2006 Humanitas Wines ‘Gap’s Crown’ Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

Mission Codename: Wine for the Greater Good

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Satisfy our Operatives thirst for great Pinot Noir while also satisfying their urge to support important social causes – and drink charitably

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Humanitas Wines

Wine Subject: 2006 Gap’s Crown Pinot Noir

Winemaker: Patrick Mahaney

Winemaster: Judd Wallenbrock

Backgrounder: When The Wine Spies was founded more than a year ago, founding Agents White and Red extended their personal commitment to social responsibility to the organization itself. In early 2008 Agent Red and Agent White founded an organization called Wine Gives, which brings together wineries and other wine retailers to support important causes. To date, numerous causes have received financial support from the efforts of all involved in Wine Gives fundraising programs. When Wine Gives got the call from Humanitas Wines owner, Judd Wallenbrock, The Wine Spies were fast to respond. Judd had been a respected icon and a hero of The Wine Spies since learning of his commitment to ”finding solutions to three very primary issues: hunger, affordable housing and illiteracy”. This weekend Humanitas Wines and The Wine Spies are proud to present the perfect pairing: Humanitas’ Gap’s Crown Pinot Noir and YOU.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Ruby red with perfect clarity, to violet at its heart. This wine possesses a super bouncy surface that quickly settles quickly to perfectly still when swirled, leaving behind chubby and tightly-spaced legs that crawl down the glass

Smell – Richly aromatic with a rich nose of smoky blackberry, raspberry, sweet cherry, fresh earthen anise, spice, smoked meats and a beautiful flinty gunpowder that tells us that we’ll love this Pinot Noir

Feel – Silky and very round up-front, the wine is rich, thick and slightly warming with a unique combination of soft creaminess and soft, structured tannins

Taste – Delicious and bright, with layers of soft spice and fruit of deep cherry, smoky raspberry and blueberry with mild sage, mildest flint and soft cedar

Finish – This wine has a great finish that starts big, with a slight tartness and fruit – but then, interestingly, gets bigger, presenting elevating mid-palate smoky flavors – before ending delicate, elegant and slightly dry

Conclusion – Today’s wine makes us feel good – on multiple levels! Humanitas’ Gap’s Crown Pinot Noir is deep and delicious and satisfying to the senses, but also to the soul. Drinking a wine whose purpose it is drive positive social change is an experience that extends beyond the visceral experience of the drinking of the wine. It also happens that the wine itself is fantastic. The Gap’s Crown vineyard in the Petaluma Gap in southern Sonoma County has built fruit that expresses a truely unique character. Certainly this is a high quality California Pinot Noir, but there is something in this wine that is also pleasingly unfamiliar. Perhaps we are so used to this wines great Pinot Cousins from neighboring Carneros and other points in Napa and Sonoma, that this wine stands out as unique. Perhaps this is an expression or an example of what the French call Terrior. Whatever the case, we just love the wine!

Mission Report:

Welcome, Reader. In this space, we usually write a fun-to-read description of how we came to know the winery that we are featuring. Fraught with peril, intrigue, drama and humor, these mission reports are intended to inform, entertain and, always tell you as mush as we can about the wine, the winemaker and the vineyards. Today we simply wanted to share with you this open letter to Judd Wallenbrock, owner of Humanitas Wines.

Hi Judd,

Thanks for putting your wine where your mouth is! Or, for putting it where other peoples mouths are – as a way to help those in need.

You have our admiration and deepest respect for your efforts to make the world a better place and we can’t think of a better way, than through the enjoyment of a fine wine.

Not to toot our own horns overly, but your belief in social responsibility mirrors our own. You do a great job of taking action and effecting change.

We’re proud, today, to be a part of your mission and you have our thanks for allowing us to bring your Gap’s Crown Pinot Noir to our Operatives before it is available anywhere else!

Speaking of your new Pinot, its exceptional, and one that we are certain our Operatives will fall in love with. We appreciate the sense of terrior (the mystical French terms for a wines expression of place) that the wine conveys and think that the Gap’s Crown region produces a very distinctive and very delicious Pinot Noir!

Keep up the great work, Judd, and the great wine. You’ve made fans of The Wine Spies. Both of your wines, and your spirit!

The Wine Spies