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One of the more affordable top-shelf Russian River Pinots out there, J Vineyards Russian River Pinot gives you a good taste of the region. It’s a good, consistent representation of what the Russian River has to offer.

Whoa, that sounded kind of serious. I think there must be something wrong with me here. Let’s explore this a bit further…

What They Say:

The 2005 vintage is an elegant wine with a complex nose of fresh fruit aromas of cherry, raspberry and cranberry followed by hints of white pepper, cola, and spicy, earthy notes. This wine offers crisp acidity upon entry unfolding with flavors of black cherry, raspberry and hints of vanilla, evolving and gaining complexity as the wine breathes. Rich, yet delicate, the mouthfeel is round, soft and intense, which leads to a lingering finish of Bing cherries and notes of toast.

Appellation: Russian River Valley
Harvest: September 3 - October 26, 2005
Final Analysis: Alcohol 14.5% by volume
Bottling Date: November 2006
Production: 22,000 cases

What I Say:

Honestly, I have no idea what the hell white pepper tastes like.

I cracked this sucker open in order to celebrate the 74th Anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. It was my consolation prize, because I was supposed to be going to a prohibition party thrown by a winemaker friend, but was too fucked up from the pain drugs the dentist gave me today. So here I sit trying to tell the difference between black cherry and cranberry, while trying not to drool this magnificent grape juice onto my Big Ben boxer shorts.

That said, I’ve drank enough of this wine over the last two years to say this: it’s fucking great. It’s not make-a-mess-in-your-pants great like some others from that region (MacPhail comes to mind), but it’s really, really good by any other standards. It’s just that Russian River Pinots are so ridiculously good in general that it’s pretty goddamn hard for this one to stand out in the crowd. Their description hits it right on the head, really; though it’s a little lighter on the cola than some others I’ve had from that appellation. It’s got some earthiness to the nose early on, which vanishes with air rather than settling in, giving way to bright young fruit in the nose and mouth feel. I get more cranberry than anything else fruit-wise here, and more fruit overall than some of the other “dirtier” Pinots produced by the smaller wineries in the area, which tend to be more nuanced and carry more earth and spice throughout. It’s less layered, less nuanced and more straightforward than, say MacPhail or Davis Family, but… really… it’s in the same ballpark, in my book. Then again, people who like fruit-forward Pinots will probably like the J more than the MacPhail Toulouse, for example.

At roughly $30/bottle it’s also $25 cheaper than the wine I’m comparing it to. Not fair, I know, but by that criteria– relative price to quality — it’s a stand-out because it’s running close behind some real stand-outs from the region. And it’s available, which is worth 100 fucking points right there. I don’t care how good a wine is– if I can’t get some and can’t drink the shit, it SUCKS… in my book. So J Vineyards is giving you a balanced, consistent Russian River wine that you can actually buy and drink. It’s a window into the Russian River. The other wineries up there ought to be giving these guys a kick-back for making wine available that shows a relatively large amount of people what wine from that region can be like.

OK. Points. (a) I’m gonna say 90 points right off the bat for tasting like a well-made Russian River Pinot. That’s 90 points because they didn’t fuck up perfect fruit. (b) Then I’m gonna add 100 more points because it’s a 90 point Russian River Pinot that I can actually find and buy online when I want some. Then (c) I’m gonna subtract 80 of those points because I ran up a huge fucking credit card bill because of (b). I’m also giving them 10 bonus points (d) for having good taste with their bottle selection, foil and label design, and then (e) taking away 8 of those points because I’m kind of a dick and I want to smell more clove, earth and spice in my RR Pinots. Oh yeah, 4 more bonus points because the grape drool on my shirt blends nicely with the shirt’s original color scheme.

I’m too fucked up now to add all that up, but you get the picture.

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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