California exploration: Kutch, visiting their new home and tasting the 2023 new releases
I’ve written extensively about the wines of Jamie Kutch before, so it was great to be able to visit him and his wife Kristen Green in his new place. As well as being a negociant, he’s now a vineyard owner.
The latest stage in the Kutch story is the purchase of an old Gravenstein apple orchard on the edge of the Sebastopol Hills at 150 feet elevation in 2021. This 12 acre parcel is now their estate vineyard: they pulled out 7 acres of trees and planted 6.5 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Jamie says they were quoted $40 000 to remove the trees, so they did it themselves and chipped them. They then planted with rootstock, and two years later chip budded their Pinot and Chardonnay in.
This is where we visited on the last step of our California roadie. As well as the vineyard they have a large barn, and are currently building a house that is nearing completion.
In terms of farming, Jamie says he’s on board with no till, but for the young vineyard he can’t have competition. He’s asked people how long he has to wait until he can let the grass grow. He is composting, and has a worm bin.
Some background. Jamie caught the wine bug while working as a NASDAQ trader for Merrill Lynch in New York, and this led him to change careers before he’d broken 30.
‘Growing up I was always a hobby guy,’ he says. ‘I fell in love with wine in college. Then when I was working on a trading desk at Merrill Lynch, I geeked out with friends on Friday nights.’ Kutch says that he fell in love with Pinot Noir, and that one of his favourites was Kosta Browne. ‘I wrote to the winemaker and said you are living my dream,’ Kutch recalls, ‘and Michael invited me out.’ So Jamie and his partner Kristen Green (she runs a PR agency) swapped New York for San Francisco, and he began living a double life. He got a trading job in San Francisco, and then after work and during weekends he’d immerse himself in vineyard and winery work. The day job lasted six months. When his internship came to an end, Jamie started his own project making Pinot Noir.
The challenge was to acquire fruit from the best cool (and even) cold vineyard sites in Sonoma. His trading skills helped, and first release was the 2005 vintage. He made 150 cases, which had a heady alcohol level of 16.3% alcohol. He’d already told fellow geeks about his project on the eRobertParker forum, and as a result had a commitment from 400 customers before he’d made the wine. The second vintage he decided to extract lighter but got the picking date wrong, and the final alcohol level was 15.2%. Jim Laube of the Wine Spectator gave this wine 93 points. ‘I now get scores in the low 80s,’ he shared with me a few years ago, ‘but I regard these as a badge of honour!’
The third vintage he picked incredibly early and it ended up at 13.2% alcohol. This was 100% destemmed, just berries. Kutch says it had light body but no weight and shoulders. ‘Pinot Noir doesn’t care where it is planted,’ he says. ‘At the end of the day it depends on acidity and ripeness and so on. Californian wines can age incredibly well. I’m excited to be holding back enough wines to prove this in the future.’ As well as tasting the current releases, the 2023s, we also tasted some older wines which kind of prove the point.
THE WINES
Kutch Pinot Noir 2023 Sonoma Coast, California
13% alcohol. 31 barrels made of this, from sites planted between 1972 and 1999. Eight vineyards in all, 50% whole cluster, elevage in used oak. Really fresh and aromatic on the nose with bright redcurrant and red cherry fruit. Fresh, ripe and also taut. The palate has lovely harmony, with bright raspberry and cherry notes and some flesh in the middle, and then a tight, crisp finish. Beautiful acidity and structure. This is well balanced and it has some good energy, as well as a touch of stemmy, rooty tannin. 95/100
Kutch Bohan Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023 Sonoma Coast, California
13% alcohol. Jamie makes five barrels of this wine which comes from a vineyard planted in 1972 on goldridge soils at 1400 feet, 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean. 50% whole cluster. This is supple and elegant with a core of sweet cherry and raspberry fruit, as well as some wild strawberry notes. It’s supple, bright and elegant with some white pepper and dried herb notes adding an extra dimension to the textural fruit. Silky, smooth and elegant, but then there’s nice grip at the end. I love this wine. 95/100
Kutch Falstaff Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023 Sonoma Coast, California
13% alcohol. 16 barrels made. This is from a site planted in 1999 at 505 ft, 8.2 miles from the Pacific. Goldridge soils. 50% whole bunch. Beautiful aromatics of lavender and pot pourri with some appealing green herbal hints. The palate is fresh, supple and elegant with sweet red cherry and redcurrant fruit, as well as some raspberry. Primary, bright and focused with great energy. This is distinctive and profound with a sappy brightness on the finish. 96/100
Kutch McDougall Ranch Pinot Noir 2023 Sonoma Coast, California
