The 2005 Radio-Coteau wines are almost out
I was poking around a couple of Web sites today and I noticed something interesting. It looks like Radio-Coteau is about to announce the customer allocations for their 2005 vintage. Take a look at their Web site and you’ll see what I mean; click on the Mailing List link and you’ll see a note at the top of the page regarding the 2005 vintage release.
Now, the site has not yet been updated to reflect which wines are part of the 2005 vintage, or how many cases were made, and so on. But I’m excited to see that we are getting close to the 2005 vintage allocation process, although I really do need to save more money. Then again, I love Radio-Coteau!
A bit of background: the 2002 vintage was the first for Radio-Coteau. In that vintage the Hellenthal Pinot Noir received the coveted “Best Pinot Noir of the Year” award and a 95-point score from the Pinot Report. Stephen Tanzer rated a few of their wines highly that year as well, giving the Von Weidlich RRV Zinfandel a 94 rating.
The 2003 vintage featured 4 different Pinot Noirs that all received scores of 93-95 points from the Pinot Report. The Zinfandel and Syrah also gained some notice again: Robert Parker gave them 90 points each and Stephen Tanzer rated them at 92 and 93 points, respectively. Very impressive for a second vintage.
For the 2004 vintage, production doubled from about 1,450 cases to about 2,800 cases of wine (as cited in International Wine Cellar, May/June 2005). The number of different wines increased to 8, with 3 Syrah releases this time. The Pinot Report freaked out over the Savoy Pinot Noir release, giving it 97 points. Now that’s a high score!
Clearly, Eric Sussman is a winemaker on the rise and Radio-Coteau should continue to gain notoreity over the coming years. I’m glad I got in on the third floor, so to speak. And by third floor, I mean as opposed to the proverbial “ground floor,” which in this case would have been the 2002 release. You get the picture.