Partage Pinot Noir Ben Lomond Mountain Coast Grade

Loved the rustic nature of this Pinot when it was released. I cellared a bottle as an experiment in its age-worthiness. Unfortunately, the wine has fallen apart. Overly tart and bitter, fruit mostly faded, and nothing interesting taking its place. Agree with recent note by @BrendanNeary

When I bought this wine I knew it was a quality Pinot. However after laying it down for four years, it really seems to have lost itself. Fruit is way too tart and the acid seems to have overtaken it. If you have this wine open it fast because you’re probably going to experience the same thing that the rest of us are noting here.

As others have said this is…not excellent. The nose was initially promising with a lot of funk (which I like), dried flowers, etc. But that all mutates into like bitter broken plant stem and plastics factory. The palate has some of the nicer stuff but also a kind of sour green plant character. Acidity is good but there’s warming alcohol. It’s not so bad that we poured it out and opened another bottle, but that’s partly because food (tart Persian …

Same general impressions as last bottle, but understanding more what to expect, and again it opened up and was much more palatable after 30 minutes as did the last bottle, and didn't judge it this time as harshly on my initial thoughts. Nevertheless, glad it was my last bottle, now have to get though the 15's, wish me luck!

This is a side by side vertical comparison of both the 2014 and 2015 vintage. The '14 has more orange with a funky nose, tomato leaf a vague Robitussin, with sharp, biting elements and a slightly sour finish, while the '15 is garnet with burnt orange rim, nose had a bit of Bret, tastes better then the previous year with more acidity, but could not blindly identify it as a Pinot. Both eventually improved somewhat in the glass after a …

Similar to the last bottle. Strong tomato-leaf flavor profile that one often finds in Santa Maria Valley Pinot, accompanied by prominent bitterness - not a great combination that leads to an overall unpleasant drinking experience. Not sure what went wrong here or if the site is just not suited to Pinot.

13.3% abv. 30% whole cluster. Recent auction purchase. From the pop 'n pour, this was tough. Very prominent bitter (unripe stems?) note and some out-of-balance acidity (VA?) to boot. Tasted over several days and this never substantially improved. Update: I actually left this on the counter for a few more days, under vacuum seal and tasted again last night. Much better! Still a bit of the bitter note, but everything seemed to integrate. Not great, but very drinkable.