Inspriation Vineyards 2009 White Sampler 3-Pack
$54.99 (Normally $75.00) 27% off List Price
2009 Inspiration Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc, Dry Creek Valley
2009 Inspiration Vineyards Chardonnay Estate, Russian River Valley
2009 Inspiration Vineyards Viognier, Russian River Valley

Inspiration Vineyards 2009 Pinot Noir 3-Pack
$64.99 (Normally $96.00) 32% off List Price
2009 Inspiration Vineyards Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley

Inspiration Vineyards Zinfandel Vertical 4-Pack
$69.99 (Normally $100.00) 30% off List Price
2008 Inspiration Vineyards Zinfandel, Alexander Valley
2009 Inspiration Vineyards Zinfandel, Alexander Valley
2010 Inspiration Vineyards Zinfandel, Alexander Valley

Inspiration Vineyards 2009 Syrah 2-Pack
$57.99 (Normally $74.00) 22% off List Price
2009 Syrah Dry Creek Valley
2009 Syrah, Dry Creek Valley Reserve
CT links above

Love his zins
Very tempted by this.

Is the AV Pinot unfined and unfiltered like the carneros Pinot was? I know lots of folks had trouble with the those bottles b/c they didn't realize they had to handle the bottles very carefully.

cortot20 wrote:Is the AV Pinot unfined and unfiltered like the carneros Pinot was? I know lots of folks had trouble with the those bottles b/c they didn't realize they had to handle the bottles very carefully.

Hi there - it's me Jon, the winemaker... Good news - our 2009 Pinot from Russian River Valley doesn't require an owners manual. The wine HAS been filtered - and will travel much better than the '08 Carneros - the flavor profile is also very different than the Carneros too.

As for the 2008 - I appreciated the honest feedback... and support from those who allowed the wine to settle before decanting. Thank you!

Hi Jon:

Thanks for jumping on board! I purchased the 07/08 Zin vertical when it was offered here in April of 2011. I did not keep notes but if i remember correctly the '08 was a bit "chewier" and had a fuller mouthfeel than the '07. Am I correct? If so, how do the '09 and '10 compare to the '08? Thanks

losthighwayz wrote:Hi Jon:

Thanks for jumping on board! I purchased the 07/08 Zin vertical when it was offered here in April of 2011. I did not keep notes but if i remember correctly the '08 was a bit "chewier" and had a fuller mouthfeel than the '07. Am I correct? If so, how do the '09 and '10 compare to the '08? Thanks

Thanks tons for your past support! - Personally, I'd describe the 07 as more chewier, and the 08 has wonderful juicy raspberry fruit - the 09 is kind of like the 07, has more pepper and spice and the 10 is a balance of both - great acid, good pepper and wonderful raspberry characteristic.

I had a couple in from Chicago this afternoon and they agreed that the 10 was the perfect BBQ wine!

Hey Jon,
Great to see you (and your wine) on Woot again!

I'm a huge fan of your wines in general. The craftsmanship you put into each release truly shows and each vintage seems to get even better. Your syrahs have been my goto wine when I cook a special meal.

I'm not a huge zin guy, but that vertical is calling my name. I haven't placed an order on Woot in a while, but not sure I can hold out on the Pinot or Syrah either.

What's the drinking window on these?

texacaliali wrote:I was chatted up the other day about how great your 2009 Syrah is drinkin rt now from a local retailer...swoon!

Thanks Texacaliali - I was hoping I'd see your post...

Yes - our Syrah's right now are rocking! The 09 is amazing - deep, rich, solid tannin structure allowing for long aging. The reserve has just a bit of Grenache added to soften the wine slightly in addition to increasing the complexity and flavor profile.

Only 140 cases was made of the regular and 42 of the reserve - I'm down to less than 100 of the regular and 25 of the reserve and really hesitated about offering it on Woot because I didn't want to see it sell out completely...

mschauber wrote:Hey Jon,
Great to see you (and your wine) on Woot again!

I'm a huge fan of your wines in general. The craftsmanship you put into each release truly shows and each vintage seems to get even better. Your syrahs have been my goto wine when I cook a special meal.

I'm not a huge zin guy, but that vertical is calling my name. I haven't placed an order on Woot in a while, but not sure I can hold out on the Pinot or Syrah either.

What's the drinking window on these?

Hey Marc, thank you tons for chiming in... Yea - sorry, I still owe you some drinking window notes too... - so here goes for the wines you asked about, starting with the Zins...

2008 Zin - now to 3 years
2009 Zin - now to 3 years
2010 Zin - 1 to 5 years

I'm not a big fan of aging zin's because they are generally ready when you buy them. The higher the alcohol, the shorter the window to hold onto them. Both the 08 and 09 are really showing nicely now. I'd almost bet the 08 will go longer than the 09 because it has slighly less alcohol. The 10 can hold, but I'd probably pull it out next year and it might be at it's best in 2 years.

