2011 Kusuda Pinot Noir

This bottle was originally served a little too warm and the wine was not 100% clear but the fruit was obviously extremely fine and the wine bone dry, intriguing and set for the long term. Ideally I would wait a little before tackling it again but it went well with my lamb cutlets, even though the sauce soubise was probably rather too sweet to match with it. (JR)

Pale ruby-colored, the 2011 Pinot Noir is a very different but equally impressive style to the 2010 vintage and gives a wonderfully perfumed nose of red roses, lavender and violets over a core of kirsch and raspberry coulis. The palate offers beautiful elegance and finesse with a seamless line of uplifting acid and low level of silky tannins before finishing with excellent length. Drink it now to 2019+. No known USA importer.

Just 5,864 bottles produced. Aged for 17 months in barriques (22% new) and bottled after a coarse filtration and no fining.  Pale ruby. Rather more obviously ripe on the nose than the 2010 but beautifully elegant and expressive with some notes of violets and autumn undergrowth. Still youthful, a sort of unfurled flower. Perhaps I mean bud?! Yes, it is probably like one of those paper flowers you set on water and watch them unfurl. A little kiss of tannin on the finish. Long. Very delicate but it expands on the far finish and seems to nourish the entire digestive system. I am, as you can tell, a fan. (JR)