My Wine for the First Day (almost) of Spring!
Out working in the garden all day. The first tulips opened. Time to celebrate!
This Winderlea 2014 Maresh Vineyard Pinot Noir called to me. I’ve had mixed results opening the 2014s, which sometimes seem to be maturing rather quickly. If you don’t know this vineyard, which I believe has been recently replanted, it was originally planted by Jim and Lois Maresh in the early 1970s at the behest of their neighbor Dick Erath. If memory serves (correct me please) this wine was made by Robert Brittan for Winderlea.
Just opened, it’s one of those rare wines that just drops you to your knees. It’s a hallelujah wine, a celebrate spring wine, a this-is-why-Pinot Noir-is-royalty wine. It seems to be at a perfect drinking age, still showing lots of strawberry/raspberry/cherry fruit, moving gracefully into secondary pastry flavors, with well-integrated acids and tannins. It lingers rather salaciously on the tongue, waving a follow me! finger at you as it trails off down the palate. Some wines just make you feel lucky to be alive. This is one.