What a difference a day makes. Interesting that both PN’s are made in a lush, ripe, fairly-heavily oaked model, just one is a Sonoma County 10,000 case offering and one is a single vineyard offering from someone who cares. The cloying richness has been replaced with silky finesse and the vanilla-bomb has been replaced with layers of texture and the hints at ‘Pinot Noir’ have been replaced with true barnyard and earth nuances. That said, there is a definite cold-climate-syrah note to the nose, alcoholic and heady with mint, wet leather, and minerality. Dense ruby with clear edges. Meager acid. Tannin of a considerably mild nature. That is where the interesting juxtaposition with last night’s Rodney Strong comes into play. This one falls a bit short in the finish. Both are soft in the tail, but the RS honestly had a tad more acid. Wonder what the alcohol is on this. This is a great wine to drink today. I wanna taste this guy’s Larner Syrah.
24hr Vac-U-Vin: Highly oxidized. Pretty much fallen apart. Fat and madierized. So sad.
2012 PAUL LATO WINES Pinot Noir ‘Duende’ Costa de Oro Santa Maria Valley California 14.3
Stephen McConnell 