Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard, Kutch 2017

12.5% alc., 350 cases. The coldest site in the Kutch vineyard lineup. Dijon “828,” 777 and 115 were planted in 2001 in marine quartz sandstone and Goldridge soil. Vineyard is located at 550 feet elevation, 8.4 miles from the Pacific Ocean on the second ridge inland. The berries are often the size of peas and yields are below 1 ton-per-acre. 100% whole cluster, native fermentation, fruit crushed and punched down by foot, aged 17 months on the lees with out racking in 100% neutral French oak barrels. · Moderately dark garnet color in the glass. The aromas of black cherry, blueberry, spice and sweet mulch really soar over time in the glass. This is the kind of perfume you could dab behind the ears for a pheromone effect. A wine of substance that engages and caresses the palate with flavors of black cherry, blueberry, savory herbs and tobacco. Modest, matching tannins and a really long and juicy finish. When tasted the following day from a previously opened and re-corked bottle, the nose was dreamy and the overall impression was harmony. I have been to the mountain top and it is good.

This vineyard 13km from the Pacific near Freestone lies just under the fog line where the climate is colder than Burgundy, and its Pinot is always the last one Kutch picks. The wine is dark, rich and super appetising, with lots of exotic Asian spices and an earthy, savoury, almost meaty personality. Drink between 2020-2030

Jamie Kutch’s 2017 Falstaff Vineyard bottling of pinot noir is a gorgeous wine in the making and easily the most black fruity of his outstanding lineup of 2017s. The wine was made with one hundred percent whole clusters, foot-trodden and raised exclusively in older barrels, coming in at 12.5 percent octane and offering up a superb nose of black cherries, plums, bitter chocolate, gamebird, woodsmoke, dark soil tones and a lovely touch of sweet stems. On the palate the wine is deep, pure, full-bodied and seamlessly structured, with a fine core of fruit, excellent soil signature, ripe, fine-grained tannins, good acids and excellent focus and grip on the long and nascently complex finish. Like the MacDougall Ranch bottling, this is structurally a bit more accessible out of the blocks than the slightly lower octane Bohan and Signal Ridge bottlings, but it too is really crafted for a long life in bottle and it will be borderline criminal to open a bottle of this beautiful wine until it is at least seven or eight years old. It will be a lot better at age twenty! 2024-2055+.

Bright mid crimson. Meaty and rewarding on the nose. Lots of fruit and charm. Very light tannins and augurs well for the future. Dry but not drying finish with focused fruit. Great judgement. Super-appetising. Long and perfumed. 12.5%. 2018-2021