Yep. But it looks like I don’t get one of those cute Lab Rat icons on my post. Curse you, Woot! Oh, wait… I got a free bottle of wine. Never mind!
[Labrat]
Lab Rat bahwm reporting for duty!
This has been a wonderful week wine.woot-wise. I was First Sucker to purchase the Jana Cathedral 2 - pack by Scott Harvey. First time ever as First Sucker! Wednesday evening I received an email that I had been chosen to be a Lab Rat! Woot! Plus, I am celebrating the end of my school year! I just have to go in for part of the day on Friday to finish cleaning up my classroom.
I was able to have the shipment redirected to my local FedEx Kinko’s since I wanted to be sure to get the package on Thursday. It arrived around 10 AM Eastern. I picked it up after work and found that it was a bottle of the 2007 Gazzi Estate Vineyard Sonoma Coast Sonoma Cote d’Or Pinot Noir.
I decided to pop it open while ddeuddeg & I were preparing dinner. I was immediately impressed by its lovely velvety smoothness and fruitiness. ddeuddeg thought that the flavors were that of sweet red raspberries. I could not place this flavor. It is not one of my top fruits and so this flavor is missing from my palate. I remembered that we had an unopened jar of raspberry preserves. So, à la Gary V., I took a spoon and took a small taste. There it was–the taste of perfect red raspberries! I went back to the wine, took another sip. That was definitely it!
We found that this wine was excellent on its own, as well as with food. Tonight’s dinner was a grilled spice rubbed boneless pork chop accompanied by steamed herbed vermouth red potatoes and green beans followed by the roasted garlic and pine nut spinach salad with Romano cheese. The flavors in the wines stood up to the garlic, EVOO and Romano cheese. In fact, the flavors seemed to smooth out even more. We did notice a bit more alcohol on the nose after the bottle had been opened for a while.
This is definitely a wine that could easily be a porch wine, drunk on its own or with a meal. We don’t always consider a pinot to be a porch wine. I can imagine sipping this wine under the stars while we are at our favorite local outdoor Shakespeare Festival. I love the aromas that are still lingering in my glass. This pinot is so good cheron98 might even like it!
Thanks, Scott for making yet another excellent wine! At this price point, we are definitely in for two!
I may not know the wine or the vineyard this time, but i know a good deal when I see it! I am in for one. With all the cab I have bought over the last few days from woot, it’s time to lighten up with some Pinot!
Got in on the last woot. Haven’t touched the PN because Scott said it wasn’t a “drink it now” wine. Although the chard was getting long in the tooth, but still enjoyed.
Scott makes some good juice. I just can’t pull the trigger, though.
In for one. I really need to stop coming here, unless my body somehow learns to live solely off wine, I’m going to starve…
DANG! Missouri got cellared for this wine. Not sure I’ve ever not seen Mizzou as a state that can’t be shipped to.
On a side note, I thought Lab rats were determined by buying the wine before 10am central on Friday. How do we already have someone as a rat?
I definitely enjoyed this wine from the last mixed case. Once the “can’t ship to NC” gets fixed, I’ll be in for two! (I hope it doesn’t sell out first!)
I went in on the 12 pack that included 4 of these a few months ago. The 2006 is fantastic, but I’d say the 2007 either needs a year or two or just isn’t as good. The wine was a little acidic and oaky and did well with breathing. I also used an aerator, but the wine still was not that great. This is a no go for me. If the 2006 was offered, it’d be an autobuy.
Waiting for more reviews here as it sounds mixed so far. I was chided a bit last time for bringing up value and at the risk again I will say if this were for 6 bottles I would be more tempted.
5 works out to $12.40 shipped, 6 would be $10.33 which is a much nicer price with mixed reviews. Especially since the last offer worked out to $8.67 a bottle! Talk about inflation. Yes it was a mixed case but still. I must have missed that day as if the same deal, even with increased ship rates, came up I would be in for that no question.
Really want a good pinot though so I hope some more glowing reviews come out to change my mind.
[labrat]
I had a crappy day on Wednesday. I then opened my email and to my surprise I was chosen as a Labrat! The day got much better. I got the 2007 Gazzi Pinot Noir. Never heard of them before. Thinking PN are ususaly wimpy so we tend not to get too many. When I got home DH opened the bottle and put my $6 meal in the microwave. He chose based on the fact it was a PN. Turkey roulade, green beans and potaoes. He poured us each a glass thru the aerator to help speed things up. Here are our combined notes-
Nose-cherries, jammy, a little blueberry, mild “old world” scent
Tatse-smooth, mild tannins, velvety mouthfeel, alcohol seems high but not overpowering, peppery
General-drinking pretty good right out of the bottle, possibly a bit young-maybe some more time in the bottle?, worked well with the turkey-yummy!-easy to drink without food. very sippable on its own.
