2011 Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley)

I was quite impressed with Fred Scherrer's wines this year. There is something very genuine about Scherrer's down to earth approach and operation. Scherrer releases his wines first to his mailing list, then offers them to the trade a few years later, when he thinks they are ready to be drunk. Prices are a throwback to a time that seems long gone at so many other properties. These aren't the fanciest wines readers will come across, but they have a down-home earnestness and humility that makes them quite distinctive. Stylistically, the wines occupy a middle ground; they are neither picked excessively early nor late, but somewhere in the middle. In the cellar, the approach is hands-off, with minimal racking and little overall oak influence, which can at times cause the wines to not show their true potential in barrel.

The laconic Fred Scherrer reminded me that he has never had much interest in making wines "that give it all up early" and that he prefers to make and drink "ones that are made for the long run because there's more to think about." For all his down-home veneer, Scherrer and his wines are anything but rustic, and neither is his winemaking. New oak is used judiciously but, he hopes, not in an intrusive fashion, and he's not inclined to leave things to chance. Fred worked with Tom Dehlinger for almost a decade, leaving to open his own winery in 1997, and anybody familiar with the Dehlinger model will find plenty to like here, across varieties. And as is the case at Dehlinger, I'm often surprised to hear how much new oak has been used with a particular wine because I simply don't detect it, even after being told. Scherrer's wines tend to be released at his discretion, "depending on when they're ready, when we're sold out of earlier years, or whatever circumstance dictates at the moment," so there's liable to be a wide range of wines and vintages available here at any given time.