Spring 2012

The Vintage

This is really a tale of two sets of wines across one area. The heat spike we saw the third weekend of September drew a line through Occidental separating the town literally right down Main Street. This heat is probably what allowed us to make Thieriot, Summa and Gioia in 2010. These extreme westerly locations were all hovering in the teens brix wise when this weather hit. They were hard enough not to wilt while the canopies were fresh enough to harness all the momentum provided by these 4 very warm days. Northeast of Occidental and directly east didn’t need this push. A couple normal days on the coast would have provided some nice polishing heat for such sites as Silver Eagle, Riddle, Lancel Creek and Occidental Ridge. Instead we saw highs approaching 105 and more importantly lows staying in the 80s throughout the evenings. Bringing in fruit in these conditions was out of the question. We waited for a couple days after that final hot day and brought in all of this area in the 24.2-24.5 brix range. Minus this heat we were looking at harvesting in the high 22s.

The 2010s and Allocations

The good news is we finally have some quantity. We’ve been working with some of our favorite growers to add new Occidental pieces to our portfolio. 2010 marks the return of Gioia to the family plus the addition of Riddle Ranch on Stoetz Lane and a doubling of the acreage of our share of B. Thieriot Chardonnay. This has allowed us to take a good look at our mailing list to reorganize, cull and be smarter about how we allocate. This first wave offer will be a mixed 14 bottle allocation. We do think all offerings will sell out over time but we’re sure they will be around longer than 4 hours. Since all the bottlings aren’t exact multiples of each other, some items will go faster than others. Looking at the response rate until sell out, my guess is the Chardonnay and the Silver Eagle will sell out first. Sonoma Coast and Summa Old will be guaranteed through the initial week of the release. Everything else will be somewhere in the middle. We will open a second wave on the 24th offering at the very least some Sonoma Coast but maybe also a bit of the single vineyard wines quantities permitting.

2010 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast—600 cases, 14.1% alc., 25% new oak

Comprised of 5 barrels of Silver Eagle clone 828, 7 barrels of Lancel Creek Vineyard clone 777, 9 barrels of Riddle Ranch clones 828 and Pommard and all 3 barrels of Willow Creek, this offering is quite a bit different from the 2009. It’s definitely from a riper part of town but possesses a similar acid/tannin profile. The character here is more pure red fruited with notes of cranberry, red raspberry, spearmint, underbrush and sour cherry. The wine starts out pretty primary and throws off some of its weight as it opens. Given the price point, it’s a nice entry wine for the program but still an offering we take no less seriously than all the single vineyard designates. We feel this edition will drink very well early on and offer you an insight into why we love Occidental in 2010 so much.

2010 Rivers-Marie Silver Eagle Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast—169 cases, 14.2% alc., 40% new oak

This year we managed to bottle the wine absent all signs of reduction. Because of this it definitely comes across as higher-toned with more of a pomegranate/pine needle profile. Expertly farmed by Ulises Valdez, the balance you see in the vineyard you can actually taste in the wine. It’s more of a medium weight wine compared to last year’s which allows it to be big for the portfolio but still retain focus and delineation. With more to choose from, we were able to dial in the blend better focusing on what Ulises calls clone VR and sprinkling in a bit of clone 828 for complexity. The 2011 in barrel looks to be the third consecutive solid effort from this site and we hope it continues to be a part of the program for a long time.

2010 Rivers-Marie Occidental Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast—185 cases, 14.1% alc., 60% new oak

We’ve consumed 6 bottles of the 2005 Occidental Ridge in the last few months. We knew this wine was good but its current condition also shows just how slowly this site ages. Because it tends to be a bit more black/purple fruited young, the perception is it’s meant to be drunk young. Only time really reveals a wine’s aging curve and this vineyard’s offerings are all heading in the right direction. Most years this possesses the lowest pH and highest fruit tannin of all the wines we release and 2010 is no exception. With our sixth vintage of this wine we are starting to see a nice consistency in its profile: pine needles, pennyroyal mint, sage, clove, cinnamon and plums. Given its strict barrel selection, this wine continues to get more serious every year and has begun to divide our mailing list at times into a Summa vs. Occidental Ridge debate.

