Jumping on the Green Truck
February has been a busy month for me. First I purchased some Williams Selyem Pinot Noir, a few different types and levels of value in fact. Then I purchased some Radio-Coteau Pinot Noir, plus their one and only Chardonnay. I also set up orders with DuMOL and Privé Vineyard, both of which I will need to pay for in early March. But in addition to these relatively well known wineries, there was another winery with a Pinot Noir focus that caught my eye last year.
Green Truck Cellars is, quite literally, a one-man operation. For this reason, his highly entertaining Pinot Log has no entries yet for 2007. I assume this lack of communication is due to getting the 2006 harvest into barrels, restoring his old farmhouse, and helping his wife care for their two-year-old kid. Wow. I’m tired just reading the “trucker” newsletter.
Kent Fortner is the man behind this tiny operation. The Prince of Pinot wrote a terrific summary of Ken’s enterprise, along with some tasting notes for the 2001-2003 vintages of Green Truck Cellars Pinot Noir Napa Valley. Another Prince of Pinot newsletter highlights the 2004 vintage of the GTCPNNV, as I like to call this particular wine. Hopefully Kent won’t read this blog and take umbrage to such an ugly initialism.
The 2005 vintage is a little different animal from the first 4 vintages, according to Kent’s description included with his 2007 newsletter. I noticed that the alcohol content and number of cases remains about the same as previous years: 13.9% alcohol is the same as in 2003 and 2004, while 600 cases marks a slight increase from 400 and 480 cases in 2003 and 2004, respectively. The 2005 vintage leaves out the Suscol Ridge Pommard and 777 clones, though, as apparently the entire vineyard had some major botrytis problems that year. So for this particular vintage, Kent located some 777 fruit from the same Stanly Ranch vineyard that sells him his 114 clone fruit. Nice work, Kent! More details about the vintages can be found here.
Part of the newsletter is the allocation and sales offer. I received an allocation of 12 bottles; given my current financial situation, I purchased 6 bottles. I did spring for the 2-day FedEx shipping, though, as I’d hate to let my 6 bottles take the slow road to Seattle. I can’t wait to try this wine: Kent is an extremely gregarious, well-spoken guy and I’m excited to support his wine project, if I may call it that. His past vintages have received great marks and I do love interesting Pinot Noir, particularly California Pinot Noir that can keep the alcohol below 14%.
Anyway, sometime in March I will have my grubby little hands on the Green Truck Pinot. That’s GTCPNNV to you, though.