Clos Pepe tasting

Saturday, April 16, 2011 MAWL Wine store in Garden Grove hosted a tasting today of Clos Pepe wines. Wes Hagen, winemaker and vineyard manager of Clos Pepe was in attendance. 12 of us sat at a table with 7 glasses each. Wine was poured and Wes walked us through the characteristics of each wine. For 90 minutes we tasted, asked questions and really enjoyed ourselves. Wes is the ultimate teacher and really knows what he is talking about. He is entertaining without being boring. We started out with the new not released yet Sparkling Pinot Rose. This particular wine is made by Norm Yost of Flying Goat out of Clos Pepe grapes. So if you ever taste a Flying Goat sparkling Pinot Rose you will notice the similarity. Norm makes all the sparkling then the bottles are split between the two wineries. Just different labels. A 2009 Clos Pepe Pinot Rose was poured. This will be the last of the rose produced. Too expensive to produce for what they can sell it for. Next on the table was a 2007 "barrel fermented Chardonnay. Slight hint of oak. It is aged in 3 year old barrels. I can handle this chardonnay although I like the "Homage to Chablis" more. Unfortunately they were not pouring the other chardonnay today. Three years of Pinot were next 2006, 2007 and 2009. It always interesting to taste different vintages side by side and see the difference that "Mother Nature" can make. I brought along a 2008out of my cellar to fill the gap. The last wine on the list was the 2009 Axis Mundi Sleepy Hollow syrah. This will be the last bottling of Sleepy Hollow as someone not in the right mind decided to tear out the syrah grapes and plant Pinot instead. This is a really good cool climate syrah. The Wes surprised us with a pouring of the 1999 Pinot. A little past prime but a nice example of "old" wine. A very informative and enjoyable day. It was nice to be with people that were truly interested in tasting and learning about the wines instead of those that show up and want to drink and chatter away endlessly.