Black tea and smokiness segue into fine-grained tannins in the tartly berry-flavored Adelsheim 2011 Pinot Noir Ribbon Springs Vineyard. “Earlier in my career, I could not have made a wine like this,” Page confesses. “I would have been afraid of the seed tannins here and I would have made a tutti-frutti, lighter bodied wine.” That trust involves what I have come to hypothesize is a critical aspect to taming Ribbon Ridge tannin, namely post-fermentative skin contact – “just two to three days,” opines Paige, “but it’s a critical two or three.” Juicy, red berries and pomegranate are accented with smoky black tea and piquant fruit pit on a firm but fine-grained palate, leading to a finish of mouthwatering savor, seed-crunching invigoration, and impressive sheer length. Incidentally, like the corresponding Bryan Creek bottling and unlike other Adelsheim Pinots, this is dominated by vines of Pommard selection. I would plan to follow it through at least 2018. Adelsheim winemaker David Paige maintains, “I instantly became a better winemaker when I finally let go of worrying about why it is that grapes from one site taste so different from those harvested elsewhere and focused instead on making the best wine out of them.” The occasion for his remark was a comparison of adjacent Quarter Mile Lane and Bryan Creek Vineyards, which were planted from the same Adelsheim mother block on soils and with exposures identical as nearly as their proprietor and his team let alone yours truly can tell. “Sure, we handle the fruit a bit differently now,” notes Paige, “but that’s in response to the differences we observe right off the vine.” Paige insists, though, that he is anything but a recipe winemaker even relative to a given vineyard or block. “I drive some of the people who work with me crazy I do so much tasting in the cellar, because what I suggest we do with this particular fermentor based on how it’s tasting today might be 180 degrees removed from what I thought we were going to want to do a day or two ago. But now I have more data.” (For a capsule history of this estate and details on its nowadays extensive vineyards, consult my issue 202 report.) Tel. (503) 538-3652