2019 Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir, Estate Vineyards, Monterey County, California
Tasting Notes
Bright aromas of raspberry and strawberry lead to flavors of cranberry, pomegranate and cherry. Delicate notes of fresh herbs are complemented by light vanilla from the French oak. This wine is medium-bodied, well-balanced and integrated with a soft, round mouthfeel and a lingering, red fruit finish.
Vineyards Notes
Pinot Noir is notoriously difficult but the Monterey region offers an ideal climate to grow this temperamental grape. The cool ocean air that comes sweeping down the valley each day lengthens the growing season and allows the grapes to ripen slowly and evenly. This extra time on the vine yields a varietally correct wine of consistent depth and complexity.
Winemaking Notes
Our Pinot Noir grapes are harvested during the night and very early morning to keep the fruit cool in order to preserve delicate nuances of aromas and flavors. It is also important to harvest Pinot Noir at optimum ripeness and transport promptly to the winery. Upon arrival, the grapes are destemmed,
crushed, fermented dry, then racked clean and carefully aged with both new and neutral French oak for 10 months prior to bottling.
Specs
Vintage: 2019
Harvest Brix: 24.1Ė (average)
Alcohol: 13.5%
pH: 3.71
TA: 5.7 g/L
Aging: 25% New French oak for 10 months
Cases: 1,500
Whatās Included
6-bottles:
6x 2019 Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir, Estate Vineyards, Monterey County, California
Case:
12x 2019 Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir, Estate Vineyards, Monterey County, California
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $216/case MSRP
About The Winery
Winery: Long Valley Ranch
Located in the Central Coast region of California, the Salinas Valley is also known as the Long Valley, a name coined by writer John Steinbeck due to its 100-mile length. Cradled between the Gabilan and Santa Lucia mountain ranges, this bountiful stretch was carved out by the Salinas River millions of years ago and holds some of the worldās richest farm and vineyard land. Weāre proud to be farmers of our estate vineyards for over 40 years in the Long Valley, a place that is truly a gift from Mother Nature.
For cool climate varietals like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, we source the grapes from our estate vineyards in the northern part of Monterey County, where morning fogs often linger until mid-day. This allows the intricate fruit flavors to develop while preserving crucial acidity. For sun-loving Cabernet Sauvignon, we grow the grapes on our estate vineyards located in the southern reaches of Monterey County, where sunshine-filled days are followed by the cooling maritime influence in the late afternoons.
The long growing season of Monterey County allows us to let the grapes stay on the vine until that ideal moment when they have reached full flavor development. Longer time on the vine means the grapes ripen slowly and evenly. At Long Valley Ranch, we let it hang until the grapes are at their peak ā the style and structure of the resulting wines are a direct reflection of our estate vineyards and the unique landscape of the Monterey appellation.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations) 2019 Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir - $25 = 17.85%
I am honored to be chosen as a lab rat again. I received the email last week and was super excited. UPS was supposed to deliver between 1-4 and did not show up until almost 8pm on a rather hot day here in Phoenix, AZ. The bottle was quite warm so I checked the temperature, 104 degrees!
Because of the temp exposure, I did not have much hope for this wine. Straight to the wine cooler for three days. Opened up Sunday night to go with a nice Chicken Marsala dish my lovely wife made for us. Nice garnet red color, not many legs. Fruit forward berry nose similar to a zin. Taste is well balanced. No tannins. Very drinkable. Nice red fruit finish. I highly recommend this wine at the price point. The only issue I have is the heat exposure and if it made any changes better or worse
104!!
If it didnāt cook the wine it aged it expeditiously for sure, Iāve had past issues with case mates shipping wine in extreme heat, not real smart@steverwrx
@klezman@Sardinicus
The only thing that will save you in this heat is ice packs and overnight shipping but that is not the business model so just ignore me
@klezman@Sardinicus@ScottW58 In this heat you are correct sir. However my humble the ideal business model is to hold shipping for more appropriate weather. And feel free to put me on the ignore list as well
@kaolis
It completely makes sense to hold shipping for orders that are placed, but the same canāt be said for lab rat bottles. Thatād defeat the purpose. Lab rat bottles already have expedited shipping, so I think @ScottW58 makes a good point. Perhaps a few ice packs should be thrown in to protect the sample bottle from getting cooked. And shipping orders should (and are supposed to) be held off until the weather is suitable to do so. Styro helps, but it can only do so much.
@kawichris650@ScottW58 good point on rat bottles. But shipping is not supposed to be held here for suitable weather, or are you just talking in general?
I was looking for a more specific quote from WD, but finding it proved difficult/impossible. The search function here isnāt the greatest after all.
