1988 Dehlinger, Pinot Noir, Reserve, Estate, Russian River Valley AVA, Sonoma County.
The impressive 1998 Reserve, a two barrel edition, from Tom Dehlinger, was a real surprise in a recent California wines blind tasting, showing off a dark garnet/burgundy color with just a shade of brick around the edges and a meaty intensity on the nose, with a finely structured palate of black cherry, dried plum, fig and a red berry reduction, along with mature notes of sous bois, black tea, porporri, earthy truffle, old cedar and brown spices. The body is silky and richly rounded, very evolved, but still lovely in the glass, this certainly is past its best, though rewarding and pleasing. The bacon, delicate florals, autumn leaves and light smoky aromatics reminds me of old Anne Gros Burgundy bottlings of the 1990s, and while the middle of the palate drops off, maybe because of the not ideal vintage which was marred by El Niña/El Niño effects with un-welcome rainy periods, there’s still a lot to admire in this Pinot. The Dehlinger estate vines at the time were many Pommard and Swan clones set mainly on deep Goldridge soils, along with some red clay in parts, which gives the wines textural depth and the dark hue and very much in line with old school Russian River Pinots. The Dehlinger estate vineyard now has 25 acres of Pinot noir vines that were planted in two main groupings, as the winery notes, the first of which originally was planted between 1975-1989, and the second group came between 2011-2014. The clones of Pinot noir are primarily the mentioned Pommard and Swan, but also with smaller amounts of Martini (like Rochioli), Clone 943, a newer Dijon selection that is getting very popular, Calera, and Mount Eden, all helping the more recent wines in terms of complexity.
The Dehlinger winery, now in its fifth decade, was started by Tom Dehlinger, who originally planted his family’s initial 14 acres back in in 1975, and as the winery notes, he was one of the first winemakers to revive western Sonoma County as a wine-growing region post Prohibition. Dehlinger is set on an old apple ranch on Vine Hill Road, just outside of the little town of Sebastopol, which sees the cooling influence of the Pacific and sucked inland by the Russian River itself, making it a perfect place to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Dehliner’s are now, as they say, blessed with an outstanding 80 acre site planted to classic wine-grapes which they have refined over the years and they refashioned some of the older plantings with new graftings, improved trellising, and eventually updated most all of the plantings. Tom has built the label into an iconic and very Independent winery with his daughters, Carmen and Eva, who was lucky to meet a few years ago when she was starting to make the wines, taking over and running the business day to day now. I’ve long been a fan of the Dehlinger wines, which includes as mentioned Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, as well as estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, one of my favorites, and a rare Rosé of Pinot Noir in certain years, all of which I highly recommend. The classic Dehlinger Pinots were always very special hand-crafted and small lot offerings and the modern versions continue to be outstanding examples of the Russian River Valley terroir and shouldn’t be missed. These days, Tom still keeps his hands in, as winemaker, but Eva, who studied Earth Systems Science with a focus in Land Management at Stanford University and who later studied viticulture and terroir for a year at the masters level at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, has added her own stamp on the wines.
($55 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive