Pinot's Progress Tasting Series
Pinot's Progress Tasting Series
Blue Mountain Gravel Force Block 14 2017 - Then and Now
One of the results of my needing to pause this web site for a time is that the pinot noirs in my cellar have had an opportunity to slumber and develop for an additional four years or so. My collection is not deep but it is wide and includes wines that go back fifteen vintages and more. Many are inaugural vintages or for a variety of reasons, such as changing ownership or shuffled winery priorities, no longer produced.
How They’re Doing The province’s pinot noirs are mostly opened far too young, usually in the first three years. Like their counterparts in the better known pinot noir regions, many need time to develop out fully and show what they are capable of. So, this begins a series of reviews to taste wines that are more than three years old to see how some of these older pinot noirs have fared.
Blue Mountain Block 14 Gravel Force Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017
This was the inaugural vintage of Blue Mountain’s three single vineyard pinot noirs that also include their Wild Terrain Block 9, and River Flow Block 23.
The Wine in 2019
When I tasted this wine initially after its release in the fall of 2019 it had firm fruit flavours along with memorable clarity and immediacy. It wasn’t Burgundian, it just simply was Burgundy, reminding me specifically of mid-level premier cru Beaune or Pommard. In saying that it just was Burgundy I don’t mean it was a successful imitation of one and anyway, the term “Burgundian” is thrown around far too much. Given the range of styles and quality levels even in the Côte d'Or, the term is fairly meaningless. What I mean is that like the Burgundies that I find enamouring, it was an unclouded expression of just terroir only, front and center. The flavours were not behind a scrim of misplaced remnants of fermentation and/or élevage choices made by winemakers.
Any winery chasing finer, terroir focused pinot noirs strive to “get out of the way” and let the wine express itself. Many try but few succeed in any pinot noir region including Burgundy. I remember first tasting this in 2019, struck by what I was finding and thought “they’ve done it!”.
The Wine in 2023
I would have predicted that the 2017 Gravel Force would have retained the bigger, firmer fruit flavour profile but grown more involved and complex. Predicting how any wine will taste a number of years down the road is like another kind of blind tasting and has about the same success ratio. Wine in general and pinot noir in particular always has something new to show you. It will always go its own way. This one certainly did.
By 2023, the Gravel Force 2017 had let go of the bigger firmer fruit to show a much lighter, silky texture and a very graceful balance.
What ties the two snapshots of this wine together is the absolute clarity and flavour of terroir displayed without a distracting note. It’s presence in the glass is clear and immediate.
Demure and perfumed with autumn leaves, flecks of cinnamon, wild strawberry and violets. This all follows through on the palate. Graceful, airy and poised from the beginning through a lingering finish, it's a floating wave as clear as Ella Fitzgerald's voice. Supported by a finely calibrated acidity, there isn't a misplaced note. This is world class wine making. The texture is remarkable and the flavours should develop further with time. If this sounds rhapsodic, so be it. They’ve done it. 92
Other Notes
Blue Mountain released its first pinot noir vintage in 1991. Founded by Ian & Jane Mavety, their son Matt is now the winemaker and general manager. For more than a dozen years the emphasis in Blue Mountain’s pinot noirs has been to adjust their winemaking let the site show through. This has included gentler wine transfer, lighter extraction, unfined bottling, fermentation with native yeasts and more. Their long experience with their vineyard site showed them that three areas of their vineyards, due to soil differences and topography, consistently produced unique pinot noir expressions. Each of the single vineyard blocks Gravel Force, Wild Terrain, and River Flow were named to evoke these differences.
Gravel Force comes from vines that are over thirty years old and consist of clones 115 and 667. Gravel Force Block 14 pinot noir 2017 was first released in September 2019.