31 May 2022

WoTM - Fort Ross Pinotage 2007

My Wine of The Month for May is 2007 Fort Ross Pinotage Fort Ross Vineyard (California, Sonoma Coast)


The cork split and my Butlers’ Friend didn’t help, some of the cork had fixed itself to the glass; the rest of the cork fell into the wine. I poured it through a small mesh strainer which collected most of the cork so only tiny grains were on the wine in a decanter.


I’d bought this estate wine from the winery in December 2012; the owners Lester and Linda Schwartz said they didn’t release their wine until it was aged and was ready to drink, but I  decided to keep it for a couple more years. Then I forgot about it. So was I too late?


No doubt it would have been good drinking a few year ago, but - boy - this was enjoyable. It had the tremendous sweetness of Pinotage berries and a smooth seriousness of aged wine. We drained the decanter.

Read about my visit to Fort Ross here.



(Since we were there, the small Fort Ross-Seaview AVA has been created which Fort Ross winery is now in. The Schwartz's were instrumental in getting the AVA registered.)