2011 Pinot Noir First Born

While he personally loves the character of the cool-vintage 2011s, "especially their tension," Chris Pittenger described the 2012s as "wines that everybody can get behind, especially restaurants and people who drink their pinots young."But that opulence may cause folks to think that the '12s will be at their best over the short haul, and Pittenger thinks that's a mistake because the wines have the balance and acidity to see plenty of them into their second decade.One concern he expressed was that "the grapes in 2012 could be large, so tannins can be on the low side, but that's not a big deal to most pinot drinkers."Production here was higher than normal in 2012, as would be expected, but since Gros Ventre is still a small winery the wines are only slowly spreading into the greater retail marketplace.