2009 Pinot - now to 5 yrs
2009 Syray - 2 to 10 yrs

Our Pinot's are made in a very French style - lighter body, less tannins, this wine is for drinking now. That said, it's lower in alcohol and HAS been filtered, so it should hold up well for the next 5 years. After that time, I can't tell. I know that our 2002 & 2003 Pinot's from Carneros are really awesome right now...

The Syrah is the monster in the room. Awesome structure will allow this wine to age. I will open a bottle on Friday - pour out 4 oz and not gas. The next day, that same bottle is perfect... it needs the air time to open up and join the party. I enjoy drinking this young... however, it really can handle some wait time.

Thank you VERY much for your continued support... I will work on trying to get out the other notes you asked for soon... ;)

Hi Jon

Glad you are on here early. Thanks for your reply yesterday I may have gotten the vintages confused. That being said, the CT notes on the '09 worry me a bit b/c the lead me to believe there is bottle variation or drinking window dwindling (though less than two year drinking window not likely). Care to comment on Jennings CT note?

losthighwayz wrote:Hi Jon

Glad you are on here early. Thanks for your reply yesterday I may have gotten the vintages confused. That being said, the CT notes on the '09 worry me a bit b/c the lead me to believe there is bottle variation or drinking window dwindling (though less than two year drinking window not likely). Care to comment on Jennings CT note?

I appreciate your question - it took me a second to realize what you were asking... I'm going to approach this w/ two answers:

About the wine - I would describe the 09 hotter than the 08 or 10, medium body/color, lots of pepper & raspberry and a great wine to enjoy now w/ foods like Pizza, BBQ, etc. It's not a serious wine meant to be layed down and although over the years I've personally had a few bottles that had variation, in general the wine seems very stable and should be drinking fine now to 2yrs easy (and I sd 3 above)

Regarding the ratings - I've met but have not spoken to this reviewer very much. I know who he is and respect his pallet. When he reviews wines, he doesn't talk and is very much down to business. The first review occured in a very large setting with 100's of wines. He reviewed my wines towards the end of the day. The second review occured at the winery during an event weekend, so he was driving around from winery to winery.

I don't know if he's ever purchased our wine, or enjoyed our wine with food - which is the context in which the wine was made. So as for his variation by 5pts during that year, I really can't say... I just wish there were more scores to look at to determine what others thought...

I can say that one of our local bistro's couldn't keep in in stock because of how well it went with their BBQ menu ;)

twstdvn wrote:I appreciate your question - it took me a second to realize what you were asking... I'm going to approach this w/ two answers:

About the wine - I would describe the 09 hotter than the 08 or 10, medium body/color, lots of pepper & raspberry and a great wine to enjoy now w/ foods like Pizza, BBQ, etc. It's not
a serious wine meant to be layed down and although over the years I've personally had a few bottles that had variation, in general the wine seems very stable and should be drinking fine now to 2yrs easy (and I sd 3 above)

Regarding the ratings - I've met but have not spoken to this reviewer very much. I know who he is and respect his pallet. When he reviews wines, he doesn't talk and is very much down to business. The first review occured in a very large setting with 100's of wines. He reviewed my wines towards the end of the day. The
second review occured at the winery during an event weekend, so he was driving around from winery to winery.

I don't know if he's ever purchased our wine, or enjoyed our wine with food - which is the context in which the wine was made. So as fo his variation by 5pts during that year, I really can't say... I just wish there were more scores to look at to determine what others thought...

I can say that one of our local bistro's couldn't keep in in stock because of how well it went with their BBQ menu ;)

Thanks for your reply makes total sense to me. I appreciate your participation on here and am definitely IN!

Man.... I totally have no room for these wines, but I feel like I must make room. I traveled up to the winery back in late March and really enjoyed all the wines. Met his asst winemaker who poured for us while Jon was fervently doing computer work in the background.

Fun guard dogs too!

The syrah is really piquing my interest, as I have been on a syrah kick lately.

Jon - Would you consider these syrah's to be "old world"? The cote rote style would match that, but the high alcohol and the low acid (on the non reserve) worry me a bit. Would you consider these "fruit forward"?

Thanks

trifecta wrote:Man.... I totally have no room for these wines, but I feel like I must make room. I traveled up to the winery back in late March and really enjoyed all the wines. Met his asst winemaker who poured for us while Jon was fervently doing computer work in the background.

Fun guard dogs too!

The syrah is really piquing my interest, as I have been on a syrah kick lately.

Jon - Would you consider these syrah's to be "old world"? The cote rote style would match that, but the high alcohol and the low acid (on the non reserve) worry me a bit. Would you consider these "fruit forward"?

Thanks

Hey trifecta - nice hearing from you!

