Jamie Kutch doesn’t put
the name of his winery on the door. In an industrial winemaking facility just
outside of the Sonoma town square, Kutch is waiting for Pinot Noir grapes to arrive. Instead I walk through the door. And
while he anxiously waits for fruit to be delivered on this 2013 harvest, we
talk, sample his Pinot Noir, drink fresh pressed juice, and I ponder these
distinctly different, hard-to-classify Pinots from Sonoma. Jamie believes in whole
cluster pressing his fruit, gravity feeding it, and using one-ton stainless
steel fermenters which enable him to “crush,
and sub crush” different lots and vineyard blocks. Kutch picks his fruit
earlier than most people, therefore his wines lack the traditional bright
cherry and raspberry flavors and end up being lower in alcohol, but they retain
a pragmatic acidity, something lacking in many red wines. "We pride
ourselves in not being trained at Davis," he says half joking. Well, sure.
The old joke is that if you want to
learn how to clean and maintain wine equipment, go to Davis. If you want to
learn winemaking, go somewhere else.
At a mere 2,500 cases he firmly desires to produce “true coastal Pinot from
Sonoma,” and Kutch sincerely believes that the cooler and rougher coastal
vineyards are where the future of Pinot Noir lay, at least from Sonoma. Some
might argue that Russian River Valley is ground central for Pinot, and many of
the coastal offerings don’t really show all that well: they lean towards
simpler fruit. But sitting down with Kutch and sampling wines in bottle, and
wines in barrel, the animal that is his coastal Pinot Noir is a different
animal altogether, a near
mythical beast
that lumbers through the backwoods, both surprising and intriguing you with
it’s exclusive characteristics. His Pinot Noirs are not fine-tuned elegant
expressions of Pinot. That’s not a criticism. They are burly, but balanced,
aggressive but informal, and like his 2011 McDougall (at 13.6% alcohol, $59) all
about rich fruit; intense and viscous, but effortless - almost like the best
red fruit compote you’ve ever had. “I want my wines to age,” he tells me, a
steely-eyed determination resonating from his face. He’s not doing this for
show, and certainly his wines are not in the mainstream. They are compelling.
They are not safe. They defy
convention.
KUTCH WINES
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