Wine Last Sold on: April 23, 2010
Davis Bynum Winery
Today's Featured Wine:
2005 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
| Varietal: | Pinot Noir |
| Vineyard: | Laureles Vineyard |
| Region: | California: Russian River Valley (Sonoma) |
| Total Allocation: | Double Agent Special |
| Avg. Price: | $40.00 |
| Wine Spies: | $25.00 |
The Winery Says:
About This Wine:
Davis Bynum Pinot Noir is driven by vineyard sites.
Aromas of plum, cedar, and tobacco leaf lead to flavors of candied cherry and earth, all well integrated in a medium body with a round mouthfeel. This vineyard overlooks the famed Westside Road region from a hill to the west.
Gary’s Vision – “Winemaking in Russian River Valley is a true pleasure. No other region outside of Burgundy stamps as distinct a signature on pinot noir and chardonnay. I see my job as winemaker to naturally guide the fruit through the fermentation process, maturing the wine in the fi nest French oak barrels, all the while retaining the authentic flavors of the region.” Gary Patzwald, Winemaker
About The Winery:
Davis Bynum is distinguished as the first winery to produce a single vineyard pinot noir from the Russian River Valley. The vintage was 1973 and the grapes were from Joe Rochioli’s now prized vineyard. Today, more than thirty years later, the heritage of Davis Bynum lives on through the hand crafted creation of pinot noir and chardonnay grown exclusively in Russian River Valley.
As the first winery on Westside Road in Healdsburg, California, Davis Bynum was the first to produce a single vineyard pinot noir from the Russian River Valley. The vintage was 1973 and the grapes were from Joe Rochioli’s now prized vineyard. Today, more than thirty years later, the heritage of Davis Bynum lives on through the hand crafted creation of pinot noir and chardonnay grown exclusively in Russian River Valley.
Davis Bynum first flirted with winemaking at home in Berkeley when he was a young reporter working at the San Francisco Chronicle. It was 1951 and he purchased a small amount of petite sirah from Robert Mondavi. Things became a bit more serious in 1965 when he transformed a warehouse in Albany into a small winery, where he made wine using knowledge gained from the extensive library at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1971 Bynum purchased a 26-acre vineyard in Napa Valley with the intention to build a winery. Restrictions on construction in the area led him away from that venture and into Sonoma County in 1973, where he found an 84-acre piece of land that quickly became Davis Bynum Winery.
Davis established a quality reputation for the winery, in large part due to solid relationships with the local community of growers. Grapes from great vineyards, often based on hand-shake agreements, along with “intuitive winemaking”, as he refers to it, led the winery to become synonymous with distinctive Russian River Valley pinot noirs and chardonnays. Eventually, acclaim for Bynum wines, along with other area producers, won Russian River Valley recognition as one of the worlds’ very best for these varieties.
In August 2007, ready to retire from the day-to-day activities of running a winery, Davis sold the winery to Tom Klein and the Klein family, a fourth generation California farming family. The focus on Russian River Valley remains the same and the goal to produce excellent chardonnay and pinot noir is unchanged. Bynum agreed to stay with the brand for three years, providing insight and support.
Technical Analysis:
VARIETAL: 100% Pinot Noir
APPELLATION: Russian River Valley
FERMENTATION DETAILS: Cluster sorted, cool fermentation
ALC. BY VOL.: 13.9%
The Wine Spies Say:
DOUBLE AGENT SALE ALERT!
Sadly, we’ve sold out of the featured 2005 Truchard Carneros Pinot Noir, but don’t be too sad. For the rest of the day – or until we sell out – we are proud to be showing another exceptional Pinot Noir from Davis Bynum Winery.
SUPERIOR WINE ALERT:
Today’s single vineyard Pinot Noir rates as comparable to those cult Pinot Noir that cost $100 or more per bottle and are only available once a year direct from the winery (unable to mention the hyphenated name, but if you love Pinot you know what we’re talking about). Today’s wine originally sold for $75. Today’s $25 price makes it a stellar value.
SECRET SAVINGS ALERT:
Subscribe to our Daily Dispatch (above) and you’ll always know what our Top Secret coupon code of the day is. Every day we issue a new members-only code that entitles you to have Ground Shipping included and, sometimes, an added discount!
Mission Codename: Russian River Purity
Operative: Agent Red
Objective: Return to Davis Bynum, and raid the final supply of their outstanding Russian River Valley Pinot’s. This one, from Laureles
Mission Status: Accomplished!
