Keller Estate 2007 Casa de la Cruz Estate Pinot Noir 4-Pack
$61.99 (Normally $100.00) 38% off List Price
2007 Casa de la Cruz Estate Pinot Noir
CT link above

Winery website

For the winery,

Is it typical to go through malo before transferring to the barrel for your Pinot's? I thought that reds typically go through malo in oak. What impact does this have on the finished wine?

I've enjoyed a bottle of 2007 Keller Estate Pinot Noir La Cruz Vineyard.

Here's my tasting notes:

8/6/2012 rated 90 points: Candied dark chocolate cherry on the nose, wisps of orange rind.

Juicy cherry pie, crushed strawberries, bit of earth on the palate. Opened up nicely as the evening went on, further nuances, and layers developed, including a nice allsprice component. Well balanced, nice structure, good acidity.

Glad I got this nice buy from *bleep*, should be interesting to see how these develop in a few more years.

bsevern wrote:I've enjoyed a bottle of 2007 Keller Estate Pinot Noir La Cruz Vineyard.

I think, but I'm not positive, that the wine you are talking about is a different wine. If it is different, I'm curious to hear the differences from someone associated with the winery.

I got so excited to see the Keller Estates wine, but was sad it wasn't the Syrah. Their PN was excellent, no notes kept and I don't have the exact vintage with me right now (I will look when it isn't 442 in the morning)

Obviously I am behind the times. I haven't ordered off of winewoot in a few months. Money was tight. Now, the last three times I've tried to order, I've been told woot can't ship to Louisiana. What changed? I've emailed woot and gotten no response.

The average community price on CT is only $10.00. It's odd that it's more here on woot.

bkarlan wrote:I got so excited to see the Keller Estates wine, but was sad it wasn't the Syrah. Their PN was excellent, no notes kept and I don't have the exact vintage with me right now (I will look when it isn't 442 in the morning)

You are correct.
His review is of a more expensive vineyard designate. This is a blend.

pienka wrote:Obviously I am behind the times. I haven't ordered off of winewoot in a few months. Money was tight. Now, the last three times I've tried to order, I've been told woot can't ship to Louisiana. What changed? I've emailed woot and gotten no response.

From the first post:

"Every winery needs a separate license from each state which is why your state isn't listed."

I don't know these wines, but there have been some very nice Pinots (and Chardonnays, but especially Pinots) coming out of this area known as the "Petaluma Gap" in the past decade or so.

It should really be thought of as an extension of Carneros, being just above San Pablo Bay, but divided off from it by some low hills that trail off from Sonoma Mountain almost down to San Pablo Bay (at Sears Point). Climate at least up to Stage Gulch Road on Lakeville Highway is very similar to Carneros (though I'd say it might be a touch warmer during the day, though just as cool at night).

These are certainly worth trying.

uhoerhold wrote:The average community price on CT is only $10.00. It's odd that it's more here on woot.

Those bottles appear to have been purchased in July through Club W which ships 3 random wines per month for $13/bottle with free shipping. The $10 figure is an average from only 2 CT users, so like many numbers on CT, it has to be taken in context.

Maybe there was a special deal that included this wine. Maybe one of the 2 users had some kind of credit that lowered the cost of their wine. Maybe there was a mistaken CT entry. Who knows? The average price for the previous (2006) vintage (6 users) is $22.96 although it does appear that approximately 2 months ago Club W users were able to get this 2007 vintage for $13.

EDIT: Looks like this explains it.

cortot20 wrote:You are correct.
His review is of a more expensive vineyard designate. This is a blend.

They're both produced with 100% La Cruz Vineyard fruit so possibly different blocks or slightly lesser fruit from the same overall selection. I'm guessing this is almost as good as the Keller Estate PN but at less than half the price, it should be a great value.

chipgreen wrote:They're both produced with 100% La Cruz Vineyard fruit so possibly different blocks or slightly lesser fruit from the same overall selection. I'm guessing this is almost as good as the Keller Estate PN but at less than half the price, it should be a great value.

Perhaps the winery could tell us exactly what the differences are....

rpm wrote:Perhaps the winery could tell us exactly what the differences are....

You would prefer that to my speculation?

rpm wrote:Perhaps the winery could tell us exactly what the differences are....

I'm working on getting Ana Keller on the boards, meanwhile if you listen to her voicemail, she does tell how the blocks and blends are determined for this wine and the other estate pinot's.

trifecta wrote:For the winery,

Is it typical to go through malo before transferring to the barrel for your Pinot's? I thought that reds typically go through malo in oak. What impact does this have on the finished wine?

oops did I say that the wine went through malo before we put them in barrel? My bad, they go through ML in barrel.

silcoccia wrote:I'm working on getting Ana Keller on the boards, meanwhile if you listen to her voicemail, she does tell how the blocks and blends are determined for this wine and the other estate pinot's.

Thanks for the h/u. I am still stuck on thinking the vintner voicemail is supposed to be located near the top of this page and I forget to look for it ever since the site redesign.

rpm wrote:Perhaps the winery could tell us exactly what the differences are....

Hi! We feel that we owe it to our vineyards to harvest from every single block planted (we have 12 by the way). They are all treated with the utmost care, however, some blocks are not as strong as we would like for them to be and so they do not make the cut to the Keller Estate wines. In addition in the case of the PInot Noir, the "free run" wine goes ito the Keller lots, while the pressed wine may or may not go into Keller Estate. All these elements come into play when we make the blends. The order of decision is:
Precioso wines Summer's Over!Keller Estate wine second
Casa wines.
They are still 100% fro our vineyard and in this case 100% Pinot Noir.

chipgreen wrote:You would prefer that to my speculation?