2010 Rivers-Marie Gioia Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast—120 cases, 14.1% alc., 80% new oak

Here’s where the second set of wines for the vintage begins. Gioia is a 2 acre parcel located just west of Occidental proper on Joy Road at the foot of Fitzpatrick. It’s probably a mile from Summa as the crow flies planted to a mix of 115 and Pommard. We were fortunate enough to buy this fruit in 2004 but after receiving word it would be the only year, we blended it into the Sonoma Coast. Given the current goodness of that wine, we jumped at the opportunity to buy this fruit again. Its red/orange fruit profile is the first we’ve seen outside of Summa. The notes look very similar between the two sites: citrus peel, sous bois, pomegranate, sour cherry. The thing that separates them is the severity of the slope of Gioia. It remains flat for all of 50 feet before falling steeply down as it heads to the woods east of the vineyard. This leads to a slightly higher tannic impact than at Summa and a touch more ripeness due to the grade. It’s a bit brooding right now but if our brief history with this wine is any indication, it will be one of the stars of the vintage.

2010 Rivers-Marie Summa Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast—200 cases, 13.8% alc., 50% new oak

Nice to see the 98 block of Summa return to the lineup. After not being happy with the 2009 version, we spent most of the off season trying to figure out what we could do to give this wine a bit more dimension. After a lot of tasting, the one current unexplored input became obvious, stems. The vintage and its long hang time certainly allowed for the possibility. Not knowing quite what to expect, we settled on 10% as our trial number and couldn’t be happier with the results. For us, the wine always lacked an extra degree of breadth at bottling. The stems seem to have filled the wine out a bit giving it more intellectual interest and also helping to firm the wine up a bit. The added structure carries the finish a bit further than normal and makes for a fresher seeming wine. It cuts into the initial sappiness we look for in the mid-palate but with time in the decanter, the classic Summa texture works its way to the forefront.

2010 Rivers-Marie Summa Old Vines Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast—137 cases, 13.0% alc., 80% new oak

A few weeks ago after getting both kids to sleep, Genevieve comes down stairs, picks up the glass of wine I’ve poured her, takes a quick smell and says “this is Summa Old Vines.” That in a nutshell is what we try to achieve with this site. We’ve always been drawn to its distinctiveness and we don’t ever to want to do anything to get in its way. Checking my notes from last year, the 2010 edition comes across very similarly: expansive nose, red fruits, orange peel, sweet hay, pine needles, black tea and red/white floral elements. Young, it’s always a wine more about potential and breadth than depth. Picked October 20th just shy of 1 ton per acre, it possesses remarkable weight for a wine that struggled to hit 13% alcohol.

2010 Rivers-Marie B. Thieriot Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast—180 cases, 13.4% alc., 50% new oak

Of course the year we double the vine acreage we buy yields are tiny. This was our last piece to harvest in 2010 and until the heat in late September hit, we weren’t so sure it was going to come in. Pressing out at 3.14 pH and 10 grams of acidity it’s a bit of an understatement to say the wine has nice cut. As touched on previously, we feel we do a better job of making this wine every year. This might be the first year where all the potential we saw in the raw material is realized in the finished product. Once again we treated every barrel as an individual wine carefully monitoring both primary and malo completion in every lot. As in the past, there was no inoculation for either fermentation and no lees stirring. For the first time we bottled this wine at the same time as the Pinots to capture as much freshness and primary character as we could. The nose on this wine is more expressive currently than any of the Pinots. It’s heavy on hazelnuts, lemon meringue, lime/lemon zest, lanolin, brioche and white chocolate. Now that we are four years in it’s hard to find original things to say about this site/wine but I can say without reservation it’s a wine we love to drink.

Looking Ahead

We’ve received some great feedback from the release of our 2009 Cabernets. The 2010s are arguably better but as with our 2011 Pinots and Chardonnays, of much smaller quantity. If you noticed, we did say Chardonnays plural. In addition to Thieriot, we purchases 2.25 acres of Wente clone Lucky Well Chardonnay from Ulises Valdez. Of course given the vintage, 2.25 acres yielded 2 tons total. Our total production of 2010 Cabernet and 2011 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is down roughly 30%. It will not be a fun year to allocate wines. The big upside for us was the lack of a huge late September heat spike on the coast. Because of that, all areas of Occidental produced incredibly well balanced, ripe, flavorful wines in 2011. We have alcohol levels ranging from 11.6%-13% but all with fully developed flavors and outrageous aromas. The SVD quantities are the only tragic part with most sites yielding well under a ton per acre.

Offer and Shipping Details

This offer will remain open through February 10th quantities permitting. The allocations are not guaranteed but we hope they last for at least a week. Everyone on this first wave release receives the same allocation and we try to spread our wine out to as many people as possible. You’ll see three items have wish list options and we do anticipate being able to fill some of those for the first time in a while. For shipping we will go ground for $2 a bottle in CA and $3 a bottle everywhere else. We will begin shipping to the warmer spots in early February. If you’d like 2 day air please contact Will at will@riversmarie.com for rates. You can also reach out to Will with magnum requests.

Thank you for your continued support.

Thomas Rivers Brown and Genevieve Marie Welsh