Drinking the 2005 Radio-Coteau Savoy Pinot Noir
I write about Radio-Coteau fairly often. This post marks the 10th on this blog dedicated to Radio-Coteau in some capacity. For a while there Google was indexing my site above the Radio-Coteau home page. Amazing!
But then, I think R-C deserves the attention. They make great wine and they are a small garagiste operation. I had to pass on their 2005 vintage final offer recently, but I did notice that their incredibly good Von Weidlich Zinfandel sold out quickly, while their Pinot Noir and Syrah remains largely available. Interesting.
Until recently, I had never tried a Savoy Pinot Noir from Radio-Coteau. So far this year, I had tried the 2004 La Neblina Pinot Noir and the 2005 Von Weidlich Zinfandel; last year I drank 3 bottles of 2004 La Neblina Pinot and 1 bottle of the 2004 Timbervine RRV Syrah. That’s half a case of Radio-Coteau right there! That’s a lot of hooch.
So when my friend, who also stores half of my wine collection in his basement wine cellar, suggested we try one of our shared (aka “community”) bottles of 2005 Savoy Pinot Noir, I said yes. We were going to have barbecued chicken and salmon for dinner, so it seemed like a fun pairing. We also decided to open the wine early and let it decant for a good 1-2 hours. It turned out to need more than 2 hours in the decanter, which is to be expected for such a young Pinot Noir that is built to age, so to speak. Eric Sussman suggests decanting and aging this wine; apparently it will last at least 10 more years in your climate-controlled cellar. Nice.
You can find more details on this wine here, but all you really need to know is where the grapes are from. CellarTracker lists 6 different 2005 Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir releases, and the names are impressive: Ken Wright, Littorai, and Adrian Fog are all there. Littorai compares elements of Savoy Pinot to Hirsch Pinot, and those are almost fighting words for me given how much I love Hirsch Pinot Noir. Clearly, the Savoy Vineyard fruit has a strong, almost cult, following.
So what did I think? Here are my tasting notes for the 2005 Radio-Coteau Savoy Pinot Noir:
- Aroma: Very dusty at first with hints of cherry; evolved into a rich, red cherry and red plum bouquet with a sort of mild blue cheese undertone that I sometimes detect in nice Pinot Noir.
- Flavor: Rich, potent acidity and tannins; lots of sour cherry, plum, and loganberry; a robust Pinot Noir that needs time to age or decant.
- General impression: A great wine that definitely needs 2.5 hours in the decanter right now; anything less is a waste of good wine!
Those are some basic notes, but I feel we drank too much of the wine prior to decanting it for 2.5 hours. Still, it’s a great wine, and I am glad I have a 2004 Savoy sitting at home, resting, waiting…at 480 cases, it’s a tough wine to get. In fact, that wine is getting into the $75-$85 per bottle territory. Nice. But I think I’ll drink my bottle.