After we had the first glass, I started doing a little research. I told him BEFORE I got on the computer I would buy this tomorrow it was that good. Then I started looking. I discovered Scott Harvey was the wine maker-huge plus- and that there was some Syrah added. That was what we could not put our fingers on-Syrah was added. Mystery solved. So we drank some more and discovered it got smoother as time went on. I thought there were touches of anise and more cherry. He scoffed.
All in all it is a very good bottle of wine. Not wimpy and very tasty with food or without. Very drinkable now but will save to see if it gets better in a year. Yes, before I started writing this I did buy some!
Thanks for the opportunity to enjoy this wine. Keep up the great work!
The mixed Gazzi case offered earlier was one of the better woots I’ve purchased as far as price points go. I enjoyed all of the chards and PN 06’s already, but I’m not sure I’ve had one of the PN 07’s yet. Looks like I’ll remedy that this afternoon so I know how many I want to buy at this slightly higher price point.
They (PN 06’s) were excellent “weekday” wines and I felt like I was stealing something every time I remembered they were only $8. I’m a big Willammette PN fan, and this one will not replace any of my top PN experiences. However, when you’re cooking something on a Tuesday and think “I need a Pinot but I’m not opening something for $30+ dollars tonight” this is a great thing to have on the rack.
The only slightly negative thing (and I think this came up in the other thread) is that there were tartrate crystals in the necks of both the chards and the PNs I opened. This was no problem as long as I remembered this when I opened, and ran a paper towel inside the neck before I poured to swipe out most of them. Even if I forgot, it wasn’t too big of a deal…just a bit unsightly. (They don’t affect the taste of the wine.)
However, and most importantly, my only summer shipping option is NC…so please let us know what the status on NC shipping is!!
Some folks were commenting earlier that they couldn’t get into the discussion from last time around. Maybe it’s been fixed already, because I had no trouble opening it from the link in my account from having bought it the last time around. Here: http://wine.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4403442.
I thought I’d try to paste in some of the comments that came in after people started receiving their shipments. I don’t believe we had official Lab Rats on that one. At least there’s no post from Cheron on it. Plus, it was on a Tuesday, usually no rats. But I’ll check through the whole discussion.
I only reviewed the last couple of pages, if I see anything else that passes as a review I’ll edit.
Edited to add: I miss that NightGhost guy! Reading through the board reminded me of how much he added to the discourse here. Sorry he had to go.
I bought the last Gazzi mixed case and let me be clear – this review is not mixed at all and the 2007 Pinot Noir was outstanding. The syrah blended in, which Scott Harvey said was essentially because they had too much on hand, gave the pinot noir a lot more character than you normally get from a pinot noir (you don’t get the subtlety of a typical pinot noir, but I don’t like typical pinot noir, so the syrah blend really improved this wine).
In short, if you think normal pinot noir is light/thin/flavorless/overrated, and want something more bold/flavorful/with a unique character (but not so much as a typical cabernet sauvignon or syrah) I think you’ll love this wine as much as I do.
Thought I’d throw in the link to Cheron’s spreadsheet from last time. She has the winery price for this at $32.70, so yes, a good deal, even if not as good as last time.
Not having opened mine from last time, I’m on the fence, but if my work buddies are interested I’ll be in for 1.
Great to be back again. Twice in one week. The barrels are once used French Oak. I don’t like the excessive flavor of new oak. I do like the flavor given off by a once used barrel. These barrels were purchased from Opus One after they were used for one vintage.
I’ve been making the wines all along and am still making them. It’s a great vineyard the hill that extends out into San Francisco Bay at Sears Point. It is surrounded by the north San Francisco Bay on three sides. A real cool growing situation that produces a full bodied Pinot Noir.
It is the same 2007 Pinot Noir.
That North Carolina thing keeps coming up. We can ship to North Carolina. It is only the InZinerator that is outlawed there.
It’s the Syrah that gives it so much complexity and the low pH so that it is a 12 year wine.
One ‘quercophile’ producer’s trash is another ‘balancophile’ producer’s treasure! Some of the better producers in the Loire follow a similar procedure, buying used barrels from the Bordelais classified growths after one use.