We had this relic at our tasting at Laura's Pig+Fig last night:
1. SantaCruzMtn Vnyds PinotNoir JarvisVnyd/SantaCruzMtns (TW; EG) P&B by KenBurnap/SCMVnyd/SantaCruz 1982: Med. color w/ some browning; very fragrant very RedBurg quite pencilly/oak bit oxidized slight cedary/pencilly/oldRed quite complex nose; quite cedary/pencilly/oldRed rather old RedBurg slight cherry/earthy some complex bit drying out/tannic flavor w/ light drying tannins; long bit cedary/pencily/oldRed light earthy finish that mocks flavor; really lovely old RedBurg nose but a bit on the tired side on the palate. $nc (BSvSG)
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More geezersplat from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. It lives.... but a bit of an old geezer. Stacey & I expected this Pinot to be totally shot. It was not. The nose was quite complex/lovely but somewhat tired on the palate. Clearly a relic of a wine but still offered up some pleasure and better than this fossil had any right to be. What they oftentimes say about me.
This was a wine that Stacey's Dad, Blair Swartz, had bought back in his day. His cellar still has a lot of relics & Stacey has been very generous in sharing them with us.
I, of course, followed KenBurnap from the very start. The complete story can be found here:
https://www.santacruzmountainvineyard.com/scmvhistory .
His ran a restaurant, the Hobbit, down in Southern Calif and became quite enamored w/ French Red Burg and PinotNoir. He found a vnyd in the SCM that had just been planted to Pinot by David Bruce. After a btl of Champagne on the top of the property, he bought the vnyd on the spot. His first vintage was the '74. His Pinots were pretty dark & intense, which immediately appealed, who obviously had impeccable taste, to Robert Parker, who gave high praise to the wine. I did a visit w/ Ken one year & found him to be very engaging....with this huge walrus-like mustache....a figure bigger than life. Eventually, Jeff Emery became his winemaker & eventually bought the vnyd from Ken. Alas, Ken passed in 2025. When his mustache caught fire, it created a huge conflagration in the crematory.
Tom