2010 Pinot Noir Pisoni Vineyard

Adam Lee describes 2011 as the coldest vintage he has ever seen. Nevertheless, the 2011 Pinots are very, very pretty, and also in line with previous years in terms of their overall quality. Severe selection was the only way to do that, and it is quite clear that is exactly what Lee did. A higher percentage of barrels ended up in the appellation wines, a testament to the exacting standards at Siduri. I tasted all of the 2011s as final blends, from barrel. Lee planned to bottle the 2011s in August, 2012, with the exception of the Soberanes, Rosella's and Garys', all of which are a scheduled to go into bottle in January, 2013. The 2010 Pinots spent 10 months in barrel and were bottled in August, 2011. Lee told me his parcels experienced heat spikes in both August and September, but judging by the wines, he made the right calls before and after. Timing, as they say, is everything.

Husband and wife team Adam Lee and Dianna Novy make some of the most compelling wines in the Central Coast. The Siduri label focused on Pinot Noir, while the Novy label (Dianna's maiden name) is used for all other varieties. The strengths are the Pinots from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Another strength is the regional Pinots. The single-vineyard designates are the best barrels from each site, while barrels that don't make the cut go into the straight Santa Lucia Highlands and the Sta. Rita Hills bottlings, a pretty straightforward approach. The only thing is that sometimes blended wines can be greater than the sum of their individual parts, which is why this approach is still used by a small number of traditionally minded producers in regions such as Piedmont and the Rh?ne. The Santa Lucia Highlands and Sta. Rita Hills Pinots are without question the wines that offer the biggest bang for the buck here. The other wines are more variable across both labels. I tasted the 2010s from tank, where the wines were awaiting imminent bottling, plus a selection of 2009s from bottle. The 2010s are the product of an unusual vintage. Vintage 2010 was, on average, a cool growing season with some heat spikes towards the end of the maturation cycle. These conditions resulted in wines with both higher sugars and acidities relative to the 2009s.