There are Pinot Noirs and Pinot Noirs…
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http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/burgundian-pinots-outside-burgundy
As I have spent most of my business career selling French oak barrels to American wineries and as a lot of them ended up housing Pinot Noir, I read this article all the way to the end.
First, great pictures of my old friends Josh Jensen, Ed Selyem and Burt Williams. It was a great pleasure to drink the '85 WS Rochioli at the home of Becky Wasserman and Russell Hone ten years ago. Burt brought a bunch of magnums and it was great.
In the '70s I sold wine. To me the wines that perked everyone up were:
1972 and 73 Mt Eden
various Chalones
1972 ZD St Clair (Carneros)_
1976 Carneros Creek …ZD used American oak=; CC, French. Vive la difference!
1976 Sanford and Benedict..I never understood while there wasn’t land rush to this area right afterwards.
La Crema Vinera 1979s and’80s…the winery crashed and burned later, only to be turned into a very successful mass market of PN by the Kendall-Jackson people. Rod Berglund, who now runs Jos Swan, made these first wines.
Acacia and Saintsbury really put Carneros on the map for sure. Acacia has been turned into a by-the-glass brand, and Saintsbury is a shadow of its former self.
Finally, a debt of gratitude will always be owed to Dick Graf, who not only got Chalone up and running, but organized technical groups, aided people like Josh, popularized barrel fermentation for chardonnay.
Before Dick most folks fermented Chardonnay in stainless steel tanks, then put it into a barrel. Very different wines.
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