I would love to hear what you speculated about????

bkarlan wrote:I got so excited to see the Keller Estates wine, but was sad it wasn't the Syrah. Their PN was excellent, no notes kept and I don't have the exact vintage with me right now (I will look when it isn't 442 in the morning)

The 2007 vintage was a spectacular vintage and the wines are lovely, fruit forward and with nice tannins!

silcoccia wrote:I'm working on getting Ana Keller on the boards, meanwhile if you listen to her voicemail, she does tell how the blocks and blends are determined for this wine and the other estate pinot's.

Sorry for my delay! Second day of harvest, just brought in the first Pinot Noir of the 2012 vintage!!!!

bsevern wrote:I've enjoyed a bottle of 2007 Keller Estate Pinot Noir La Cruz Vineyard.

Here's my tasting notes:

8/6/2012 rated 90 points: Candied dark chocolate cherry on the nose, wisps of orange rind.

Juicy cherry pie, crushed strawberries, bit of earth on the palate. Opened up nicely as the evening went on, further nuances, and layers developed, including a nice allsprice component. Well balanced, nice structure, good acidity.

Glad I got this nice buy from *bleep*, should be interesting to see how these develop in a few more years.

Just a note, this is not the La Cruz Pinot Noir, it's the little brother: Casa Pinot!

chipgreen wrote:Those bottles appear to have been purchased in July through Club W which ships 3 random wines per month for $13/bottle with free shipping. The $10 figure is an average from only 2 CT users, so like many numbers on CT, it has to be taken in context.

Maybe there was a special deal that included this wine. Maybe one of the 2 users had some kind of credit that lowered the cost of their wine. Maybe there was a mistaken CT entry. Who knows? The average price for the previous (2006) vintage (6 users) is $22.96 although it does appear that approximately 2 months ago Club W users were able to get this 2007 vintage for $13.

EDIT: Looks like this explains it.

Ahhhh! this deal, unfortunately sometimes we aren't in control of all our destiny and in this case a distributor sold this wine with our previous OK, a small run though, but nothing I can do about them.

anakeller wrote:Just a note, this is not the La Cruz Pinot Noir, it's the little brother: Casa Pinot!

Hi Ana,

Thanks for joining us today.

With the above pointed out, how would you compare and contrast the two different Pinots?

I really enjoyed the La Cruz Keller Estate Pinot, and luckily have five more bottles

anakeller wrote:I would love to hear what you speculated about????

Hi Ana, thanks for your participation!

Because I couldn't find the vintner voicemail if it smacked me over the head, I wrote; "They're both produced with 100% La Cruz Vineyard fruit so possibly different blocks or slightly lesser fruit from the same overall selection. I'm guessing this is almost as good as the Keller Estate PN but at less than half the price, it should be a great value."

Thanks for clarifying that it's closer to the latter of the two possibilities I speculated about.

bsevern wrote:Hi Ana,

Thanks for joining us today.

With the above pointed out, how would you compare and contrast the two different Pinots?

I really enjoyed the La Cruz Keller Estate Pinot, and luckily have five more bottles

La Cruz Pinot Noir has a lovely delicate texture, while the Casa Pinot has a bit more brasher tannins. Both pretty fruit forward but I wold say that Casa is not as aromatic or long.

This seems to be a nice every day drinking PN. A nice wine for a Tuesday night with chicken when you want a PN but don't want to open a $30 bottle. Another really tempting offer, but I must pass, at least until next month.

Hi Ana, I'm very tempted by this offer, do you have the pH and TA for this wine? thanks!

jhkey wrote:Hi Ana, I'm very tempted by this offer, do you have the pH and TA for this wine? thanks!

The wine is lovely really!

pH: 3.68
TA: 5.2g/L

kylemittskus wrote:This seems to be a nice every day drinking PN. A nice wine for a Tuesday night with chicken when you want a PN but don't want to open a $30 bottle. Another really tempting offer, but I must pass, at least until next month.

No!!! Don't pass, come back!! This is a great offer, and perfect for tuesday and wendesday nights!

chipgreen wrote:Hi Ana, thanks for your participation!

Because I couldn't find the vintner voicemail if it smacked me over the head, I wrote; "They're both produced with 100% La Cruz Vineyard fruit so possibly different blocks or slightly lesser fruit from the same overall selection. I'm guessing this is almost as good as the Keller Estate PN but at less than half the price, it should be a great value."

Thanks for clarifying that it's closer to the latter of the two possibilities I speculated about.

Good speculating!

anakeller wrote:No!!! Don't pass, come back!! This is a great offer, and perfect for tuesday and wendesday nights!

I'm over budget, new baby, over-loaded wrt space... I can't. But please come back!

In for the split.
Looks good and I could use some pinot since I drank through what I had over the summer.

kylemittskus wrote:I'm over budget, new baby, over-loaded wrt space... I can't. But please come back!

Wow new baby! you really need a glass of wine! Take care!

anakeller wrote:The wine is lovely really!

pH: 3.68
TA: 5.2g/L

thanks Ana!

Ana, I am happily overstocked on Pinot Noir, so can I hold these for a while? If so, how long?

Ana, thanks so much for stopping in. I love the 07 La Cruz Syrah and PN.

Please please please bring back the La Cruz Syrah. I am down to my last bottle and just might have to pay full price.

creekhounds wrote:Ana, I am happily overstocked on Pinot Noir, so can I hold these for a while? If so, how long?

Absent this vital information, I could not make an informed decision. So I had to make the fun decision and will now be happily over-overstocked.