13% alcohol. 21 barrels made. From a site planted in 1998 at 1010 feet, 3.5 miles from the Pacific. Greywacke/sandstone soils. 50% whole cluster. Very floral and open with sappy red fruits on the nose and hints of pepper and mediterranean herbs. Fine, fresh and supple on the palate with nice acidity. There’s a bit of crunchy structure here and nice acidity. Shows finesse. 94/100
Kutch Mindego Ridge Pinot Noir 2023 Santa Cruz Mountains, California
13% alcohol. A small 10 acre vineyard on a south-facing slope with shale and silty clay/loam soils at 925 feet, 8 miles from the Pacific. Planted in 2009. 50% whole bunch. There’s a natural red fruit brightness to this wine with juicy red cherry fruit and a touch of cranberry. Pure and quite perfumed with nice silkiness on the mid-palate, and then a focused, slightly grippy finish that holds a nice tension between the sweet fruit and the structure. Lovely elegance here, showing brightness and presence. 94/100
Kutch Mindego Ridge Vineyard Ridge Tor 2023 Santa Cruz Mountains, California
13% alcohol. Three barrels of this special bottling from a site at 925 feet, 8 miles from the pacific on shale and silty clay. Planted in 2009. 50% whole bunch. This is structured and beautifully intense with powerful raspberry and cherry fruit showing nice density, firm tannins and good acidity. A powerful, beautifully focused wine with nice brightness and intensity. Shows wonderful intensity to the fruit and there’s good structure. Give this time. 96/100
Kutch Bohan Graveyard Block Pinot Noir 2023 Sonoma Coast, California
13% alcohol. This is from 1988 plantings at 1500 feet on sandstone soils. From head-trained unirrigated, own-rooted vines: an old-style California block. 100% destemmed. Floral, expressive and focused with sweet cherry and raspberry fruit. The palate is also really focused with sleek red fruits and a hint of black cherry. Compact, with lovely energy and balance, finishing with tart cranberry notes and appropriate structure. Such potential here, with some power but also finesse. 96/100
Kutch Chardonnay 2022 Sonoma Coast, California
This is from the Bohan vineyard planted in 1972 on Goldridge soils at 1400 feet, 3 miles from the sea. Barrel fermented (20% new). This is taut, bright and linear, but there’s also a touch of mealy richness. Bright with good energy, showing a bit of structure, and notes of lemon, green apples and white peach, and even a hint of pineapple. There’s some savoury spiciness and a bit of structure, too. Such a wide dynamic range to this wine. 94/100
Kutch Chardonnay 2014 Santa Cruz Mountains, California
This is 943 and Calera, sourced from DuMol, who have done some interesting work making selections that are virus free. Lovely minerals, spice and toast with a ghost of matchstick reduction, Powerful and toasty with nice intensity, this is developing beautifully. 94/100
Kutch Trout Gulch Chardonnay 2022 Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Pristine and fine with subtle toast and spice. Very refined with a lovely matchstick/gunflint edge. There’s some concentration here and a mineral quality to the focused fruit. Some peach and pear richness and then citrus, too. Multidimensional. 95/100
Kutch Trout Gulch Chardonnay 2018 Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Bright, linear and focused with precise citrus fruit. Pure with some fine toastiness and crystalline acidity. This is really lively with nice mineral notes and real precision. 96/100
Kutch Bohan Salt Point Block Chardonnay 2022 Sonoma Coast, California
This is two barrels (one new), the first year with this fruit. Lovely toasty edge to the nose. Nice pure crystalline fruit. The palate is powerful with pear and peach as well as some peach. Crystalline and fine with good precision and a twist of pineapple richness. Rich but fine. 95/100
Kutch McDougall Ranch Pinot Noir 2013 California (magnum)
This is beautifully posed and elegant with black cherries, some dried herbs and good intensity. There’s a bit of grainy structure with a core of sweet cherry and strawberry fruit and a touch of tea. Lovely elegance and density to this wine at age 11. 96/100
Kutch Falstaff Pinot Noir 2018 Sonoma Coast (magnum)
Lovely bright aromatics of fresh red cherries and a hint of pepper, as well as redcurrant and raspberry notes. This is pure with lovely texture and a core of silky red fruits. Shows freshness and purity with some subtle green hints. Evolving really nicely. 96/100
Kutch Bohan Graveyard Pinot Noir 2018
Different soils in this block of the vineyard: quartz and sandstone. This is 100% destemmed (the only Pinot that isn’t 50% whole cluster). Ripe, sleek and bony with black cherry and blackberry fruit with some grip, as well as nice firm black fruits. Quiet on the nose but lovely weight on the palate. 94/100
Find these wines with wine-searcher.com
CALIFORNIA EXPLORATION
Phelan Farms, Cambria
Outward Wines, Central Coast
Amevive Wines with Alice Anderson
Scar of the Sea and Lady of the Sunshine with Mikey and Gina Giugni
Stolpman Vineyards, Ballard Canyon
Kutch, visiting their new home and tasting the 2023 new releases
Visiting Mayacamas, who are making stunning, ageworthy mountain wines in Napa’s Mt. Veeder