I thought I remembered WD saying shipments were coordinated (and delayed if necessary) based on weather conditions. Not delayed to the extent of being held all summer long of course, but I thought strategy was in place to avoid heat spikes. Perhaps I was mistaken or things have changed if that ever was truly the case.
@rjquillin
Nah, Iām not looking for a reply from WD. For better or for worse, the shipping practices are what they are. As heās stated on many occasions, heās trying to run a model that is as efficient as possible in order to provide us the best deals possible. On the off chance an issue arises, the CM crew is pretty good (for the most part) about making things right.
@kawichris650@rjquillin@scottw58 Nope, absolutely no consideration of weather on shipping here on casemates. Other than the 2 day āsummer shippingā. But again that does not take weather into consideration. Anyone including @winedavid49 who wishes to correct me Iām all ears.
@kaolis@kawichris650@rjquillin@ScottW58 for the last two summers, all orders from prior week (unless the winery doesnāt get it to us in time) are shipped Monday or Tuesday the following week. Donāt ship Wed-Friday. And yes, they go out. all 2 day transit. With largely resoundingly positive results (better be at that cost!).
and we have 2021 San Francisco Wine Competition Pinot Noir $15.00 - $19.99: Silver Medal
also a very quick and casual non-pro reviewā¦
ā¦I happened to pick up a few of these last week while perusing the beer aisles in a local beverage alcohol emporium. No this wasnāt presented in the beer aisles but hey you have to at least scoot through the wine selections right? And I could use a little pizza wine. So with a few bottles of Palazzo della Torre in tow I pass the pinot section and see a big yellow $8 sale sign. Impulse buy, three in the cart. Opened one up the other night with a few chicken thighs on the propane. Obviously not taking notes. But it was probably technically correct. No glaring deficiencies. A little to the darker side of the red fruit spectrum. Some spice and smoke. The chicken thighs enjoyed it. So I say to myself after a couple of glasses is that it was really boring and one dimensional. So I guess Iād say nothing really wrong with it, but nothing to get excited about.
Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir was one of my all-time favorites on Casemates. A solid everyday sipper at an unbeatable price. I remember hanging onto my last few bottles, waiting years for it to show up again but it never did. This is a case buy for sure!
I think this is the first red Iāve gotten to rat, and being a Pinot, I had to enlist the help of my wife (her fav!).
We tasted it alone, and also with dinner (dumplings) and agreed that this is a food wine. I couldnāt get any distinct aromas, but my wife said āit smells like itās going to taste like strawberriesā. And sure enough, itās a very fruit forward wine, with some strawberry notes atop the typical cherry flavors. Thereās also some tart cranberry to it, and that tartness contributes something to the finish that we didnāt love: itās not tannic, but we still got a little dried out after a sip. Didnāt get the vanilla expected from oak barrels, but my pallet isnāt super tuned to that when thereās all this flavor.
Gorgeous ruby color, fast legs, no sediment.
Now, again, Iām not the Pinot expert in the house, and my wife usually nails it within a couple bucks whenever I ask what she thinks a wine retails for. She said this one should go for $30, and was surprised when cellartracker was valuing it at $10. Itās super drinkable, and with that pricepoint, itās probably a good case to have around as the holidays approach. Iād be in, if not for the 8 cases of pinot already clogging up my closets; guess we need to drink more!
2019 Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir, Estate Vineyards, Monterey County, California
Tasting Notes
Vineyards Notes
Winemaking Notes
Specs
Whatās Included
6-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $216/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NM, NY, NC, ND, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Friday, Sep 10 - Tuesday, Sep 14
Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir
6 bottles for $69.99 $11.66/bottle + $1.33/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $114.99 $9.58/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2019 Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations) 2019 Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir - $25 = 17.85%
I am honored to be chosen as a lab rat again. I received the email last week and was super excited. UPS was supposed to deliver between 1-4 and did not show up until almost 8pm on a rather hot day here in Phoenix, AZ. The bottle was quite warm so I checked the temperature, 104 degrees!
Because of the temp exposure, I did not have much hope for this wine. Straight to the wine cooler for three days. Opened up Sunday night to go with a nice Chicken Marsala dish my lovely wife made for us. Nice garnet red color, not many legs. Fruit forward berry nose similar to a zin. Taste is well balanced. No tannins. Very drinkable. Nice red fruit finish. I highly recommend this wine at the price point. The only issue I have is the heat exposure and if it made any changes better or worse
@steverwrx 104 GASP!
104!!
If it didnāt cook the wine it aged it expeditiously for sure, Iāve had past issues with case mates shipping wine in extreme heat, not real smart@steverwrx
104 degrees out of the box!?
Seems like throwing a cool pack or two in there might be a better investment than the 2-day shipping upgrade.
@Sardinicus True. But single bottles also heat far faster than cases. āBasicā thermodynamics!
