Wine Last Sold on: November 13, 2007
Tudor Wines
Today's Featured Wine:
2005 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir
| Varietal: | Pinot Noir |
| Region: | California: Santa Lucia Highlands |
| Cases Available: | Limited |
| Avg. Price: | $39.00 |
| Wine Spies: | $31.00 |
The Winery Says:
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Awards:
94 Points, 2007, Grapelive.com
94 points, 2007, Wine X Magazine
About The 2005 Tudor Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir
This is a big, intensely fruity wine, bold and in-your-face with cherries, raspberries, cola and carob flavors, with the silky elegance that Pinot demands.
Blending:
35% New Clone Tondre’ Vineyard
28% Sarmento Vineyard Dijon Clone
37% 32 yr Old Vine Paraiso Blk 4
About Tudor Wines:
In an increasingly mechanized world, there are still a few handcrafted products that stand out. Fine wine is one of them.
At Tudor Wines, we select fruit from family-owned vineyards and transform it into wine using traditional techniques. These include small fermentations mixed by hand and aging in French barrels. The resulting wine has a purity of expression that cannot be duplicated on a larger scale.
The 2000 Tudor Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir was the inaugural release from Tudor Wines. By working closely with our family growers and winemaking staff, we made sure that low yields combined with maximum grape maturity produced wine with optimal flavor profiles – a balance of ripeness, acidity, and tannins.
Meet the Winemaker – Dan Tudor:
Dan has an impressive list of accomplishments. His winemaking skills were acquired from the ground up. He has consulted extensively with Larry Brooks since 1999 in all aspects of Pinot Noir production and winery/vineyard establishment thereby gaining invaluable knowledge and experience from one of the world’s preeminent Pinot Noir specialists.
Dan’s experience includes; winemaking (Pinot Noir specialty), winery and vineyard development, cave design, County Building and Use permits process for winery, business plan writing and strategic planning, custom crush contract negotiation, wine package design and marketing strategy, barrel selection and procurement, grape source selection and contract negotiation, business development, costs and pricing analysis, developing and monitoring conformance to standard operating procedures for custom crush production.
The 2000 Vintage was his Inaugural Vintage. He achieved accolades that many seasoned winemakers long to receive.
Detailed Wine Information:
Alcohol: 13.8%
Appellation: Santa Lucia Highlands
Fermentation: Open Top Fermentation
Months in Barrel: 59gl Burg
Oak: Francios Frere Allier Forrest 3yr Air Dried Wood
Release Date: May 01, 2007
Sugar: Dry
Time In Oak: 11 months
Varietal: 100% Pinot Noir
Year: 2005
The Wine Spies Say:
If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great.
Proceeds from today’s wine sale will go toward helping the marine wildlife affected by the recent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. Tudor Wines and The Wine Spies will donate $1 for every bottle sold today
Mission Codename: Who’s the boss?
Operative: Agent Red
Objective: Traverse the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County to uncover a big but elegant Pinot Noir that knows its place at the head of the table – without being too brash or over-the-top aggressive
Mission Status: Accomplished!
Current Winery: Tudor Wines
Wine Subject: 2005 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir
Winemaker: Dan Tudor
Backgrounder:
The Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County, California, produce some of the finest Chardonnay wines in the region. Its Pinot Noir is now emerging as a serious competitor for vineyard space as the regions examples are among the best we have tried in California. Agent Red was dispatched to visit Dan Tudor, playboy winemaker, who has earned a reputation for making great wines of great refinement and character. Read Agent Red’s mission report below.
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Sparkling clear ruby red to pink with beautiful clarity and sparkling pink edges with tightly-space and long, thin legs. Think raspberry Jello!
