Review from WeelyWinePick.com

DRINK WHAT THE PROS ARE DRINKING

2004 Russian River Valley Bacigalupi Vineyard Pinot Noir
by John Tyler Wines

 Tyler Heck, wine maker at John Tyler Wines, had a bottle of his Pinot under the table, and the barrage of silly questions I asked him paid off when he finally poured me a glass.  Tyler makes wine from the fruit grown by John Bacigalupi on his family’s historic vineyard in Healdsburg.
  Fruit from Bacigalupi Vineyard has been used to make single-vineyard wines by such prominent wineries as Rudd and Williams Selyem.  Not impressed yet?  In 1973 Chateau Montelena purchased 14 tons of Wente Clone Chardonnay from Bacigalupi Vineyard.  Three years later, that Chardonnay was mistaken by judges for a Batard-Montrachet in the Judgment of Paris, winning the competition that shocked the wine world.
  Tyler doesn’t release his Pinot Noir until he feels it’s ready, after over 3 and a half years conditioning in the bottle after aging in new French oak.  It delivers a voluptuous front, mid-mouth and back-end flavor that got my mind turning with ways to describe it.  In a year that has seen the release of Grand Cru Burgundies that fetch prices around $500, Pinot lovers have no choice but to seek out better values.  At $42 a bottle, John Tyler is a smart choice over the collector’s items from France.  If this went up blind against the 2005 Burgundies in a modern day Judgment of Paris, my money is on fourth-generation winemaker Tyler Heck.

Weekly Wine Picks

 

John Tyler 2004 Zinfandel Wins Gold Medal at the 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.

John Tyler 2004 Russian River Valley Zinfandel from Bacigalupi Vineyards wins a Gold Medal in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. This is recognized as the world’s largest wine competition with over 4,000 wines entered in this year’s competition from over 1,580 wineries.

Visit us

Visit John Tyler in breathtaking Napa Valley at A Dozen Vintners tasting room. Taste some of the finest boutique wines all in one place. We invite you to experience our estate grown Pinot Noir and Zinfandel from the Bacigalupi Vineyards in Russian River Valley. Visit A Dozen Vintners for more information

Bacigalupi family legacy

In 1964, Grandpa began his plantings with six acres of each varietal. Eventually he obtained pinot noir bud wood from Karl Wente, the first well documented plantings of Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley. He remembers Wente telling him the stock had come from France via the family’s old vineyard in Livermore.

Our family name (Bacigalupi)  gained recognition during the 1976 Paris tasting when the 1973 Napa Valley Chardonnay from Château Montelena made with 40% of our fruit triumphed over many acclaimed French wines. This event was to be the turning point in America’s global wine image.

Our vineyards now consists of 125 acres of premium grapes, which have been planted and managed for the past 30 years by my father John Bacigalupi and our family. The John Tyler wine label is the realization of a dream for our family who has roots in the wine industry stretching over four generations. Looking towards the future, we hope to continue our legacy of premium grape growing and wine making for many years to come.

A commitment to sustainability

Being a steward of the land and its resources is a key practice in our farming and winemaking methods. It will help ensure the sustainability of the vineyards and winery in the hopes of creating a legacy for the generations to come.

“With a dedication to producing the finest wine possible comes also the commitment to preserving the environment. Consistently striving to improve farming practices, I have tried to emphasize environmental soundness, sustainability, and efficiency, all without compromising quality.”
- John Bacigalupi

Some examples of our sustainable practices…
~ Every vineyard is planted with winter cover crops intended to hold precious soils in place while decreasing the risk of erosion on hillside terrain and adding essential nutrients back to the soil all while providing a habitat for beneficial insects.

~ Precise canopy management including leaf, shoot and cluster removal. This increases air movement through the canopy and better light penetration, drastically reducing the amount of fungicides needed.
~All pomace (grapeskins) are composted and are used the following year as soil amendments

~Pesticide usage is reduced naturally with the introduction of predator habitats (i.e. owl and bat boxes, bird houses.) Also, native and seeded cover crops help reduce dust thus naturally reducing mite populations.

~All our vineyards are hand-tended by a consistently trained team to the meticulous standard of our family farm.

The vineyard sites

An upset in the world of wine ~ The 1976 Paris Tasting

The 1960s was the first time Charles Bacigalupi had ever heard of Chardonnay. Bob Sisson, the University of California farm adviser for Sonoma County at that time began advising Russian River Valley growers to try planting Chardonnay. Charles obtained the budwood for the Chardonnay from Karl Wente and planted 14 acres of it in 1964.

In 1973 the Bacigalupi’s sold their Chardonnay to Chateau Montelena, a winery in Napa Valley. The winemaker at the time was Miljenko Mike Grgich. He made 1,800 cases of the 1973 chardonnay which amounted to just over 40 tons from local growers — about 20 tons from Henry Dick in Alexander Valley, 14 tons from the Bacigalupi’s in Russian River Valley and the remaining 5 tons from Napa Valley growers John Hanna and Lee Paschich.The wine was fermented extremely slowly and spent six months in French oak barrels before bottling.

