Cool-climate California Pinot Noir with winemaker Ross Cobb – Friday 6th February
In an age of rising temperatures, the term ‘cool-climate’ is being adopted by more and more regions in an attempt to signpost balance in their wines.
It wasn’t really a thing back in 1989 when David Cobb, a marine biologist, and his wife Diane, an advertising executive, were dreaming of a retirement spent overlooking a vineyard by the ocean. They scoured long and hard along the California coastline to find their dream site to plant Pinot Noir, eventually settling on a spot a few miles from Bodega Bay on the Sonoma Coast that isn’t so much ‘cool’ as ‘extreme’.
After happily selling their grapes to the likes of Williams Seylem for several years, their son Ross ended up carving out a career as a winemaker with Flowers, Hirsch and – yep, Williams Seylem. There he became convinced of the quality of the family vineyard, eventually persuading his parents not only to start making their own wine, but to plant a few other vineyards too.
Today, that maritime climate, allied to smart winemaking via some judicious use of whole bunches and French oak, has established the Cobb Pinots as among California’s most delicate expressions of minerality and elegance.
Ross will be joining us on a Friday evening in February to host two informal, standing tastings of a clutch of his wines, starting with a lithe, energetic Chardonnay and a Riesling from the US’s smallest – and arguably the most remote – AVA. The highlight, however, will be the signature Pinots, including a couple of nicely evolving middle-aged vintages. Sign up for the session you’d like to attend via the drop-down below.
The wines we will be tasting:
2021 Riesling, Cole Ranch Vineyard, Cobb Wines, Mendocino
2023 Chardonnay, Mes Filles Vineyard, Cobb Wines, Sonoma Coast
2021 Pinot Noir, Cobb Wines, Sonoma Coast
2017 Pinot Noir, Swan & Calera, Doc’s Ranch Vineyard, Cobb Wines, Sonoma Coast
2017 Pinot Noir, Rice-Spivak Vineyard, Cobb Wines, Sonoma Coast
2019 Pinot Noir, Emmaline Ann Vineyard, Cobb Wines, Sonoma Coast
2021 Pinot Noir, Diane Cobb, Coastlands Vineyard, Cobb Wines, Sonoma Coast
Friday 6th February
Marlborough Room
18:30 – First session begins
19:45 – First session ends
20:00 – Second session begins
21:30 – Second session ends