C is for Cellar Rat, Craggy Range and Cobb.  All pinots, and all very different.  I’ve reviewed the Cellar Rat before, but every time I open a bottle I like it more.  On this night, I was at my friend Amy’s house, who was serving pork butt, and what goes better with pork than pinot?

It was the perfect way to start the evening as we sat around chatting about the ins and outs of pork and wine.  As the others started to arrive, we opened the 2006 Craggy Range from Central Otago.  Keeping in mind that the 2006 is actually 6 months older than our 2006 due to the southern hemisphere flip, this was a huge wine with lots of cherry, berry and cola flavors.  I enjoyed this one as well but was a complete departure from the Cellar Rat.

Our final pinot of the evening, but certainly not our final wine, was the Cobb piont.  I tasted this again yesterday along with two other single vineyard pinot noirs from Cobb, and was duly impressed; I was able to discuss the wines with the winemaker, and had the added delight of meeting the new vineyard owner of Jack Hill as well.

1. 2007 Jack Hill – This is the first commercial release of this wine from a 2 acre vineyard near Occidental.  It was big but not overwhelmingly dark pinot reminiscent of a Russian River Valley pinot without the overwhelming cola-berry characteristics.  I tasted blood orange juice, cranberry, raspberries and mild bits of earth.  There was just a touch of mushroom at the end, with a hibiscus finish that lingered.
2. 2007 Emmaline – is located closer to Sebastopol, but is still influenced by the ocean air.  I found it bigger than the Jack at first, with more of the classic RRV cola and cherry flavors.
3. 2007 Coastlands - This is Amy’s favorite, and she did try to convince me I liked it best.  Yes, I loved it but I’m not sure I could pick a favorite!  I loved them all.  Coastlands was first planted in 1989, before Pinot Noir when crazy.  This tiny 1.5 acre vineyard gave me big bold baking spices, cranberry, strawberry and white pepper.  There was also more earth to this wine than the previous two, and there were notes of mushrooms and herbs.

All in all, I loved all of the Cobb wines and can’t wait to try them next year (if not sooner!)

C is a great letter for Pinot Noir lovers like my self!