2007 Breggo Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard
My first-ever futures purchase was back in 2007 when The Wife and I were tooling around Northern California’s Anderson Valley. It was one of those patented California days where it’s gloriously sunny, not too hot, perfect conditions to pop open the convertible top and ride around. We stopped into Breggo on the recommendation of the staff at Roderer. The tasting room had a few people milling about but the property was otherwise empty and open. The winery owner/winemaker Douglas Ian Stewart was the only employee in the tasting room that day and he was so apologetic that they had run out of their top-flight Pinots that he invited us and the other patrons back to the barrel room to barrel sample his 2007 Pinots.
It’s fantastic to get wine guys on their home turf because their passion just bleeds through everything else. Wandering between those oak barrels, crush machines, and gigantic steel tanks is where I learned the difference between toasted oak and neutral oak by tasting samples from each. Douglas talked about the different styles of fruit from the different vineyards around the Anderson Valley and how they had manged to score Pinot Noir grapes from Savoy Vineyard, one of the most respected vineyards in California.
We bought a bunch of the 2007 Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard futures that day. Last Thursday night was a time for celebration, so I cooked one of my usual mediocre dishes while The Wife tended to The Daughter. We popped open one of the Pinots to enjoy with dinner.
Nice light red color. Toasted oak on the nose, a little vanilla. Very little fruit on the nose or palette. Light mouthfeel but slow-rolls you to a gigantic finish. Manages to hit every one of your senses but stay light and fresh. Some heat on the back too, it sort of lingers about like it has no place else to be at the moment.
After 30-45 minutes in the glass, the fruit came out of this one. Cherry with a little bit of sour in there. Much more complexity. More balanced between fruit, oak, tannin, alcohol; very rounded out. Almost a stickyness about it, like I was digging the wine out of my gums for twenty minutes.
Ultimately, not my exact style of Pinot but very much enjoyed nonetheless.
