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Pigs & Pinot is, in part, chef Charlie Palmer's ode to all things pork. The fifth annual event was recently held in Healdsburg, Calif., the site of Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen restaurant and adjacent Hotel Healdsburg. That this booming wine country town also happens to be the birthplace of some of America's best-made pinot noirs is no coincidence. As much as Palmer celebrates pork here, he also extols pinot, perhaps Sonoma County's greatest gift to the world.
The two-day event includes a walk-around tasting, a "Tournament of the Pig" seminar, a lively "Sommelier Smackdown" (a competition between renowned sommeliers to determine their favorite pinot) and a very grand dinner, with plenty of celebrity chefs in attendance. But for local producers it all comes down to the Pinot Cup, a competition to find the best pinot.
Looking for the top pinot noir
This year I found myself on the judging panel for the main event alongside Ray Isle of Food and Wine and Rusty Gaffney of the venerated newsletter The PinotFile. On the afternoon of March 19, we were confronted with 51 pinot noirs and asked to pick a first-place winner and a runner-up.
Many of the wines were from Sonoma (the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast predominantly), some from Mendocino County's Mendocino Ridge and Anderson Valley appellations, others from Santa Maria and Santa Rita Hills, near Santa Barbara. There were a handful from Oregon (including a great one from Tony Soter), one from Tasmania (Frogmore), one from New Zealand (Peregrine) and even a contender out of South Africa (Hamilton Russell), not to mention three coveted Burgundies (Dujac, Boisset and Chanson).
Vintner Daryl Groom, who's made some great wines himself over the years at Penfolds and Sonoma County's Geyser Peak, is in charge of picking the wines for the competition each year -- not an easy task. A lot of familiar names are on the list, but he's always trying to mix things up, rotating wines in and out to give newer producers a chance.
The 2007 vintage stands out
The vintages submitted (a decision left to each producer) included one 2003, three 2005s, a 2006, 31 from 2007 and the remainder, eight, from 2008.
What hit us very clearly once all was said and done is that 2007 is a stellar vintage from top to bottom, full of incredibly delicious, well-made wines. They raised the bar extremely high for both older and newer bottlings. As for 2008, I'd say it's too soon to tell. The wines might have been just too young still to fairly be pitted against the 2007s. We shall see.
Local favorites win the prize
In the end, it came down to two wines that all the judges agreed upon, and the winner was: Woodenhead's 2007 Russian River Valley Buena Tierra Vineyard Pinot Noir.
Woodenhead vintners Nikolai Stez and Zina Bower are longtime Russian River stalwarts who have trudged along over the years, making small amounts of pinot and zinfandel, keeping their day jobs most of the time. Just a couple of years ago they opened a tasting room on River Road in Forestville, not far from the bigger town of Santa Rosa, to try to get their wines out to more of the world.
There was no doubt that the local crowd was happy to see a local producer take the Cup, especially such a well-loved and respected duo as Nik and Zina. In a nice twist of fate, before starting Woodenhead, Nikolai worked 17 harvests at Williams Selyem, who just happened to have the second-place wine at this year's Pinot Cup, the 2007 Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir.
Other standouts included Chasseur 2007 Freestone Station, Alysian 2007 Rochioli, Allen-Rochioli Blocks (Gary Farrell's newest project), MacPhail 2007 Sonoma Coast Pratt Vineyard, Davenport 2007 Russian River Valley Preston Ranch, and well, a whole lot more.
Woodenhead is open Thursday through Monday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 5700 River Road, Santa Rosa, (707) 887-2703, www.woodenheadwine.com
Virginie Boone is a Sonoma Valley-based wine writer. She has reported on the Northern California wine scene for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and its affiliate food and wine magazine, Savor.
Photo: Entrants in the 2010 pinot competition at the Pigs & Pinot celebration. Credit: Charlie Gesell Photography for Hotel Healdsburg
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