Santa Barbara Winemakers.

Clos Pepe Estate, pinot noir, 2004 Santa Rita Hills. Alc 13.9%

I'm speechless, it lasted three days before I finished it, with patience it could have lasted much longer. When you read that when a wine is opened the fruits jumps out at you, you think it is just figuratively speaking, or metaphorically speaking, rarely do you think physically speaking. There are two thoughts to this story, see it as a fable or as a moral. This is a wine that "literally" physically jumps at you, it grabs you the moment you take that sneaky little taste within the minute of opening to gauge how long it might need to breathe and to get that preview of what is to come. A brilliant purple explosion of rasping cranberry fireworks that carries shockwaves through the senses. This is equally a wine for the eyes. Unfiltered with chunks of fruit jumping into the glass of morning fog juice, as if you can almost discern the early hour of its harvest, a cool morning with the expectation of a hot day ahead, "Must get the berries inside right now, before it's too late," screams the '04. Makes sense, earlier than normal harvest, unexpected or at least unwanted, heat spikes all week, but the remaining liquid, someone knew what to do here.
After the third day, the wine mellowed, softened, a depth like jumping into the ocean on a dark night. I want more, have done since I finished the last drops. This is a wine that will make me poor if I had to have every case for myself, not a wine for sharing unless you really like someone enough to divulge the secrets of a great sensation, it's how you feel after experiencing another plane.
I'm still speechless, and all I'm doing is staring at the bottle wondering why there is none left, knowing full well I didn't want to share it with myself. Get the idea? There are a lot of simply delicious wines around these here parts but none like this. This reminds me of coming across my first tiger in the jungles of India on Boxing Day afternoon back in '95. Genuine fascination is a trait both have on me even now. There's more in this bottle than the bottle betrays. This isn't something I have come across before from the SRH, there's an almost BN quality about it, there is nothing in my memory tastebuds that can even describe the way this juice tastes in the present "fashionable" prosaic use of descriptors. Go ahead choose your red fruits and still you wouldn't be able to list them all in here. It's not a fruit bomb either, more of a fruit mortar but then you get other things. This is also not a wine to take apart so forget that method of describing it. Enjoy it as a whole, a completed tome, the answer to all that you seek in pinot, in wine, the big picture if you will. If you put this away for a few years I admire your nerve and courage and patience, this is incredible to drink now. A wake-up call.
I write this coming in to the 8th of April '06, if there is no more of this wine left by the 9th don't say I didn't warn you, what with Vintners Festival on too, this tiger will set off a stampede.

Guys, I want any part of the '05 on film for posterity. Wes, I think we need some pearls of wisdom on camera you could share with sbwinemakers viewers. This '04 is a full on education.

Cheers

April 7, 2006