Medium-light ruby with wide clear edges. Huge composty nose, suffocatingly intense of wet pencil lead, frying caramel, burning oak, raw bacon, gym socks, more caramel with a wave of stinging heat wrapped up with a Fruit Department wildly waving a crushed-plum flag. The whole bouquet is just flabby in its intensity and lack of focus. And behind all, a heat seriously threatening my nose-clippers into an early retirement.
Far lighter in the mouth–and less intense on ALL fronts–than you were convinced of at the pep-rally. Kinda watery, actually–on entry–as dark ripe cherry slowly grows alongside the significant heat. No… it’s not acid. The whole thing is just an insipid watery thing. Like the mom on the street who made Kool-Aid exactly like the recipe. A sort of… I guess… tannin? acridness takes over in the late finish alongside more heat. I don’t like this wine. At ALL. It’s an absolutely disjointed weird muss.
2012 DUTTON ESTATE Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Sonoma County 14.6
Stephen McConnell 