Yes from the perspective that my goal is for "Old World" - I'm not worried at all about the Alc/TA levels. I hear you on your question - but there's a bunch of tannin in this wine that it will hold it together nicely for MANY years.

The 09 Syrah, is so tight, that I'm still thinking that it will be better 1 to 2 years from now. I have been opening the bottle and serving it the next day, just to allow it to open up and really show it's potential.

The 09 Syrah Reserve has the addition of Grenache on the base Syrah allowing it to be more approachable when you first open. However because the structure of the base wine is really there - I'm still thinking it will also age really nicely.

That said - I think both wines could go at least 10 years - and you can't pick up the alcohol in either wine. Oh - yes they ARE fruit forward, more fruit comes out at you for the Reserve than the regular... however giving the regular a chance to open up, will also show tons of fruit.

Hope this answers your question - thank you very much for your support... these wines will likely not be around for very long because of how limited they are...

Cheers!
JP

hhi! Do you have some stats for the wines, esp the PN? Acid stat, and %alc?

I'd love to know how the flavour profile of the RRV PN compares with the Carneros, which was excellent, and very European (though i wish it had had more funk to ice the cherry)

richardhod wrote:hhi! Do you have some stats for the wines, esp the PN? Acid stat, and %alc?

I'd love to know how the flavour profile of the RRV PN compares with the Carneros, which was excellent, and very European (though i wish it had had more funk to ice the cherry)

Go to WW homepage, click on woot plus inpiration then on the pinot 3pack and it will take you to the specs.

losthighwayz wrote:Go to WW homepage, click on woot plus inpiration then on the pinot 3pack and it will take you to the specs.

thx! navigation of this pretty mess is haphazard

richardhod wrote:hhi! Do you have some stats for the wines, esp the PN? Acid stat, and %alc?

I'd love to know how the flavour profile of the RRV PN compares with the Carneros, which was excellent, and very European (though i wish it had had more funk to ice the cherry)

It looks like you received your answer Richard - you can also visit our website www.inspirationvineyards.com/pinot.html. There you'll find the tech sheet for this wine.

14.0alc - .74g/L TA - 3.56pH
Light in color, filtered (for those who don't like to wait to decant - this wine has a solid backbone of acidity and changes dramatically when food is introduced. Unlike the Carneros, this wine has more of a strawberry/savory characteristic. And, it's still more of a European style wine than Californian (not over extracted w/ a heavy oak influence.)

richardhod wrote:thx! navigation of this pretty mess is haphazard

BTW - Thank you very much for your past comments of support for our Pinot Noir here & on CT) - I think you get what I'm trying to do! Cheers!

twstdvn wrote:BTW - Thank you very much for your past comments of support for our Pinot Noir here & on CT) - I think you get what I'm trying to do! Cheers!

Damn you!! might have to try some of this and I have a pretty unbreakable SIWBM in place at the mo. Anyone like to share a woot?

Looks as if I'm going to have to visit the winery when I'm next in NorCal. You do tours? I'm missing the RPM tour, unfortunately, but that reminds me.. they'd do well to go by you (if you're interested..) you should go to "world of woot wine" and contact rpm.. Your taste and his are as close as I can imagine!
I bet they'd be amenable if you're near eough to Sonoma!

richardhod wrote:Damn you!! might have to try some of this and I have a pretty unbreakable SIWBM in place at the mo. Anyone like to share a woot?

Richard - I would be willing to take a bottle of the '09 Pinot if you still pass through the bay area. Let me know.

richardhod wrote:Damn you!! might have to try some of this and I have a pretty unbreakable SIWBM in place at the mo. Anyone like to share a woot?

Looks as if I'm going to have to visit the winery when I'm next in NorCal. You do tours? I'm missing the RPM tour, unfortunately, but that reminds me.. they'd do well to go by you (if you're interested..) you should go to "world of woot wine" and contact rpm.. Your taste and his are as close as I can imagine!
I bet they'd be amenable if you're near eough to Sonoma!

Thanks for the tip - I'll have to check out rpm... as for tours - yes... we are open Th-Mo, but if you want to see me, just shoot me an email b4 u come. I only have 2 pt's working for me - I do almost everything, every day... that's what us small guys do! Trying to sell wine so we can keep on doing what we passionate about! Would love to meet you!

twstdvn wrote:Thanks for the tip - I'll have to check out rpm... as for tours - yes... we are open Th-Mo, but if you want to see me, just shoot me an email b4 u come. I only have 2 pt's working for me - I do almost everything, every day... that's what us small guys do! Trying to sell wine so we can keep on doing what we passionate about! Would love to meet you!

look up the thread about the 2012 Tour. I don't know if they've finalised the itinerary, but it's worth asking, and WineDavid's in on the arrangements too, so you can talk to him!
Damn, this finished while I was asleep.. might have to see if I can do a deal with you when I come by...