Cameron Clos Electrique Rouge 09

Review:

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 92 points

The 2009 Pinot Noir Clos Electrique Rouge displays a similar elegant personality. It is a high-toned, beautifully perfumed Pinot with aromas of spice box, wild berries, incense, and smoke. In the glass it has excellent balance, a bit of structure, and lots of finesse. It has 1-2 years of aging potential and will offer a drinking window extending from 2012 to 2021. - Jay Miller

Winemaker John Paul says: “With 10 different clones and a nutrient-deficient vineyard site, Clos Electrique has always yielded wines of complexity and funk. In 2007 we began a program of carefully composting all of our pressings together with chipped up vineyard prunings, a bit of organic cow manure from across the river and covering with the straw bedding from our goats.

In the Fall, after maturing for a year, we began to apply the limited compost that we had made to the most nutrient-deficient parts of the vineyard. In addition, we built a chicken tractor (and were given a second by the kind people at Lange Vineyards) and so began a program in which our 11 chickens could scrape and scratch and poop in a different section of the vineyard each day. W

hile the effects on the vineyard are small but noticeable, the input of a small amount of nutrient becomes unmistakable starting with the 2009 vintage of Clos Electrique Rouge.

The wine is still startlingly complex but the funk-factor is diminished and, dare I say, a certain elegance starts to show in the aromatics of black cherries, dried cranberries and mushrooms. It is still limited in production at less than 150 cases and so will surely be gone by Christmas.”