If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes greater than great, as is the case with today’s wine from Churchill Cellars.

Mission Codename: Sir Winston Churchill said: I am easily satisfied with the very best

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Substantiate the claim that Churchill Cellars makes the Perfect Pinot

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Churchill Cellars

Wine Subject: 2005 Bella Luna Vineyard Pinot Noir

Winemaker: Anthony Austin

Backgrounder:

When a Wines Spies field asset tipped us off that a winery in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley was reported to have created the Perfect Pinot we wasted no time. Agent Red was dispatched immediately. Read his tasting profile and following mission report to see how todays wine hold up to the hype.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Ruby red with perfect clarity, an ultra-tight surface that quickly settles to perfectly still when swirled

Smell – Deeply aromatic with a rich nose of candy apple, sweet cherry, soft leather, subtle cigar box and a hint of spice and the slightest flinty gunpowder

Feel – Feather-light, silky smooth and utterly round, this wine starts cool and bouncy and then warms slowly as medium tannins take hold at the front of the mouth

Taste – delicious layer upon layer of fruit and spice featuring cherry, leather, dark stonefruit, pinot grape and subtle espresso

Finish – This wine has a finely polished finish that starts big, with a slight tartness and fruit – but then turns soft, delicate, elegant and slightly dry

Conclusion – This is another deeply impressive Estate Pinot Noir from California’s Russian River Valley, a region that has consistently impressed us with its quality wines. Churchill Cellars set out to create the perfect Pinot Noir and Pinot is all they do. This spy declares their effort a smashing success. This Pinot has the best mouth-feel of any pinot tasted in recent memory, and its rich flavors and aromatics round out the drinking experience. This is a wine to enjoy on its own, and with its balance and acidity, can be easily paired with most meats, cheeses or seafood.

Mission Report:

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” – Sir Winston Churchill

Reading this, I can’t help but imagine Winston Churchill peering into the future, at the winemakers that today make wines that bare his name. Certainly, if Sir Winston were alive today, he’d appreciate this exceptional wine from Churchill Cellars.

I first came to know about Churchill Cellars through an informant. This asset told me that Churchill was making Pinot that was close to perfect. I knew that with a claim like this from my trusted source, an immediate surveillance mission was in order.

Before I could pay Churchill Cellars a visit, however, I had other business to attend to; The Wine Spies were invited to a secret wine-industry where carefully vetted winemakers would have a chance to meet with us – and to unveil their new releases to us in advance of any public unveiling. This sort of clandestine gathering is the perfect place to sleuth out new wines for our Operatives – before anyone else gets to see them.

Since Agent White was handling all of the logistics for the gathering (arranging accommodations, helicopter rides, massages and the like for our winemakers), I had no idea how many winemakers to expect. The gathering was larger than I had thought it would be, with nearly 30 winery-folk packed into the poshly-appointed meeting room.

Midway through the evening, a very tall man sidles casually up next to me and shakes my hand. “So, your Agent Red” he says. “What’s your favorite varietal?”

Agent Sparkle is concealed behind a two-way mirror behind me, feeding me intel on each winemaker I meet throughout the night. Through the tiny two-way radio concealed in my ear canal, Agent Sparkle says, “Ken Churchill. Churchill Cellars. Exclusively high-end Pinot and on your Alert List.”

I smile at the man and reply, “I enjoy most red varietals, but my current infatuation is for a great Cabernet Franc.”

He takes the bait and, scowling slightly, says, “Who drinks Cab Franc? what can you pair that with? What about a great Pinot Noir?” As he asks this question, his eyebrows go up and down slightly and a sly smile plays across his lips.

“Why?,” I ask. “Who do you know that makes the best Pinot?”

His smile broadens and he gushes exuberantly about his own estate Pinot Noir, and about his passionate pursuit for Pinot perfection. His enthusiasm seems to know no bounds and he suggests that we arrange a tasting.

The next day I am treated to some of the best Pinot Noir I have tasted in some time. Ken and his winemaker, Anthony Austin, have created a premium Pinot Noir with incredible mouth-feel, rich aromatics and great flavors. This vintage is reported to be better than the previous and they have high hopes for an even better vintage late this year with the release of their 2006. They got this one so right that I can’t imagine much more improvement.

To create wines that get better with each successive vintage is the goal of most great winemakers and the team at Churchill Cellars certainly have the drive to pull it off. As Winston Churchill said:

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”