2009 Babcock Winery Pinot Noir Rita's Earth (86 Points)

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, October 21, 2012

VINTAGE

2009

WINERY/PRODUCER

Babcock Winery

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

Rita’s Earth

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Santa Rita Hills, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.6%

PRICE PAID

We bought this wine at BevMo during their 5Cent Sale (buy one bottle at regular price ($22) and get the second bottle for a nickel), resulting in a net price of about $11 per bottle (an outrageous bargain for a Santa Rita Hills (SRH) Pinot Noir, assuming the wine is a quality, typical SRH Pinot).

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We almost NEVER buy a bottle of wine at a store and drink it right away.  Most of our whites are cellar aged for at least a year and most of our reds are cellar aged for a couple of years or more.  But since we bought this wine on sale and the sale ends tomorrow, we had to open this wine WAY before we normally would.  At home and at restaurants where we bring our own wine, we would never drink a 2009 Pinot this soon after harvest.  We just recently started drinking our 2008 Pinots and will continue to drink our 2008s for another year or two or three.  But again, since BevMo’s sale ends tomorrow, we had to see if this wine was worth buying a case or two based on the price-to-quality ratio.

BOUQUET

This wine exhibits classic SRH Pinot traits.  As I’ve said/written before, there’s a certain “je ne sais quoi” about Pinots from the SRH that’s difficult to explain.  If you’ve had several/many Pinots from the SRH, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.  SRH Pinots exhibit a sense of terrior perhaps better than any other varietal/region on the planet.  I can usually tell within nanoseconds if a Pinot hails from the SRH.  Melville, Sanford, Brewer-Clifton, and Alma Rosa (just to name a few) make fantastic Pinots from the SRH where after one sniff or sip you know that there’s a bottle/glass of SRH Pinot in front of you.

This wine exhibits the usual Pinot aromatic traits, such as spices (pepper and savory herbs), red fruit, and tons of earth/terrior, not to mention those “je ne sais quoi” SRH traits.

    

TASTING NOTES

We’ve been to Babcock’s tasting room a couple of times over the years and have always found at least one bottle worth taking home.  We absolutely LOVE the Pinots from the SRH and thoroughly enjoy going wine tasting in the SRH.  So when I saw this wine on sale at BevMo, I almost squealed like a pre-pubescent girl (just like I squealed when I saw BevMo putting Robert Hall’s 2007 Port on their 5Cent Sale a few months ago (one of our favorite ports in the world)).

Again, this wine is WAY too young to drink.  It’s a bit tight and hasn’t fully matured/opened-up, but it’s still a tasty SRH Pinot.  Up-front there’s red fruit (raspberries and sour cherries), savory herbs and black pepper, along with 500,000,000,000,000 pounds of that precious, gorgeous, “je ne sais quoi” SRH terrior.  There’s also just about the perfect amount of oak (not too much, not too little).  And as previously mentioned, there’s plenty of earthy elements, vis-à-vis that invaluable SRH terrior.  If I’ve hammered the SRH terrior to death, please forgive me.  If you’ve tasted Pinots from Melville, Sanford, and their various neighbors, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t enjoyed a Pinot Noir from the SRH, do yourself a favor and get your hands on one of the better SRH Pinots (Melville and Sanford) and find-out what I’m talking about!

I previously scored Babcock’s 2007 Grand Cuvee Pinot 91 points and their 2006 Nook & Cranny Syrah 90 points, so obviously Babock is capable of making quality SRH wines.  Though this wine is good, it doesn’t quite reach those previously-reviewed wines level of excellence.  Rita’s Earth lack the depth-of-flavor that a fantastic SRH Pinot should possess.  At $11 a bottle (at BevMo during their 5Cent sale), this is a tough wine to beat.  At the regular price of $22 a bottle, I’d rather “go” with one of my favorite sub-$10 bargain reds that are criminally good for the price.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with an Italian pork roast stuffed with herbs and roasted in the oven for hours until it completely fell apart (it was broken down via a spoon).  This wine paired very well with the pork roast and would also pair well with just about any red meat dish as well (steak and lamb, for instance).

AGING POTENTIAL

As previously mentioned, this is a very young wine that should be aged/cellared for at least another year or two.  Because the wine is nicely structured (young tannins, low alcohol, not-too-sweet sugar level, etc.), it should continue to age and mature well for another five to ten years.  

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

86

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.babcockwinery.com/