Smell – Classic aromatic gunpowder, leather, pomegranate and black currant with horsey black cherry and sour cherry undertones
Feel – Grippy, tight and cool with top of mouth and center of tongue tannins
Taste – Flinty black cherry and tart cherry with sweet blackcurrant and oaky red apple with a hint of black pepper
Finish – Long, tart and drying with all over mouth flavors that tail off slowly
Conclusion – Big and bold and unafraid to tell you who is boss, this wine has great character and big flavors -while also being balanced and elegant. Its structure lends itself to food pairing but I always enjoyed mine on its own. I enjoyed sipping this wine while pulling out its layered flavors and aromas. This is a great ‘discuss as you drink’ wine. Note: This wine is best enjoyed after a few hours of decanting, after which it really opens up to reveal flavors and a smoothness that was not there upon initial opening.
This week we welcome a new Guest Sommelier Agent Cuvee who contributes his thoughts on several of our wines this week. Here are his comments on today’s wine:
”Ahhhh… another great Monterey County Pinot. This wine shows you what a Pinot can do when it really wants to express its dark side. While bright in color, the garnet hues elude one to believe it is just another cherry bomb. But just like any good spy this wine sneaks up from behind, bringing surprising smells of wet leather, toasted marshmallows, black-cherries and cassis. Almost reminiscent of wines I tasted on my last mission to the Burgundy region of France, this wine has flavors of BBQ’d portabello mushrooms, flinty grilled apple skins, sun-baked pomegranates, hints of grapefruit rind, and finishes with a good dose of toasted oak. The balanced acidity makes one drool for grilled salmon or mushroom risotto.”
Mission Report:
Dan Tudor has a reputation for making great wines… and for being something of a playboy adventurer.
When he’s not in the lab, in the vineyards, or at a fine restaurant, Dan can be found surfing the waves of Santa Barbara or Thailand. Can’t find him there? Try looking for him shredding the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains or Chamonix, France. Not there, either? Look skyward and you might spot him checking up on his grapes aboard that helicopter.
How he finds the time to craft his great wines and run a successful winery is a mystery to most. I caught up with Dan recently after some extended covert surveillance and I have to admit that I am not much closer to finding an answer.
Even after a direct interview with this very personable and easy-going man of the world, I admit that I still require additional time to form a complete profile. Suffice it to say that Dans ability to create great wines is not hampered by his globe trotting lifestyle. Dan makes great wines and his Pinot Noir is one of the most expressive I have tasted from the famous-for-Pinot Santa Lucia Highlands.
Look for my follow-up report on Dan Tudor. Further surveillance should reveal more and if a trip to Thailand is required, I’ll be sure to report in often.
Red, out.
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The location of the world famous Santa Lucia Highlands can be seen in this satellite photo.
Average Wine Spy Points: |
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"God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir" - _André Tchelistcheff_. This famous quote refers to the challenges inherent in making great Pinot Noir. In my experience, its either done right, or its not. That's not to say that there you don't find wonderful variations in Pinot. Some present more fruit, while others deliver more earthy and gunpowder notes. Personally, I like my Pinot BIG, and this is a BIG Pinot born of the classic California style. It starts big. It ends big. From its robust aromatics to its intense flavors, this is a delicious wine. For best balance and and enjoyment, be sure to decant this wine. After a few hours exposed to the air, it becomes a different wine; Expect more subtlety, better flavors, richer aromatics and an improved mouthfeel.
I just don't get it, this wine has no heart.I let it open and there was no there there. In spite of cherries, oak, and raspberry jello, this wine tastes stripped of character. What did they do to it?
I just don't get it, this wine has no heart.I let it open and there was no there there. In spite of cherries, oak, and raspberry jello, this wine tastes stripped of character. What did they do to it?
Delicious and layered flavors, balanced fruit and soft tannins. Taste of black cherry and cassis. For me the finish is long, toasty and not too dry.It has flavors that open up in the mouth with a soft deep feel. I had this wine at dinner with 6 other people and we all thought it to be excellent. At home it needed some decanting to develop.
Agent Red Says: We encourage you to share your reviews and comments about this wine. If you need help scoring or using tasting tags, click on the help links on the form. You’ll also earn more Spy Points for each review you submit.
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