As the sommelier at the Michelin-starred Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant in Forestville, CA, Geoff Kruth was intimately acquainted with Russian River Valley Pinot Noir—after all, the restaurant is smack in the heart of the region. But for all of Russian River’s deliciousness, Geoff noticed a degree of homogeneity creeping into the region’s Pinot produce.
To him, so much of what he was encountering was opulent, often lavishly oaked, and lacking the nerve he loved in classic Red Burgundies. So, with the help of a dream team that includes Farmhouse Inn owners Catherine & Joe Bartolomei and sommelier-turned-winemaker Megan Glaab (Ryme Cellars), Geoff set out to make the Pinot Noir he felt Russian River was missing—namely a Pinot Noir with the backbone, perfume, and tension of a great red Burgundy. When we offered his 2012 Lost & Found Pinot Noir the response from our subscribers was overwhelming; needless to say, we’re excited to share the 2013, which I would characterize as the most ‘Burgundian’ wine Geoff and his team have yet produced. Aside from the wine lists of top restaurants across the county, this is one of the few places you’ll find it!
Geoff Kruth is the well-known Master Sommelier who co-produced the film SOMM: Into The Bottle and who now runs the exhaustive GuildSomm website, among other pursuits. He was an invaluable mentor to me when I was studying for the MS exam, and was especially adept at explaining (and demonstrating) the deductive reasoning of blind tasting. I respect his palate immensely, and Lost & Found is a perfect reflection of his thoughtful, nuanced approach to wine. He wasn’t out to dismiss other Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs as “bad” or “wrong,” but rather to search for another dimension in the wines from this famed terroir.
Before they even developed The Farmhouse Inn, Catherine and Joe Bartolomei had rehabbed a small vineyard on their ranch, which had been in their family for almost 100 years. Although it had once been an Old School Italian-American farm planted to Zinfandel and the like, Catherine and Joe put in heirloom clones of Pinot Noir on hillside sites. Geoff proposed a partnership with Joe, Catherine, and Catherine’s husband, the wine writer Rod Smith, and they enlisted ex-Farmhouse Inn sommelier Megan Glaab (who now makes wine with her husband, Ryan, under the Ryme Cellars label) to help define what Lost & Found would be—namely, a Pinot Noir that is harvested at optimum, rather than extreme, ripeness to preserve acidity; that incorporates some ‘whole cluster’ fermentation to lend savor and grip; and is aged in neutral barrels to minimize the influence of oak.
During crush, the riper portion of the hillside is fermented with whole clusters intact while the remaining fruit is de-stemmed. Each individual Pinot clone in the 8-acre site is fermented separately with only native yeasts in open-topped vessels. The wine is aged in 2-5 year old barrels then bottled without any artificial adjustments. Geoff opts to hold the wine back for a few years to age in bottle and only releases the wine when it is ready to be enjoyed. This current release, from 2013, is most reminiscent to me of a Volnay (or maybe a Morey-St-Denis, I can’t decide) from a top producer. It would be a cruel joke to throw this wine into a blind tasting exam; I’m certain most would peg it as a Burgundy.
Why is that? The main thing for me is its layering of flavors: yes, the fruit is a ripe, plush mix of red plum and black cherry, as you’d expect from Russian River, but there are savory, leathery notes that pull it in another more woodsy direction. There’s an underbush-y, ‘forest floor’ quality to the wine I don’t typically associate with California Pinot Noir, as well as the tart, brambly ‘stemminess’ that is a hallmark of whole-cluster fermentation. It is medium-plus in body but in no way sweet or syrupy, its bright acid and silty, firm tannins holding everything up like Atlas shouldering the globe. I was bowled over by its combination of fruit purity, exotic spice and soy-like savor, and by its firm structure; a Burgundy wine of this quality would cost you $75 easy. In this context, $45 feels like a steal.
There is no need to decant this wine. Simply pull the cork an hour prior to serving and enjoy at just-above cellar temperature between 55-65 degrees in Burgundy stems. When this wine hits the glass it opens up into one of the most pure and perfumed California Pinot Noirs you’ll ever find. In the spirit of the Lost & Found partnership, here’s a recipe from the Farmhouse Inn to try your hand at. It’s precisely the kind of dish this wine was made for. Enjoy!
