I have two of these in the cooler
because this one is on my FAVs list.

Let’s see how it goes today.

I’m trying to kill time before
“lunch” starts.

I’ll use the good PN glass today
so I will take a few moments to
CLEAN THE GLASS.

I’m going to have (canned) corned
beef and swiss cheese sandwiches,
so that will take a few minutes
to “prepare”.

I should make it to 11:00am today.

…

OK, let there be lunch.

The “aroma” (of the wine) is a
“heavier” perfume than I expected.

Wait, let’s take a giant step
backwards and contemplate
this wine’s “source”.

It’s Santa Barbara county,
the home of California’s
“magic triangle” of PN.

https://www.sbcountywines.com/winegrowing-areas.html

The “Santa Barbara” label tells
us that the grapes are sourced
from any or all of these wonderful
places.
(And some other places as we will see.)

Is that BAD???

Here’s a link to the Fess Parker
site which indicates how a producer
in one AVA (Santa Ynez) sources
grapes from another (Santa Rita).

https://www.fessparker.com/Winery/Our-Story

Did I get that right?

The AVAs are a bunch of close
knit siblings of a productive,
voluptuous mother.

Let them sing together and
teach us a thing or two…

And back to the wine…

I suppose that the wine
“exhibits some oak” but it
is subtle and alluring.

Without having a clue,
I guess six months in older,
charred French oak.

http://gottwines.com/2015-joel-gott-santa-barbara-pinot-noir/

At least I got the French
part right and half the
barrels were “older”.

If you watch the video,
you will see where some of
the grapes come from an
inland/warmer area and
“contribute” to the
richer/fuller/darker
nature of the wine.

That manifests as “pruney”
on my tongue.

Pruney may have a negative
connotation but that is
not the intent here.

The intent is to contrast
the flavor of a fresh plum
with a dried one.

I don’t know that saying
“dried cherry” brings the
same idea to mind.

PN can get pruney.

If they get “too pruney”
then I have a hard time
enjoying the wine.

To avoid pruney, I look
for growing areas that
have lower amounts of
sunshine and/or colder temps.

Don’t let those PN grapes
grow TOO well or get TOO ripe,
or you’ll get prune juice.

This wine is just fine.

Instead of dancing cherries,
we have mellow cherries
laying on the beach,
tanning under a late spring sun.

That’s hard for ME to resist.

Another plus for this wine is the tannins.

(The baggage of oak is tannins
and each can/should be detected
and evaluated separately.)

The producer calls the tannins
soft and velvety.

Whatever.

Tannins are like metal files.
Some are raspy and some are
fine toothed, but I would never
call a metal file soft and velvety
unless I had been an
ex-marketing director for Mel Torme.

Sooooo…

The tannins are fine enough
to allow you to enjoy the wine
SLOWLY without causing more than
short term damage to you tongue,
vocal chords, and esophagus.

OOPS. Where’s my marketing director?

He’s laid out on the beach with an empty
bottle of JG SB PN marked “1/12”.

Quick, somebody grab the key
to his wine locker.

Day Two…

This is another one that
seems a bit more jammy/syrupy
on the second day.

The second best thing about drinking
a bottle of wine over two days
is that on the second day you have
“proper expectations” and can enjoy
it EVEN MORE than you did on the first
day.

This wine stays on my FAVs list,
primarily because it increases the
range of lushness that I enjoy in
a PN to the MORE side.

I like to be caressed by a PN,
not bludgeoned to death.

Desensitization is the approach
I’m taking to “a fuller enjoyment
of wine”, but at this point it
doesn’t take much to send me
scurrying back to rosé.

I can hold my ground with this one
and gird up my loins for something
even MORE challenging.

If you are keeping score,
you will note that there are
no words beginning with “acid”
herein. Yet.

Oops.

I have this “vague idea” that
acidity is THE THING that allows
me to enjoy PN above all other
RED wines.

This wine HAS PLENTY. Not offending,
not excessive, just lots of it and
that keeps the “lushness” at bay.

I’m so cloud-enveloped at this point
that only Rammy can help.

Sound familiar?

Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen
Kann man uns am Himmel sehen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgG_aALSAzw

I’m not done yet…

A stroll into the weeds reveals
that this wine has a bit of
“greenness” to it which COULD BE
described as “leafy”.

Not surprising if those “inland”
grapes have anything to say about it.

It took me a long time to pick this
up so it is both “not noticeable”
and “not distracting” depending upon
your “sensitivity”.

The last few sips were fun because
they held the greatest concentration
of “flavor” that the oak had to offer.

Something worth crooning about.

Hang in there.