2004 Ambullneo Pinot Noir Canis Major ***

I purchased this wine at the Bounty Hounter during the historically wet March of 2005 in Napa Valley. In the interests of full disclosure I should admit that I was pretty drunk at the time. I was part of a group that had been tasting all day, had done very little spitting, and had just eaten a heap of the Bounty Hunter's notorious BBQ. At the time, the "Canis Major" was one of the best pinot noirs from California I had ever tasted. It cut through that misty March haze and BBQ sauce like Darth Vader cut through Luke Skywalker's wrist. (Sorry for the Star Wars simile, but I watched a lot of SpikeTV over the weekend.)

As Greg Linn explains at his Ambullneo Vineyards website, the Canis Major is a selection of barrels to produce "the best of the best. As always, this is the wine that combines all the superior aspects of our northern and southern programs and blends them for harmony, structure for a long-lived creation that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. It is by nature, extremely limited."

I tasted this wine only once since that rainy Napa night and I was unimpressed, but I was probably unimpressed because soon after I purchased this lot I learned that all of Ambullneo's wines - and in fact the name itself - are dog-related. As it turns out, Linn is a big dog guy, not just a big pinot noir guy. Don't get me wrong - I love dogs. I own a dog. I think dogs are great. Man's best friend and all that. But somehow naming one's entire operation after a dog breed is, even for me, a dog lover, over the top. Marketing aside, we opened the 2004 Canis Major *** to enjoy The Empire Strikes Back last weekend, and as my tasting notes indicate, this wine kicked ass.

A pinot noir cum Chateauneuf du Pape without the pepper/spice, this wine has at least two decades of aging potential. It is still an infant; well protected by the heavy glass bottle and deep punt. I double decanted it and it lay open for at least four hours before we finally finished it off. Deep purple color (rare for a California pinot noir) with strong dried herbs, mud, and raspberry jam on the nose. The wine is full-bodied, with good acidity and flash, lots of wow in the mouth, dry enough with a note of lamp chop juice and rosemary on a finish lasting well over a minute. Overall a hell of a cuvee, and worth a spot in the cellar.

Bow wow!