2000 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard Anderson Valley

Wells Guthrie, whose resume includes a stint as West Coast tasting coordinator for The Wine Spectator works mostly with pinot noir and syrah parcels in cooler sites in Anderson Valley and Mendocino County. Most of his contracts are by the acre, so he is able to prune the vines himself and keep crop levels modest. Guthrie uses about 30% new oak for his pinots and a bit more for syrah. Production in 2001 will be about 1,600 cases. In 2000, Guthrie and his partner purchased 50 acres of land in the northern end of Sonoma Valley, where they recently planted five acres to grenache, mourvedre and syrah.

Wells Guthrie, once the Wine Spectator West Coast tasting coordinator, worked for Chapoutier in the Rhone Valley before returning to California and putting in stints with Ehren Jordan at Turley Cellars and with Martinelli Vineyards. He launched his own label in 1999 with a single pinot and syrah, then increased production to 1,200 cases in the 2000 vintage, making seven wines from Anderson and Mendocino counties. Guthrie's first pinot noir comes from a four-acre block of the Dennison Vineyard in Anderson Valley, where he pays by the acre and thus can prune these 30-year-old organically farmed vines himself. Guthrie, who vinifies and ages his wines in the old Chateau de Baun facility in Santa Rosa, told me he looks for "chewy tannins." Judging from the texture and sweetness of the wines from his first two vintages, this is a producer to watch.