Silver Eagle Vineyard Pinot Noir

I had a disappointing experience with the 2017 a few months back (I think it was in a dumb phase, because these are normally delicious), and wanted to see how the 2016 fared. I also wanted to compare my GlasVin aromatic burg glass with my new Grassl Cru burg glass.

Classic RM SE wine here. At five years, it’s still voluptuous and rich enough to play to those who enjoy the bigger style but has plenty of acidity and snap on the palate to cater to those who prefer more restraint. It does have some signature blood orange both aromatically and on the palate, along with spice, dark floral tones/potpourri and rich black cherry. Whereas the 2017 showed more cola and menthol, I don’t get that at all here. Bright and lifted overall profile. Quite delicious and will be easily for another 5+yrs.

As an aside, the Grassl Cru glass has a much more narrow rim and makes the aromatics more concentrated than the GlasVin. They both drank similarly. Maybe Grassl for more lean/true burgundy pinots that may need concentration and GlasVin for new world/bigger style pinots since they don’t need as much help in the aromatic department.

Rich dark fruits dominate this easy drinking Pinot…color, aromatics and flavors indicate more cellaring will be rewarded

Fabulous, rich, powerful Sonoma Pinot. Kosta Browne, TRB is eating your heart out.

By far and away the most muscular of the RM Pinot line. Thought I would check in with this in advance of the Tuesday release! Delightful

The Silver Eagle Vineyard is consistently my favorite of the Rivers-Marie Pinots. Very juicy with loads of black cherry.

This is really good. I think a couple more years of age would make it even better. The Silver Eagle is consistently my favorite of the R-M Pinot lineup. Lovely Pinot fruit with beautiful accents of sandalwood and orange zest.

Thanksgiving wine number 7. The last of the celebration before we switched to beer! I will tell you that most of the reason why we opened this one was because it was on the counter and we were talking about Napa Valley experiences. Next thing you know, the cork on this one is out! Pours a slightly violet color to the glass. Sweet briar patch brambleberry and mint nose. The entry of this wine is medium to full-bodied. Very acidic at first, displaying almost a blood orange zest. The acidity flattens out in the middle, displaying a very robust sweet fruit characteristic. Steel finishes with a lot of acidity and a lot of tannic grip. In all honesty, this one needed to stay in the chiller to rest for a few more years. Why wait? Drinking rather well, although if I had to do it all over again, I would probably decant for about 2 hours before serving, or better yet just wait 3 to 5 years.

Judy said that this one was low acid. And, usually I would agree. I don't know why I was getting orange peel and quite a bit of acidity on this one, which is uncharacteristic for what I know from this wine. There was no cork taint. The black cherry and youthful chalky raspberry was unmistakably there. Dried herb finish. Man, this one is going to be so ridiculously complex in 3-4 years, but drank WELL tonight at dinner.

I have quite a number of these, and thank goodness! I feel a little weird opening up one of these bottles as a 2016, but I keep telling myself to FOCUS....this bottle is victim to EXPERIMENT! Compared to previous Silver Eagles, this one IMO seems to have more of a dried floral and acai berry type of nose than the other years that really went more to a dirty raspberry. However, the entry of this wine seems to be a touch less rounded and a little less 'sweet.' The middle of this wine has incredible balance that really shines with food and becomes more delicate without. The finish of this wine has some acidity, getting more black cherry and black tea on the finish. Overall I don't get as much acidity as I had with the 16 SC PN. Definitely keeping the others in the cellar a little while longer.

Dave had this a year ago