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What? A Russian River Pinot for under $30?! WTF?

Everywhere I look, everybody’s just spewing forth the distributor’s line on this wine:

The 2006 Boxcar Pinot Noir is true to its Russian River Valley roots in flavor and structure. Lush and mouthwatering, it bursts of wild raspberry, Lambert cherry, and cardamom spice. The nose offers up tea leaves and rhubarb pie, while the finish is smooth and satisfying. Pretty yet powerful, this second select wine tastes top notch.

…and that bullshit is pretty close to the mark, however uncreative it might be. This is a really nice-drinkin’ wine that embodies a whole lot of what I love about Russian River Pinots: it’s got some layers to it, some complexity; there are hints of earthtones in the mouthfeel and the tea leaves bit is pretty much spot-on. The nose, however, is not that distinctive pure Russian River Pinot nose: complex, earthy and crisp with cola accents and touches of forest floor. The nose of the Boxcar reminds of of the last time I passed out face first in a cherry pie after spilling my vodka in it. It’s a fond (if foggy) memory, of course, which is probably partly why I really like this wine.

Now, you have to understand that I’m splitting hairs here: overall, this is some outstanding shit and I’m most certainly going to happily finish off this bottle tonight. I hate to sound like a snob; but, after years of hanging out with winegrowers, I understand the challenges of Pinot Noir growing and know that part of the reason for the high price of good California Pinot is that it’s a real bitch to grow properly, and that top-grade fruit is at a premium. And the price tag bears out here: this is not the best fruit from the vineyards they sourced. It’s good fruit, sure, and it’s excellent for the price, but it’s pretty clearly the B-grade fruit from their source vineyards. It’s a little riper than you usually see in Russian River pinots– as if these guys came in and bought up the leftover fruit a couple of weeks after MacPhail cleaned out the vineyard. Then Boxcar trucked the fruit down to Santa Maria and let it sit around for a day or two before crush.

Is it unfair to judge a wine next to wines that are double its price? Probably. But I’m trying to give some frame of reference here, and there just aren’t a lot of good Russian River wines at this price point ($27 retail) to compare to. So, unfortunately for them, Boxcar is the one 10-year old on the Under-12 soccer team here.

OK, to be fair, I just got my fat ass up off the couch and poured another glass. With 2 hours of air on it, this stuff has really settled down a lot. That 14.5% ABV is less apparent in the nose. That Russian River goodness is down there, you can smell it but you have to be on the lookout for it. It’s just that the nuance gets lost in yet another winemaker attempting to turn a Pinot into a Cab– a trend in some Cali Pinots these days (think Kosta Browne). It’s too big for it’s britches– it needs to settle down, back off stop shouting for a second and let us listen closer and hear the whispers.

Overall, what you have here is a very good California Pinot that really wants to be a Cab. It’s big and slightly jammy, fairly alcoholic and really tasty; though not a classic, nuanced Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. If I can find it, I’ll pay the extra $13 for Davis Family wine… but I can’t find it, so what good is that? And, at this price point, you can’t really complain– it’s worth every penny. MacPhail and Kosta Browne are twice as expensive but not twice as good; so from that perspective, this wine is a real bargain and a big winner.

I’m going to avoid a point score here because, if this were a wrestling match, there would be no other wines in this one’s weight class. So it gets 100 points in its class, but it’s the only one I know of in the group.

(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

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