)- $55 – This one disappointed me and the wife since we are big Penner-Ash fanatics.  But, it just wasn’t to be this night.  The hue was very light and elegant, but the nose was hot and smoky.  The acidity seemed a little to me on this one too, so it just didn’t score well against the rest of the lineup and everyone agreed in the scoring.

Overall, Russian River Valley was a little stronger on this evening for these tasters.  It’s also VERY interesting to note that the two least expensive selections took the top prize.

By the way, the Pancetta, Mushroom and Baby Spinach Risotto with Asiago cheese was a success though we did not specifically pair each the wines directly with the food.  I will have a follow up video of the process of making a fine Risotto.  Note: stirring arm was a little fatigued but I survived.

Tonite we are having an intimate tasting while the thunderstorms and tornado warnings blast their way through Atlanta.  As widely professed pinotphiles, we are pulling some bottles from some well-known producers in these two regions.  The 6 producers (3 from each location) are listed below, but only my wife will know the vintage and single-vineyard designation, if applicable, as we will taste these otherwise blind.  Throwing an informal poll out on Facebook, most are backing RRV while there are a few votes for Willamette as favorites.  Of course, this data could be skewed based on the follower demographic as I tend to chat more with folks in NorCal than Oregon.  I must really fix that.

All we know are the producers and of course the regions (so, I know this isn’t really all that blind), but it will still be fun to see if we can identify them all the same:

• Papapietro Perry
• Halleck
• C. Donatiello
• Penner-Ash
• Willakenzie Estate
• Bergstrom

To warm our bellies on this rainy and chilly night will be a pancetta and wild mushroom risotto with asiago cheese that I will make myself.  Each of these components make great complements to Pinot Noir and I hope my arm can withstand the constant stirring that will be required and still be able to raise a glass.  So, if you are into Pinot Noir, which is your favorite?

Cheers!

In a monthly, weekly or whenever-I-feel-like-it series, I’d like to talk briefly about the grapes that are made into fine wines.  Many of you, no doubt, are probably already experts or at least know what types you like, but some of you may just know you like red over a white or vice versa.  Either way, I hope you enjoy.

Today’s grape is the fickle Pinot Noir variety recently made (more) famous, at least in the U.S., by a little movie called Sideways and an equally fickle little man called Miles (how ironic, hmm?).  If anything, it helped regions like the Willamette Valley of Oregon, which grows 8,000 acres of Pinot Noir (2005), by increasing wine sales and allowing the region to command higher prices in the process.  Before the recession, you couldn’t find a decent bottle of Pinot from this region for less than $30.  Unfortunately, the movie had a similar, but negative effect, on another grape variety, Merlot, but I’ll save that for another post.  Another domestic AVA well-known for it’s Pinot Noir is the Russian River Valley in Northern Sonoma.

However, Pinot Noir has been around for a long time and is best known as the main red variety of Burgundy, France and it is native to that country.  If you are at the store and looking at a red wine with “Bourgogne” on the label or any AOCs within the Cote de Nuits, Cote de Beaune and a few in Cote Chalonnaise, you are definitely going to be drinking Pinot Noir… and some pretty damn awesome Pinot at that in most cases.  Pinot Noir is also a variety that is allowed when making Champagne, along with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, so quite often, a pink or rosé Champagne will be made from Pinot Noir.

I mentioned above that this variety was “fickle” and that’s no stretch as it is very inconsistent when it comes to color, flavor and aroma depending on where it’s grown, the climate and producer.  A benefit of this capriciousness is that the grape can significantly reflect vintage variation and express vineyard site, but still makes it hard to pick out blind.  More challenges lie ahead in the winery as extended skin contact, often via cold soak, is required to achieve a certain level of color due to the lower levels of anthocyanins in the skins as well as longer, warm fermentations.  This longer, warmer tendency is the reason Pinot Noir is often fermented with an addition of whole clusters, which will act like ice cubes keeping the temperature in check.

The main attributes to think about with Pinot Noir is perfume and texture.  The lower to moderate levels of tannin and good acidity allows the aromatics of the wine and mouthfeel to be more distinguished.  Look for aromas like cherries and other red fruits like plum and strawberries, violets, lilac, cinnamon and truffles, just to name a few.

Some of my domestic favorites:

2006 Bethel Heights Jessie James Vineyard

2006 Halleck Pinot Noir Three Sons Cuvée

2007 Donatiello Floodgate Block 15 (667 clone)

How many Pinot-philes do we have in the house?  Let’s hear from you!

I think we have a winner.. so far.  I know it’s only day 2, but as far as “complete experience” I think we may have found it at Bethel Heights.  Deep in the southern part of the valley amongst some of the oldest vines in the area (since 1977), we found a nice quaint tasting room with a breath-taking view paired perfectly with a great host, Jacque, a piano player and, of course, some of the best Pinot’s we have tasted to-date.  It literally brought tears to my wife’s eyes as she took it all in.

For more check out the Bethel Heights page from the Willamette Valley page up top or to the right or follow this link: http://www.winetonite.com/?page_id=115