2010 SQUITCHY LANE PINOT NOIR

It's widely believed that the first impression is most likely to be the correct one, especially when tasting wine. That may help to explain my spice metaphor in the photo here. I sat down to review this wine on Wednesday, not quite sure how I wanted to describe it for the blog. 
The first thing that struck me was the exotic spiciness, something I haven't seen so prominently before. In an instant, I was transported to the spice market on the shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
The more I tasted the wine, the more the spice became a fixed part of the profile--never quite as remarkable as on my first acquaintance but there nevertheless. Other features revealed themselves as the wine opened up--silkiness, the jube-like fruit characters of the MV6 clone, the smoky waft of new French barrels for example--but the spice remained.
Go with the first impression is the message I have learned from too many embarrasing blind tasting experiences. Waiting and trying to analyse too deeply can get you into trouble. So spiciness is the word on this one.
It's released now and available on the website. The really good news is that we have made a reasonable volume, thanks to the weather gods of 2010.