A few friends, some great food and some great Pinots. I’ve been down on Pinots lately. I think that is because I haven’t had any that I cared for. All of these were good and food friendly.

2005 Blackstone Sonoma

Nice light color, strawberry and raspberry aromas, intense sour fruit with a bit of smoke, not too much barnyard funk, hot finish. Tasted again it was still intense but the sour fruit taste had dissipated. This one turned out to be my favorite and was also the crowd favorite.

2003 Paul Hobbs Russian River

Major sediment even when first opened, a bit darker that what I normally expect for a Pinot, slight barnyard aroma, tastes like slightly sweet dark fruit. (Someone in the crowd said “chocolate.”) Not a typical Pinot. On the second tasting, this one was very nice. This one was both my and the crowd’s second favorite.

2002 Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara

Nice light color, a touch of barnyard aroma, flavors included blueberry and raspberry with lots of tannins, the fruit flavor were subdued. Hot finish. This was the crowd’s third favorite. For me this one tied with the 2006 for fourth place.

2006 Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara

Beautiful color, not a lot of fruit in the aroma, smells like (2002 Au Bon Climat), flavors were slightly sweet blueberry and raspberry, finish was hot, dark fruit. One of the interesting things was we were told there was a duplicate wine in the bunch. So we had a mission to guess which two were the same. I had trouble with that, but then I saw my note that this one smelled like one of the previous wines. I went with that. After they were unveiled, we saw that they were not exactly the same – the vintage being different. This was the crowd’s fourth favorite.

2002 Papapietro Perry

Weak color with a lot of sediment. The aroma was a bit sour with a little barnyard but okay. Flavors were sweet fruit, mainly raspberry with a touch of blueberry and a touch of smoke. As it changed in the glass, I started to hate it but retasted it on the second pass after it was open for a while, and it was much better. This was both my and the crowd’s number five.

2005 Stanley Lambert Southeast Australia

By appearance, I thought this was the oldest of the wines, as there was a hint of brown in the color and not so much of a clear ring around the glass. Nice raspberry aroma, not too much funk. Tasted slightly sweet with nice balance and a nice finish. This was my third favorite but the crowd’s number six.