Here Be Dragons
92 Points, Wine Enthusiast (Old Saint George)
91 Points, Wine Enthusiast (Annie’s Old Vines)
TASTING NOTES:
2021 Crosby Roamann Old Saint George Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley (92 pts, Wine Enthusiast): “This is a bright, fresh aromatic offering, strawberry-rhubarb savory pie, cherry pie filling, spiced orange marmalade, dried rose petal, dried sage, slightly meaty with a dry finish. Hold or drink until 2030.” On the palate: “notes of toasted oak, smoke, and clove, finishing with typical Anderson Valley forest floor notes — wet earth, fungi — and a succinct minerality. Cellar until 2024 and enjoy through 2030.” (AbV 13%, pH 3.6, TA 6 g/L)
2021 Crosby Roamann Annie’s Old Vines Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast (91 pts, Wine Enthusiast): “Showing a spicy, oaky complexity, this plush and medium-bodied wine offers mature, dried plum and macerated cherry flavors wrapped in soft tannins. Hints of black pepper, balsam, cedar and leather join in. Pair with savory mushroom, lentil and meat dishes.” Winemaker notes: “bristling stemmy juiciness, and tart strawberry, black pepper, and spicy plum, vine leaf, and dark cocoa on the finish. A very gentle wine with a sincere complexity of flavors.” (AbV 13%, pH 3.7, TA 5.8 g/L)
VARIETALS: Both wines 100% Pinot Noir.
BARRELS: Both fermented whole-cluster on native yeast and spent 18 months in once-used French oak. Unfined, unfiltered, bottled by hand. Two barrels each — that’s it.
PAIRS WITH: Savory mushroom, lentil, and meat dishes.
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Saint George.
One of the wines here is named “Old Saint George,” after the rootstock the vines are grown on, and I can’t not think about the legend. Everyone sort of knows it — knight, dragon, princess, lance — but the details are weirder than you’d expect.
The historical George was probably a Roman soldier in Lydda who was executed around 303 AD for refusing to renounce his faith. No dragon. The dragon showed up about 900 years later, when Jacobus de Voragine included the tale in the Golden Legend, a wildly popular medieval collection of hagiographies. In his version, George stumbles upon a town that’s been feeding a dragon two sheep a day, and when the sheep ran out, they switched to children, selected by lottery. The princess had just been chosen when George arrived, put a lance through the thing, and converted the whole town on the spot.
He became the patron saint of England during the Crusades — soldiers adopted his red cross, and it became the flag. He’s also the patron saint of Georgia (the country), Portugal, Ethiopia, Catalonia, and — for reasons unclear — the Boy Scouts of America.
