2011 Pinot Noir Falstaff Vineyard

Jamie Kutch has recently moved into a spacious new warehouse space just outside of Sonoma. A number of one-ton fermenters and a three new wood upright vats adorn the spartan but functional winery. Kutch told me part of the appeal of the new space was the ability he now has to lower temperatures during aging in order to encourage slower and more gradual malolactic fermentations. The 2011s are the last vintage made at the old facility and were bottled after 10 months. The 2012s represent another step up in quality from the 2011s. Today, the wines are dark, powerful and intense. Jamie Kutch used 30% whole clusters on the Sonoma Coast Pinot and 100% on the vineyard designates. None of the wines had been racked when I tasted them in January 2014.

Jamie Kutch is one of the most thoughtful and introspective of California's generation of young, emerging producers. Those qualities are serving him very well as the wines continue to move in the right direction. Overall, I find the 2011 Pinots a notch above the 2010s. In 2011 Kutch opted to use a higher percentage of whole clusters, an approach that has paid off in spades. Kutch also decided to bottle his 2011s a little earlier than normal, after 10 months in oak versus 18 for the 2010s, a move that seems to have preserved a measure of focus that has at times been missing in the wines. Sadly, 2011 is the last vintage for Kutch's Savoy Pinot, but that site has been replaced by two new additions: Hirsch beginning in 2012 and Alder Springs in 2013. It will be fascinating to see where Jamie Kutch goes next. One thing is clear; the road is wide open.