Lot 947 2018 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
We like to remind you that all day, every day, we do just two things:
- Scour the world for great grapes and young wine that needs a new home.
- Usher those grapes from harvest and new wines from tank straight through our own winemaking, aging, and bottling—to bring you great bottles at jaw-dropping prices.
Our newest fall countdown wine is the pinnacle of just that – we’re leaving our soapbox and letting Lot 947 2018 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, do the rest of the talking.The thing is, Lot 947 embodies those two things we do (seek out awesome grapes, and make awesome wine). For starters, Lot 947 is 100% Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley—an incredibly exciting region in Sonoma where some of the world’s great Pinot Noir wines are being made today. The winemaking team at CHW will only let us reveal that this was from a premium program that “may have been discontinued,” and they added, “punches way above its weight in both fruit and wood,” and then they told us, “and we’re buying up a bunch of it ourselves!
Lot 947 is a bowl full of juicy raspberry and blackberry fruit, hints of dark earth notes, like rolling over a log in the forest, hints of black tea, and traces of vanilla. Those red and black fruits really pop on the palate, infused with black tea notes and lifted by mouthwatering, racy acidity. Velvety textures are laced with more vanilla and oak spices. Where does this belong in your cellar? With 5 years aging in the bottle it’s ready to go now. Drink up and enjoy with rotisserie chicken and potatoes, roasted and brined turkey, or 48-hour salted steaks, or just pour a contemplative glass and park yourself in front of a roaring fire. Yes.
Watch as Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes walks us through a tasting of this 2018 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.
Tasting Video Highlights:
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:15 Lot 947 Info
- 00:50 The Color
- 01:09 The Nose
- 01:44 The Taste
- 02:43 Where does it fit in your cellar?
Video Transcript:
Chris Lafleur says:
Hi, everyone. Welcome back. This is Chris Lafleur, friendly neighborhood sommelier from the wine tasting room. And we have got some Pinot Noir for you today. This is Lot 947. So let’s dig right in. So this is a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, which is very exciting right away for me. When you think about Sonoma, like it’s so disparate, what can grow here?It’s really incredible that you go all the way to like Knight’s Valley or Alexander Valley and you’ve got Cabernet Sauvignon that is punching above its weight and comparing very easily with Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. And then you go south and you’ve got some wild expressions of Pinot Noir that have a nice long growing season. So they build up all this remarkable character because that’s what you want.
You want cold climate pinot to show like a cold climate Pinot. So here’s what we have on the color. You can see it’s still deep at its core with some ruby and garnet, but on the edges, nice and pale. Like this is not an opaque wine. You can see your hand through it right away. You get to see that this is a solid wine with a light thin skin.
Pinot Noir in a nutshell. Let’s talk about the nose. Oh, boy. And we’re going to talk about the nose for a while. That’s real good. Okay, so we have some red fruit here. We’ve got black fruit here. I’m thinking of, like, crunchy raspberry and bramble berry, a little bit of black berry. And there’s also a hint of, like, dark, dark earth, which which to me expresses like ice.
Like I always say, it’s forest floor. Like, roll over that log, get a smell. There’s a little bit of black tea on here on the nose as well. And there’s just a touch of vanilla suggesting this spends a little bit of time and oak. And I think we’re going to have to taste it to confirm. But I mean, woe is me.
I got to taste wine today. All right? Can’t spit it. Can’t spit that one. Still good. Can’t spit it. Okay. I hope we get to do multiple takes of this one. It tastes so good. Okay. So on the palate right away. Lots of red fruit. Lots of black fruit, too. In that texture, after that slight astringent note is present.
But it’s not driving the bus because this is a pinot noir. It’s built by race in it. And if you’re tasting this alongside me right now, you know that your mouth is watering. Is that how good this wine is? There’s still a little bit of that forest floor that’s not hitting on the palate because nobody wants to taste rotten leaves.
But you do love that smell of like walking through the fall and feeling the foliage in the air. It’s incredible. This is a great wine with great texture that’s only rounded out by the amount of oak on it. It’s not overpowering it, but it gives you this beautiful bouquet presented to you in a nice clutch of vanilla and oak.
Beautiful. Where does this fit in your wine cellar? I mean, I hope it’s obvious that this is a Pinot noir that you have to have. It’s incredible. For the price point on this one, I would expect probably to pay three times the amount if I saw this on the store shelves somewhere. So very good value. Where does this fit in?
Your wine cellar is a tough question because you won’t keep it in the cellar for very long. You’re probably going to drink it really quick unless you buy a lot of it because you can have this with dinner. It’s versatile. With almost every kind of meat. You’re going to have chicken, turkey, steak, whatever, but you can also sit in front of a nice fireplace in the fall or a campfire and enjoy this as well on its own.
Just contemplate really enjoying the company of all your friends who are thinking the same things as you. How is this wine so good? So I think that’s it for me. Go and enjoy the rest of this glass of wine on your own and think deeply and I will see you at the next glass.