1999 Adelaida HMR Pinot Noir Reserve

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Ahhhh, yes, this is definitely what Miles Raymond was talking about. 

...Pinot needs constant care and attention. You know? And in fact it can only grow in these really specific, little, tucked away corners of the world. And, and only the most patient and nurturing of growers can do it, really. Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot's potential can then coax it into its fullest expression....

The Adelaida IS Pinot Noir and it IS spectacular, perhaps the very best Pinot TWC has had the pleasure of spending time with. At worst, the wine is in the top two. That said, Gentle Reader, if you should desire a spill of this beauty, it is a buck fifty from the winery in today's money. At that price, one would expect nothing short of to-die-for. And it comes ever so close (if there were no lovelies, then perhaps....). TWC has noted it before, but when the missus asks for a second glass, well, that's a telling commentary.

Dating to 1963, the Hoffman Mountain Ranch (HMR) lays claim to the oldest  Pinot Noir plantings on the South Central coast, an area including Paso and Santa Barbara. This particular incarnation of Pinot Noir was crafted by Steve Glosner, who also was responsible for the wine we celebrated the birth of our Number One Son with.

We paired it with mesquite grilled New York strip steaks and it was marvelous. Tossed in (heh) a tossed Boston lettuce salad with walnuts and blue cheese, baked potato sporting freshly harvested chives from the gardens here at the Casa, and sauteed mushrooms. Then, like a carb junkie wishing she could eat the whole meal all over again, TWC was ever so morose when the bottle was empty. 

TWC tends to shy away from the numbers racket, but on the TWC scale this wine is a 95-96.

The TWC rating scale loosely works like this:

• 96-100  Perfect
•   93-95  Superb! Wow!
•   91-92  Excellent Wine-Often is Special Occasion Wine
•   88-90  Drinkable Every Day Wine
•   85-87  You Pay Your Money & You Take Your Chances (likely plonk)
•   75-85  Boone's Farm
•    0-75  Thunderbird & Night Train

In essence, I suppose the 100 point scale is really only a 15 point scale.

As Ever,

The Wine Commonsewer

Tip of the glass to to the generosity of the Fairy Godmother of Cresta di Tramonto

Comments

[Lady Chatelaine]

Hmmmmm.....might be a good thing to have on hand for a certain special occasion coming up ;-)

Sounds excellent, Twc, and that meal too.

[TWC]

It's a pricey bottle of wine, LC, but it was outstanding. Definitely a special occasion wine. Honestly, it was way better than I expected. I thought it would be good not stunning.

[Ink Stained Scribe]

Mike,

I'm impressed Adelaida could produce a decent pinot there. HMR's typically a fine merlot area, but way too hot for PN. It must have been grown in the Santa Barbara quadrant of the ranch.

In a local wine shop we found a decent inexpensive ($8) Paso blend -- 2005 JanKris Crossfire: 50% cab, 25% merlot, 25% petite sirah. Fairly complex with the forward fruit & tannin character of many good Paso reds. Using your scale, I'd give it an 88. And at the price, it's worth tracking down.

May not be readily available, however. When we were there in October, JanKris was changing winemakers or GMs or something and getting rid of its "older" stock at big discounts. If they'd had this for sale in the room, we'd have bought a case. Sadly, they didn't.