@klezman Equilibrium is equilibrium, eventually
@klezman @Sardinicus
The only thing that will save you in this heat is ice packs and overnight shipping but that is not the business model so just ignore me
@klezman @Sardinicus @ScottW58 In this heat you are correct sir. However my humble the ideal business model is to hold shipping for more appropriate weather. And feel free to put me on the ignore list as well
@Kaolis beat me to that comment while I was typing, so ignore me twice
@kaolis
It completely makes sense to hold shipping for orders that are placed, but the same canāt be said for lab rat bottles. Thatād defeat the purpose. Lab rat bottles already have expedited shipping, so I think @ScottW58 makes a good point. Perhaps a few ice packs should be thrown in to protect the sample bottle from getting cooked. And shipping orders should (and are supposed to) be held off until the weather is suitable to do so. Styro helps, but it can only do so much.
@kawichris650 @ScottW58 good point on rat bottles. But shipping is not supposed to be held here for suitable weather, or are you just talking in general?
@kaolis
https://casemates.com/forum/topics/new-summer-shipping-options#5b9b5733f6e3aa00876e129d
https://casemates.com/forum/topics/ups-replacing-fedex-effective-1127-offer#5e6e64f1ddcd5a0608247055
I was looking for a more specific quote from WD, but finding it proved difficult/impossible. The search function here isnāt the greatest after all.
I thought I remembered WD saying shipments were coordinated (and delayed if necessary) based on weather conditions. Not delayed to the extent of being held all summer long of course, but I thought strategy was in place to avoid heat spikes. Perhaps I was mistaken or things have changed if that ever was truly the case.
@kawichris650
If youāre looking for a reply, you may want to tag wd as wellā¦
@rjquillin
Nah, Iām not looking for a reply from WD. For better or for worse, the shipping practices are what they are. As heās stated on many occasions, heās trying to run a model that is as efficient as possible in order to provide us the best deals possible. On the off chance an issue arises, the CM crew is pretty good (for the most part) about making things right.
@kawichris650 @rjquillin @scottw58 Nope, absolutely no consideration of weather on shipping here on casemates. Other than the 2 day āsummer shippingā. But again that does not take weather into consideration. Anyone including @winedavid49 who wishes to correct me Iām all ears.
@kaolis @kawichris650 @rjquillin @ScottW58 for the last two summers, all orders from prior week (unless the winery doesnāt get it to us in time) are shipped Monday or Tuesday the following week. Donāt ship Wed-Friday. And yes, they go out. all 2 day transit. With largely resoundingly positive results (better be at that cost!).
and we have 2021 San Francisco Wine Competition Pinot Noir $15.00 - $19.99: Silver Medal
also a very quick and casual non-pro reviewā¦
ā¦I happened to pick up a few of these last week while perusing the beer aisles in a local beverage alcohol emporium. No this wasnāt presented in the beer aisles but hey you have to at least scoot through the wine selections right? And I could use a little pizza wine. So with a few bottles of Palazzo della Torre in tow I pass the pinot section and see a big yellow $8 sale sign. Impulse buy, three in the cart. Opened one up the other night with a few chicken thighs on the propane. Obviously not taking notes. But it was probably technically correct. No glaring deficiencies. A little to the darker side of the red fruit spectrum. Some spice and smoke. The chicken thighs enjoyed it. So I say to myself after a couple of glasses is that it was really boring and one dimensional. So I guess Iād say nothing really wrong with it, but nothing to get excited about.
fwiw
Long Valley Ranch Pinot Noir was one of my all-time favorites on Casemates. A solid everyday sipper at an unbeatable price. I remember hanging onto my last few bottles, waiting years for it to show up again but it never did. This is a case buy for sure!
I think this is the first red Iāve gotten to rat, and being a Pinot, I had to enlist the help of my wife (her fav!).
We tasted it alone, and also with dinner (dumplings) and agreed that this is a food wine. I couldnāt get any distinct aromas, but my wife said āit smells like itās going to taste like strawberriesā. And sure enough, itās a very fruit forward wine, with some strawberry notes atop the typical cherry flavors. Thereās also some tart cranberry to it, and that tartness contributes something to the finish that we didnāt love: itās not tannic, but we still got a little dried out after a sip. Didnāt get the vanilla expected from oak barrels, but my pallet isnāt super tuned to that when thereās all this flavor.
Gorgeous ruby color, fast legs, no sediment.
Now, again, Iām not the Pinot expert in the house, and my wife usually nails it within a couple bucks whenever I ask what she thinks a wine retails for. She said this one should go for $30, and was surprised when cellartracker was valuing it at $10. Itās super drinkable, and with that pricepoint, itās probably a good case to have around as the holidays approach. Iād be in, if not for the 8 cases of pinot already clogging up my closets; guess we need to drink more!