Wine Enthusiast talked to our own Clay Gantz in the July issue of the magazine to discuss the subregions, or "neighborhoods", of the Russian River Valley and the ongoing effort to determine whether certain sensory characteristics can be distinguished in Pinot Noirs from different neighborhoods.
As the writer of "Making Sense of the Russian River Valley," Virginie Boone, stated: "This is not a story about new appellations. Nor is it a story about hard and fast lines on a map. It’s about clarifying a set of historically understood subregions within the Russian River Valley. It’s about helping those who love the region’s Pinot Noir to dive deeper into its nuances and sensory points of delineation."
Notable Russian River Valley winemakers like Merry Edwards, Rod Berglund of Joseph Swan Vineyards, and Michael Browne of Kosta Browne Winery, as well as a host of others, give their thoughts in the article.
Clay has served as chairperson of the Russian River Valley Winegrowers Neighborhoods Committee for the last year and has helped organize the blind tastings which are trying to determine whether certain characteristics can be attributed to certain neighborhoods. As he says in the article: "We don’t know what the results will tell us, we just think it’s a worthy endeavor. We’re a very successful AVA, and people don’t want to mess with that.”
Click the photo below to read more:
