I’ve been wanting to open this one up for a while. With any prized wine, you have to, albeit a nonsensical reason, attribute something to the reason for opening it. For this one, it was successfully receiving my wine books last week. Plus I had a great friend over which made it that much more enjoyable.

At first glance, it’s apparent that this wine has lost a lot of its vibrancy. A dull brick color was evident and I had some trouble seeing my fingers through the glass. To further show its age, the rim of the wine had almost no color at all. 

On the nose, you could find a little smoke mixed in with rhubarb and blackberry. A few cherries could also be found, but they were extremely faint. The aging of the wine I feel seemed to reduce the once vibrant cherries to almost memories. It was clear (unlike the clarity of the wine’s color) that this wine was going to be deep and complex.

Their seemed to be a hint of rose pedals on the palate (no, they don’t throw rose pedals in the wine, don’t worry). What usually comes out more in the nose was found in the taste on the mid-palate. No tannins all all here. Just a dry wine that almost left your tongue thirsting for more. On the second taste, the smoky traces came back with the blackberries. There almost seemed to be an incense type of aroma floating around my palate. Interesting.

Overall the wine was dense. A strong force in the mouth that commanded attention. This wine’s grapes came from “J’s crown jewel hillside Pinot Noir parcel overlooking the Russian River Valley”. It is clearly evident that the grapes were well cared for. 

This wine is not for sale any more at J’s tasting room in the Russian River. To get your hands on this jewel, you’re going to have to search the internets. A quick Google search showed the bottle priced between $32 and $42 dollars. 

For even more information, check out J’s Library Wine page on the Pinot Noir.