Davis Bynum has quite a history to live up to, as the first winery to produce a single vineyard pinot noir from the Russian River Valley. Now, three decades later, the winery was sold to the Rodney Strong family of wineries, through Klein family, who has farmed here for 4 generations.
One of the things that strikes me about this winery is that the focus is on nature, and how they can best make world class wine with a minimal impact. Additionally, the careful management of the vineyards pull out the local qualities in the grapes without homogenizing the fruit to a generic style.
The 2007 Russian River Pinot Noir is a blend of several vineyards, which gives the winemaker the ability to create the best concoction. It was a big pinot, which is somewhat indicative of the RRV these days. I found it bold, dark and full of black cherries and strawberry jam, followed by dusty bark, dried cherries and craisnes on the palate. After leaving it open for a while, I started to taste rose hips, hibiscus and rhubarb with those bright berry flavors that are so yummy. The juicy finish on this wine lasts a long time, and I found just a touch too much oak make the end a little bitter. The very last note I tasted was a Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry soda, which is pretty high praise since when I was a kid and we got to go tot he Holey Bagel, it was my sweet treat in a Coke-Free household.
For $35, I feel it is just a little overpriced but still tasty. I would also say that if you did buy this, hold on to it for another year as I think it will settle downand become amazing, and therefore well worth the price point.
This wine was a sample provided by David Bynum winery.
