The Wine Evangelist

We had a wildly successful Pinot Noir Summit yesterday thanks to all of the participating wineries, our incredible volunteers, our workshop moderators, panelists, my Affairs of the Vine team, and the over 300 wonderful Pinot Noir Lovers who joined us.

I know, I know…we said we would limit it to 250 guests but we couldn’t disappoint people who are so Passionate About Pinot.

We had pros and cons tasting yesterday – that is professionals and consumers. Everyone who attended the Blind Wine Challenge had the opportunity to taste through 44 of the top Pinot Noirs chosen by our professional tasting panel. It’s a tough job but our delegates get to do it.

Each wine was assigned a color. Bottles of each wine were hand wrapped in aluminum foil and identified with a colorful sticker.

I am busily compiling all of the statistics, scores and comments to post on this site (hopefully) by the end of this week. In the meantime, I will give you a preview of the top wines as assessed by our panel and the delegates to Passionate About Pinot Noir Summit #7.

Each person who tastes is identified by gender. Our observations and scores are gender specific. Below are the top three wines by gender.

At the Summit:
Men:
#1 – David Bruce 2005 Reserve Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast (Purple)
#2 – Claiborne & Churchill 2006 Twin Creeks Pinot Noir, Edna Valley (Periwinkle)
#3 – Left Edge Winery 2007 Bodega Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noit, Sonoma Coast (Red)

Women:
#1 – Left Edge Winery 2007 Bodega Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noit, Sonoma Coast (Red)
TIED FOR SECOND:
#2 – Lucienne 2006 Lone Oak Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands (Orchid)
AND
#2 – David Bruce 2005 Reserve Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast (Purple)
#3 – Brutocao Cellars 2006 Estate Bottled Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley (Pumpkin)

Our Panel by Gender:
Men:
#1 – Left Edge Winery 2007 Bodega Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noit, Sonoma Coast (Red)
#2 – Heart O’ The Mountain 2006 Estate Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains (Coral)
#3 – David Bruce 2005 Reserve Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast (Purple)

Women:
#1 – Bohemian Vineyard 2007 Freestone Estate Pinot Noir, Russian River (Turquoise)
TIED FOR SECOND:
#2 – Segue Cellars 2007 Filligreen Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley (Khaki)
AND
#2 – Sonoma Coast Vineyards 2005 Freestone Hills Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast (Black)
#3 Claiborne & Churchill 2006 Twin Creeks Pinot Noir, Edna Valley (Periwinkle)

We had wine bloggers, a prince and more than one Wine Dog join us – in addition to THE Wine Dog, we had two other doggies join us, Lhotse and Xena.

More to come but I better get back to entering descriptors and tabulating so that you can view all of the results.