Wasting time on aging pinot noir

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been so impressed with the body and tannin in a California pinot noir, that I put a few bottles in the cellar to age — only to be disappointed several years later when I popped the cork.

I’ve come to the conclusion that just because a Burgundy ages well doesn’t mean a California or Oregon pinot noir will be just as rewarding. Why is that? Pinot noirs in Burgundy have more finesse than tannin. The ones I taste from the West Coast have a lot of alcohol and forward, often sweet fruit and high alcohol. One would think this character would allow them to age well, but that hasn’t been my experience.

Admittedly, this is an over-generalization. But the wines I recently opened from Ken Wright, Goldeneye, Penner-Ash and Panther Creek — mostly from the 2015 vintage — were over-ripe and flaccid. The only exception was the 2015 Etude Heirloom Pinot Noir which had a lot of structure, fresh fruit and still some fine tannins.

Lesson learned: drink your West Coast pinot noir within a couple of years.

I'll have some wine with my coffee

I met again with Jon Priest to taste some of his great pinot noirs and chardonnay from Etude. I first met Jon more than a decade ago while touring Carneros. He was filling the shoes of Etude's founder, Tony Soter. Treasury Wine Estates had just bought the winery, but Soter was obligated to stay on for a spell. Soter's legacy was pinot noir -- a passion he pursues to this day  but in the Willamette Valley.

Jon Priest, winemaker and general manager Etude Wines, Carneros.

Priest doesn't have much stock in what he calls "cocktail wines," those pinot noirs that are loaded with extracted fruit, oak, alcohol and especially sugar. Meomi and Menage et Tois come to mind, although he was too professional to cite any of the pinot noir producers he puts in the "cocktail" camp.

Priest said one day he was talking to an associate and said aloud that the next thing they'll be mixing with wine is coffee. Not long after that, someone did. Again, he wouldn't mention the wine, but I knew he was referring to Gallo's new Apothic Dark Roast. It's a Frankenstein. I don't know whether to serve it with my morning cereal or my evening dessert.

Robert Mondavi used to add wine to his morning coffee, if I remember his biography correctly. But he was one of a kind in more ways than one. Perhaps it was an Italian custom.

I asked Priest why someone hasn't yet mixed beer with wine. Today I read someone has! Curious Brewery in Great Britain adds chardonnay to its sour ale to make Curiouser & Curiouser. Let's  hope it never leads England's shores or, worse, starts a trend.

Wine has been a blending liquid in a lot of mixed drinks -- mimosas are probably the most well known. But that combination seems to make more sense than beer.

I can't wait until they add wine to Gatorade.