Current Winery: Davis Bynum
Wine Subject: 2005 Laureles Pinot Noir
Winemaker: Rick Sayre
Backgrounder: The Russian River Valley, in Sonoma County, produces Pinot Noir of remarkable distinction. The cooler meritime conditions of the region make the RRV ideal for growing Pinot Noir. Davis Bynum’s extended focus on, and love for, the region means that their particular Pinot Noirs are beautifully crafted to reflect the best that the region has to offer. Read Agent Red’s mission report and tasting noted below for the full intel on this exciting wine
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Beautiful and dark with a hue that change, depending on the lighting. In room lighting, the wine reminds me more of a Bordeaux than a Burgundy. Held up to sunlight, and the wine take on a wholly different look; With light shining through it, wine is deepest pure ruby with garnet at its very heart. Look at it from the top, and you will note its concentrated color – from heart to rim. When I swirl this wine, I observe a tight surface and a core that keeps spinning for a long time. When the wine settles, it leaves behind fat clusters of chubby legs that take a long time to emerge
Smell – Lush and deep with a rich and earthy medium intensity. The fruit shine through, delivering a warm rush of red cherry, ripe raspberry, blackberry and soft pomegranate. These sit atop a delicious earthiness with soft forest floor, spice, fresh violets, cedar and the slightest hint of vanilla bean
Feel – This tender wine starts soft, round and wet, but then gradually shows off its medium body with a bright acidity, velvety tannins and a touch of minerality
Taste – Perfectly integrated flavors of ripe red cherry, raspberry, pomegranate, blueberry tart and darkest blackberry. These are tempered against hints of soft spice, earthiness and soft vanilla
Finish – This wine goes long, starting earthy and soft, and then more rich – but still refined – as the fruit lingers long after you sip, later revealing soft spice and a delicate minerality
Conclusion – Please take careful note here – This is the last time that this wine will be made available at this price – and maybe at all. That said, let me tell you why you should taste this wine: All of the 2005 vintage Davis Bynum Pinots we have shown here have been beyond remarkable. Today’s Bynum from Laureles represents the best of the bunch. This was not our impression when we first tasted the three wines side-by-side. That this wine is now the most impressive of the three tells us something about aging. This wine just needed a few extra months in bottle in order to realize its potential. In fact, we are so excited at how well it has progressed, that we are recommending that you buy extra bottles to lay down. Drinking beautifully now, we expect that it will continue to progress. Note that there is a little heat on the palate on opening, but this is diminished beautifully with time spent in a decanter. Allow the wine at least 30 minutes of breathing time for maximum enjoyment. If you love great California Pinot Noir, this is your last chance to purchase this exceptional example. With bright and juicy flavors, an evolving feel and great aromatics, this wine is sure to please.
Mission Report:
Below is a recap of our first encounter with Davis Bynum Wines by Agent Red and Dr. Pinot.
For today’s mission, I called upon Dr. Pinot, a trusted asset with a nose for sleuthing great Pinot Noir.
I was given three single vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs, and I needed to pick the best one for today’s wine offering.
Each of the wines was placed in a paper bag, concealing their true identities. We mixed them up and then proceeded to taste through them. Interestingly, the wines progressed from lighter in stye to darker and more rich. The middle wine – today’s wine – was the clear winner, exhibiting the best all-around balance of the three.
A hearty thanks to Dr. Pinot for helping me to choose today’s wine. What follows is the possibly-true story of Dr. Pinot’s own personal encounter with today’s wine:
Doctor Pinot Goes Kayaking
The Russian River was higher than normal for this time of the year due to the late spring rains, making for a quick float down stream from Healdsburg. Padding over to a flat spot at the base of a steep bank, on the back side of what was now considered by some in the area to be the holy grail of Russian River vineyard sites, Doctor Pinot jumped into the shallows, and secured his kayak on the rocky beach.
Reaching into his boat, opening the hatch to the watertight stowage compartment, he pulled out a bottle from an old friend. A friend who used to cajole him each harvest to come back from his station in some unknown, godforsaken place, to decompress by helping with that year’s winemaking at his new Northwest Sonoma County winery project. His friend, Davis Bynum, journalist turned winemaker was great at shaking hands with the growers in the area, and securing fruit from the best vineyard sites in the Russian River AVA for his famed single vineyard Pinot Noirs.
Doctor Pinot opened his treasured bottle of 2005 Davis Bynum Pinot Noir, from a site he knew well, located in the Russian River Valley. This site consistently produced Pinot Noirs with balance and concentration.
Opening the bottle, and pouring the wine into his Reidel “O” glass, Doctor Pinot tasted and closed his eyes as the wine took him back to his college days working as a vendangeur at Etienne Sauzet’s property in Puligny-Montrachet. This wine had a ‘somewhereness’. This land, this place had made its mark, exhibiting aromas of earth and hillside redwood forest floor, layered with vanilla and smoke, that soon evolved into flavors of orange peel, late summer raspberries, wild strawberries and cocoa. Doctor Pinot, normally quiet, but never at a loss for words, could only think of one at this moment in time … WOW!
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The approximate location of the Laureles Vineyard in the Russian River Valley region can be seen in this satellite photo.
Average Wine Spy Points: |
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We opened a bottle of this wine with last night's dinner: burgers and grilled veggies, eaten on a makeshift table in our driveway. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, I'm here to say, it was one of the lovliest, most romantic dinners we've enjoyed in a long time. Was it the night that made the wine so good, or the wine that made the night so memorable? Definitely the latter.
I opened the wine about an hour before dinner. As I pulled the cork, I was immediately greeted with the aroma of fruit, both bright and dusky. Amazing! When I filled our glasses in the waning Wisconsin light, I saw rubies, then wine-stained leather, then unpolished garnets. We toasted each other with our usual "Here's looking at you, kid." and sipped. Our reactions were exactly the same: WOW!
Now I love pinot noir. When I'm looking for a wine to give someone whose wine tastes I'm unsure of, I'll usually go with a pinot noir. It's generally a simple, fruity wine, not too dry or too sweet, that most palates accept readily.
Did I say simple? Not this wine! As we ate and drank, we talked about the wine going with everything from the burgers we were enjoying to a rare steak, to a simple chicken dish, to spicy Mexican fare, to nothing at all. Yes, plum, candied cherries and tobacco, but I also got a top note of vanilla and some deep, very ripe blackberries. The bright and dusky I smelled on first opening it were both in the taste. Amazingly complex!
My husband's reaction was to murmur a variation on "Mmmmmmm! This is *so* good!" after every sip. He may not be much on words, but he knows what he likes. I had to talk him out of opening a second bottle. Hey, there were just the two of us and we had to go to work in the morning!
This was our first Davis Bynum wine and based on it, we will definitely be trying more of their wines. Would I buy this wine again? Absolutely!
Thank you, Wine Spies, for bringing this wine to my attention!
BIG BOLD but lacking brilliance. Almost like a professional wrestler
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