The famed Paris tasting was arranged by Steven Spurrier, an Englishman who ran a wine-shop and the Académie du Vin, a school for tourists and Frenchman in Paris. The wines were limited to two types, chardonnay, the grape that made the best whites in California and France, and cabernet sauvignon, the grape that made the best reds in both areas.

The wines tasted were transatlantic cousins – four white Burgundies against six California Pinot Chardonnays and four Grands Crus Chateaux reds from Bordeaux against six California Cabernet Sauvignons. According to it’s organizers the event was not “a competitive tasting, but an opportunity to acknowledge that a young vineyard area can produce top-quality wines, given the same love, interest, skill, and money that has been lavished on European vineyards for centuries.” The American entries were all from California and were hand picked and transported to Paris.

The tasting was blind and included a panel of nine French judges, all experts ranging from esteemed sommeliers to three star restaurant owners and well known wine journalists. Each judge was asked to evaluate the wines as to color, bouquet, palate and balance and to give each a numerical rating on a scale of 20 possible points. The results: Chateau Montelena, 132; Meursault – Charmes, 126.5; Chalone Vineyards, 121; Spring Mountain, 104; Beaune Clos des Mouches, 101; Freemark Abbey, 100; Batard Montrachet 94; Puligny-Montrachet, 89; Veedercrest Vineyards, 88; and David Bruce, 63.

The Paris tasting revolutionized the wine industry and declared that great wines could be grown in California. In his book The Judgment of Paris, George Taber, the only journalist there has documented the actual events of the famed tasting. Without this book and other media coverage the tasting might have been dismissed as a one-time fluke or publicity stunt. Instead, the Paris Tasting unquestionably changed the way the wine world looked at California wine.

The Paris tasting block of Chardonnay on the Bacigalupi ranch still exists today, untouched. The family vows to keep the vineyard the same until it’s pushed out its last grape. Currently the fruit is sold to Rudd Winery in Oak ville.

Originally posted by winecountrygetaways.com

Dan Berger’s Vintage Experience Newsletter

2004 John Tyler Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
Bacigalupi Vineyards
Tasting notes: VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
($42): Earthy, complex herbal-cherry aroma with good grip. With air it opens to show faint notes of Burgundy.
Dan Berger’s Vintage Experience Newsletter

John Tyler scores a 91 from the Pinot Report!

LINK TO ACTUAL PINOT REPORT

John Tyler is a new wine venture from two very old and established Russian River Valley wine families. John Bacigalupi and Tyler Heck are the two namesakes of this brand. The Bacigalupi family has been growing grapes on Westside Road since the 1960s when John’s father, Charles Bacigalupi, planted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at the suggestion of Tyler Heck’s grandfather Paul Heck, whose family has owned Korbel Champagne Cellars since 1953. John provides the Pinot Noir fruit from his Bacigalupi Vineyard and Tyler makes the wines, and a deep partnership between two long-friendly families continues.

John Tyler Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Bacigalupi Vineyard 2003
“Medium-deep ruby color; black cherry and earthy aromas; big, full black cherry flavors with earthy notes, light-moderate tannin and oak; good structure and balance; long finish. Rich, ripe and well structured, this Pinot has a lot to offer now and will gain with a little bottle age.”
829 cases made $42 Score: 91

Reviewed by Gregory Walter Pinot Report

Avenue Vine Review of 2002 Pinot Noir

2002 John Tyler
Pinot Noir Bacigalupi Vineyard, Russian River Valley
$42.00, (87 pts.)
Bright, clean deep purple red in intensity.
NOSE: Clean, pronounce grape, fruit, floral, spice and mineral–prelude to this wine’s complexity: raspberry, strawberry, dark wild berries, cola and crimson rose; hints of forest floor and smoky oak;
PALATE: Earth and stone, ripe berry fruits; dry, crisp acitity, balanced against a full mid-palate moderate of soft tannins; CONCLUSION: Full bodied with a moderately long finish highlighted by fruit, spice, sleek, smooth oak and leather. Drink now though 2015.

ADDITIONAL TASTING NOTES: Serving notes: decant this wine and let it open and breath for awhile; may be slightly chilled (55- 65 degrees F) room temperature is fine, though.
Food Pairings:  Will match well with leaner meat dishes (filets of beef or pork, chicken, turkey or
game birds, rabbit), smoked, roasted or braised meats and sausages, and full-flavored foods (mushroom and bean dishes, savory cheeses, pastas, hearty soups and stews, etc.). On the Vegetarian side: (tomatoes, carrots, beets, roasted or caramelized onions and bell peppers) and even fruit (berries, figs, plums and cherries)–(Brie and Camembert cheeses, grilled fish, etc.)., can be enjoyed nicely with this Pinot Noir, too.

AvenueVine.com