WTN: Rivers-Marie

We now reliably open pretty nice bottles on Sunday evenings, and for some reason, tonight I reached for a Rivers-Marie 2014 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, Summa Old Vines Vineyard. I picked up a few bottles of R-M back in Chicago and they went straight into storage; I think this is the first one I've opened, so I have no insight into the house style other than whatever I read a decade ago, which is long forgotten. This is... it's not bad! But it's alien to me. On the one hand, it's a middleweight coastal Pinot with a nice interplay between lithe and muscular elements, pleasing mouthfeel, and a mix of savory and floral aromatics. But, on the other hand, all of that is framed by what tastes to me less like the "hint" of oak mentioned by a recent CT reviewer and more like someone screaming "WOOD SPICE!" at the top of their lungs. Look, I don't hate it. As I said to Andrea, it's actually very good. But I wouldn't want to drink it every night. Does anyone know anything about the elevage of these wines? Am I wrong to think this is heavy-handed oak treatment even by California standards? Or are my tastebuds just in a mood?

[David M. Bueker]

I have no current memory of ever tasting a Rivers Marie wine.

That in itself is suggestive if not conclusive!

[Jenise]

Embarrassing but true: long ago, Bob and I ordered a bottle of cool-vintage 2011 RM Silver Eagle at a restaurant, and absolutely swooned over it. Pale, taut and ethereal, the kind of wine you wake up retasting in memory the next morning. I waxed poetic about it at a party a day or three later and the guy I was talking to said, "Oh I have an allocation. Want mine?" SURE, I said with bullet-proof bravado (this guy was quite a big player, had an allocation with Screaming Eagle, etc)--I'LL TAKE IT ALL. I had no idea what "all" was.

I woke up early one morning a week later to news of my order arriving the next day. In shock, I remember waking Bob up and going, "Uh, Bob, do you remember me talking to Hal about that pinot...?" Then I broke it to him: two cases, over two grand.

There was no going back; oh, and these were the fat 2012 vintage, about 180 degrees the other direction from that 2011. The winemaker's reputation is for oak. Some of those 12s seemed that way, some didn't so much. Of the 21 tasting notes I logged on CT about the wines, I outright disliked six of them. Yet one actually took WOTN honors at a Dorks Night, and this group doesn't love oak. The Summa and Silver Eagles were my favorites of what I had, and I still have one Occidental.

I would not buy again, though I love remembering Bob and I laughing over my idiocy at every bottle we opened. They were worth it for the entertainment value alone. So I'm of no help to you, but I enjoyed telling the story.

[David M. Bueker]

Oh I made a mistake like that once, and ended up with a case of incredibly expensive Aubert Chardonnay. Thankfully it was like an entry ticket to several tasting dinners, and my parents liked it.

[Jenise]

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

Jenise, your story was perfect: both informative and entertaining! And, again, further confirmation that I’m not nuts. In this respect anyway. Luckily, I bought a total of only four bottles of R-M, and now that I know what to expect, I’ll be able to open them at more appropriate occasions. (Or maybe I’ll just take them out and wave them around, sort of like proud peacocks displaying their fancy tail feathers.) Like I said: not bad wine! But every sip was a reminder of the existence of palates very differently tuned from my own…

[Jenise]

I'm sure you'd have loved that 2011 as much as I did. The 12's, not so much! And the inconsistency was way out of line for a winery-direct purchase. Hope you have better luck with your 14's.

[David M. Bueker]

It’s not inconsistency. 2011 took a winery that is reputed to be a little riper and a lot oakier and forced them to deal with an underripe vintage. 2011 is the outlier, not the baseline.

[Jenise]

It’s not inconsistency. 2011 took a winery that is reputed to be a little riper and a lot oakier and forced them to deal with an underripe vintage. 2011 is the outlier, not the baseline.

You completely misunderstand my comment. I realize that about 2011. The inconsistencies I referred to were within the 24 bottles of 2012 I owned of which 25% were 'off' in one way or other.

[David M. Bueker]

I do honestly wonder about that sometimes, as you seem to encounter way more bad or unrepresentative bottles than I do, or almost anyone I know.

I do honestly wonder about that sometimes, as you seem to encounter way more bad or unrepresentative bottles than I do, or almost anyone I know.

Maybe she's very critical or more exhaustive in her posting. Because the flip side is the posters (François Audouze) who never seem to have a less-than-perfect bottle.

[Jenise]

I do honestly wonder about that sometimes, as you seem to encounter way more bad or unrepresentative bottles than I do, or almost anyone I know.

You've said so before, and I can't help that. My wines are stored at 60F on arrival, I prep them properly for drinking and I have a pretty good palate. A problem a few of these wines had were that they looked/tasted splendid on first pour and then they turned cloudy and sour in the glass. Not a phenomena I can explain, but particular to this batch of wines. If they'd been your bottles, it would have happened to you, too.

[David M. Bueker]

Weird. I know Tom Hill talks about seeing that happen with older wines, but I have honestly never experienced it - with young or old wines.

Maybe she's very critical or more exhaustive in her posting. Because the flip side is the posters (François Audouze) who never seem to have a less-than-perfect bottle.

Yes, i know someone who did one of FA's Ancient wine dinners and said about half the bottles were undrinkable/shot/madeirized but Francois loved them all. He lost me swooning over a negoce 1960 Aligote, I mean you can suspend disbelief, but only so much!

Yes, i know someone who did one of FA's Ancient wine dinners and said about half the bottles were undrinkable/shot/madeirized but Francois loved them all. He lost me swooning over a negoce 1960 Aligote, I mean you can suspend disbelief, but only so much!

Ha!

[Jenise]

Weird. I know Tom Hill talks about seeing that happen with older wines, but I have honestly never experienced it - with young or old wines.

It's pretty weird. You can literally watch it change color/opacity, like there's a stabilizer in it that suddenly fails.

I do honestly wonder about that sometimes, as you seem to encounter way more bad or unrepresentative bottles than I do, or almost anyone I know.

You've said so before, and I can't help that. My wines are stored at 60F on arrival, I prep them properly for drinking and I have a pretty good palate. A problem a few of these wines had were that they looked/tasted splendid on first pour and then they turned cloudy and sour in the glass. Not a phenomena I can explain, but particular to this batch of wines. If they'd been your bottles, it would have happened to you, too.

.

That almost sounds like bacterial spoilage of some sort. In the reductive environment of the closed bottle, they're quiescent, but when exposed to oxygen they go to work and produce various acids.