Pinot Heaven

I've written about Red Car Wine Company previously, with its art deco labels and back of the bottle chapters telling noir tales of affairs of the heart. Though most of Red Car's wines are Syrahs, both single vineyards and blends, it also produces a couple of Pinots, mostly under the Amour Fou sub-label. With an address in the heart of Los Angeles, all grapes are sourced and produced elsewhere, at what used to be more than one co-operative. The Company now has a winery in Santa Maria, though I wonder about trucking Pinot grapes there from the Russian River, given the delicacy and think skins of these grapes. As you can see below, it works somehow.

At any rate, the Red Car Syrahs are generally huge and jammy, but very well made and stylistic. I've found the couple of Amour Fou Pinots that I've tried from the 2002 vintage to be very good but missing a bit of complexity and length. I opened a 2003 Amour Fou the other day and, well, it's the real deal. I picked up this wine direct from Red Car for about $40 a bottle when it was released 2 or so years ago.

Tasting Notes: The wine is Red Car 2003 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir Amour Fou Chapter Two, which checks in at 14.9% alcohol. The grapes were sourced 70% from Keefer Ranch and 30% from Martinelli and a good dose of new French oak was used along the way. The wine is a lovely garnet in the glass and virtually explodes with alluring fragrances of camellias and blackberry pie, with a dash of white pepper on the nose. Chocolate, dark fruit and earth control the mid-palate, framing a dynamic set of flavors, complex and juicy. Full bodied but not heavy, with good balance and acidity. Long, long finish with tiers of flavors, mixing robust raspberry, smoke, fennel, blueberry compote, wow! This is the complete package, a classy, delicious wine of many dimensions. Bravo!

Rating: Superb!! (only my second one!)

Cheers, Barrld