Medium ruby with wide clear edges.  Crazy funk rising up outa the glass with heady fruit: dried cranberries and asparagus, browned, warmed up, sautéed in butter and coffee-grounds.  Dirty-baby-diaper with maple-syrup cake-frosting.  The funk honestly gets in the way, and only a true Pinot lover or IPOB enthusiast can get around this bouquet.   I try not to roll my eyes at *Oregon* but then there’s that.  I have never smelled ANYTHING from California quite this funk-ridden.  It is not unpleasant, just more like, “Wow.”  In the mouth, shrill acidity and vegetal alongside a considerable crushed-B-vitamin overpowers all, giving a hot and meagerly-fruited entry before more of the roasted-cranberry kicks in.  It is hard to guess exactly where the early acidity meets the acute tannin, but these two sandwich the fruit quite marvelously.  Casual wine-lover will read this thinking I hated it; true pinot-enthusiast will be more like, “What an interesting bottle.”  I’m with the latter.
♦
2011 COTTONWOOD WINERY Pinot Noir Willamette Dundee Winter’s Hill 12-6
http://www.cottonwoodwinery.com