The very first wine that got me thinking more seriously about what wine actually could be, how interesting and complex it could taste, was a 1987 Robert Mondavi Reserve Pinot Noir. I don’t remember exactly how it tasted – I certainly had no detailed aromatic vocabulary, back then, and I wasnt’t the worst for it. However, I do remember the impression of having opened up a new doorway and stepped into a larger, more spacious and luxurious room.
This was also the beginning of my love for California pinot noir and pinot noir in general – although it took me quite a bit longer to hit something comparable in Burgundy, in terms of fireworks, of tasting impressions.
In California, my next big thunderbolt kind of moment was tasting Josh Jensen’s Calera pinot noirs. Maybe I shouldn’t say thunderbolt, though, since the wines are so much more characterized by (more…)
The OLD Wine Case 