Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/522996
{ SOMMjournal.com } 77 Winemaking Urbanity & Focus on Pinot Noir daY 3 In a dinner at the oceanfront Lido Restaurant in Dolphin Bay Resort the night before, we were able to taste an amazingly well-matured Stephen Ross 2004 Stone Corral Vineyard Edna Valley Pinot Noir, still fresh and youthful with dark curls and ebullient cherry/raspberry perfume. Yet during our first stop on Day 3—at Stephen Ross Wine Cellars, located in an urban setting in the City of San Luis Obispo—winemaker/owner Steve Dooley told us, "We have been moving away from the larger, riper styles of before. The 2004 is still tasting beautifully, but that year things got a little out of hand; grapes were picked at over 28° Brix, and the wine finished at over 15% alcohol. Cane pruning and more vertical shoot positioning has since allowed us to get ideal fruit expression a little sooner, at lower sugars. Nowadays we pick closer to 22.8° Brix—the result is wines with more comfortable balance of ripeness, acidity and alcohol." To demonstrate this, Dooley blind-tasted us on five cuvées of 2014 Stone Corral Vineyard Pinot Noir, each representing different clonal and rootstock material, off of either spur or cane pruned vines. As it turned out, a spur pruned cuvée coming from Dooley's lowest yielding block was the darkest, most concentrated, but also the ripest and heaviest of the bunch. In contrast, the zestiest, most floral Pinot Noirs came from cane pruned blocks, with slightly more yield (3.4 as opposed to 3.1 tons per acre). Point made. Dooley feels that the Stephen Ross 2013 Estate Edna Valley Pinot Noir—made completely from Stone Corral Vineyard (Dooley also bottles a vineyard-designate)—is a definitive example of the soft, lush yet bright, bouncy, mouth- wateringly fresh strawberry/raspberry style of Edna Valley. Although he produces a traditional, barrel-fermented, full- malolactic style of Chardonnay, Dooley is particularly high on his Stephen Ross 2013 Jespersen Ranch Edna Valley Albariño, a tart-edged dry white, drippy with white peach qualities. "We love aromatic whites like this," said Dooley— "the grape can be spicy with floral honeysuckle notes like Viognier, but not nearly as a heavy or annoying as Viognier." Our final stop was at the Edna Valley Vineyard winery, where Edna Valley winemaker Joe Ibrahim gave us a tasting/ demonstration of how he blends Chardonnay from their Randy Caparoso, Somm Journal Editor-at-Large with somms: Peter Palmer, Waterbar / Kuleto's (San Francisco); Jeremy Meyer (Garber & Co., Topanga, CA); Adrianna Camacho (Palm Restaurant, Las Vegas); Jaime Harding (Cavallo Point, Sausalito, CA); Mike Sinor (owner/grower/winemaker, Sinor-LaVallee Wines); Fred Dame, MS (VP, Prestige Accounts, American Wine & Spirits); Christa Roelle (Andiron Steak & Sea, Las Vegas); Dan Oliver (Red O, Los Angeles); Teddi Fuller (Cellarmaster, Sinor-LaVallee Wines); Joe Prang (Artisan Wine Depot, Mountain View, CA; Christine Tran (Artisan Wine Depot, Mountain View, CA). SLO SOMM Camp Sommeliers