Clos de La Tech Pinot Noir Meets Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

I was extremely fortunate to be invited to a brave tasting last night put on by Alyssa Rapp of Bottle Notes, Tim McGarr of Global Vintuition, and our hosts T.J. and Valeta Rogers of Clos de La Tech. Why Brave? It's one thing to pour a Pinot from a vineyard in Woodside, California next to examples of the world's best Pinot regions, it's another to taste it next to a 1987 Domane de la Romanée-Conti Échézeaux. This wasn't a blind tasting, so the notion of Clos de La Tech vs. DRC in a head-to-head taste-off should be dismissed. The point was to showcase some great examples of Pinot around the world and see what markings are ones that Clos de La Tech is going for and see how it stands up. If you read no further, know that it stood up extremely well and should be considered strongly recommended if you can get your hands on some.

The connection to DRC is no mistake. Silicon Valley entrepreneur T.J. Rogers, CEO of Cypress Semi-Conductor equates good Pinot with Burgundy and good Burgundy with Romanée-Conti. He and his wife, Valeta, want the best of what DRC has in it: minerality, black fruits instead of bright cherry ones, mushroom/forest floor not oak, tension between fruit and acid. They visited DRC to pick Aubert de Villaine's brain as best they could and use that visit, the knowledge inside a great bottle of DRC, and the entrepreneural spirit of Silicon Valley to help guide them into producing world-class Pinot.

While lots of California Pinot producers strive for the same things, often they end up with a Pinot that is distinctly New World. Clos de La Tech wines are pushing to be part of the new Old World. And by picking impossibly steep terrain to plant on, like many of the best vineyards in the world, T.J. was forced to design some literally game-changing farming equipment that can make a real difference in the wine world. They worked with Clemens GmbH to design a cable-driven tractor built like a mars rover to handle super-steep terracing. This award-winning design will open the doors to planting on slopes that were previously accessible only on foot or donkey. So do not dismiss Clos de La Tech as just some vanity project. Having the money to build machinery to solve not just their problems, but those that have plagued wine makers for centuries will make a real difference in the wine world and they are making serious, world-class Pinot.

On to the wines of the night:

My two favorites of the set were the 1987 Domane de la Romanée-Conti Échézeaux and the 2001 Clos de La Tech, Domaine du Docteur Rogers for different reasons, but these were the two wines I could drink all night.

2004 Dry River Pinot Noir, Martinborough, N.Z. - stayed a tad closed through the tasting but was a dense, tightly woven wine with scents of strawberry-rhubarb pie with a touch of green stemminess.

2004 Giaconda Pinot Noir, Manua Vineyard, Victoria Austraila - Lots of mushroom/truffle aromas and pretty black fruits. A touch of barnyard funk on the nose and is also a bit green. Nice on the palate with a good long finish.

2000 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley - this one smelled like a freshly-baked cherry clafloutis, with the slighly burned cherry aromas and bits of bready aromas. This may have had a touch of brettanomyces as the nose had a funk one small step beyond. Also had a pretty strong SO2 scent at first, like a struck match which dissipated pretty quickly. Drink this up as I doubt it will improve any with age.

1987 Domane de la Romanée-Conti Échézeaux - always a treat to try a DRC (Thanks, T.J. and Valeta!) and this one was really interesting. Because it was 22 years old, it had lost the fresh raspberry aromas that are in young Échézeaux and has settled into comfortable old age. It has acquired scents of mushrooms and ancient fruit along with black tea. Towards the end of the night, the scents transformed into something quite like beef. This came from a magnum and still the wine had dried out slightly, so you have 750s of this wine, I think this is the time to try one.

2001 Clos de La Tech, Domaine du Docteur Rogers -A stunner even after tasting the DRC right before it. There is still a hint of red raspberry fruit concentrated deep inside that points to New World, but does not immediately say "California". If I tasted this blind, I would think it was top Oregon Pinot, or Burgundy. It has a unique scent of mint/menthol (in a good way) mixed with forest floor and mushrooms. This is drinking perfectly now, but has the structure to evolve into something else entirely in the next 20 years. Highly recommended.

2003 Clos de La Tech Domaine Valeta - a dusty wonder. Bigger and denser than the DDRogers, its compass points a bit closer to California, but is certainly an excellent wine. The tannins have more grip and it seems like a riper wine in general. Lots of aromas of liorice, violets and dark black fruit. Recommended.

Extra treat: 2006 Clos de La Tech Domaine Lois Louise Tete de Cuvée - This has the same earthy profile as the 2001 DDRogers, but as it's still a couple years away from release, still has a youthful vigor and tension. Dark and brooding but not over-ripe in the slightest. I could smell lavender and white truffle. Others suggested crushed mussel shells. Very serious long finish with great secondary aromas. Another very serious effort and from a newer area facing the Pacific Ocean on super-steep slopes. There will be more of the Domaine Lois Louise vineyard designate wine, but only one barrel of the Tete de Cuvée produced. Keep your eyes out for this. Another stunning effort.

Comments

[The Corkdork]

I guess my response to that is that the area they bought that is super steep is too large to do completely by hand and rather than pick an area that is flatter and easier to deal with using farm equipment, they chose to go very steep.

[owen]

I am curious why building a machine to work steep vineyards is a better option than working the vineyard by hand?