1974 Joseph Swan Pinot Noir, my father at 27

Last night we celebrated my father’s 61st birthday at Acquerello Restaurant in San Francisco.  It was a lovely meal accompanied by even more interesting wines.  Topping the evening off though was a 1974 Joseph Swan Pinot Noir sent to me by my good friend Chris Cottrell at Crush Wines in Manhattan.

There was no doubt the wine would be special for several reasons.  1974, the year that Joe retired from being an airline pilot and union negotiator, was also the first year my father made wine.  The tall, clean-cut, cantankerous Swan seemed to be an odd place for my dad, whose hair was long and clothes strange, to work is first apprenticeship.  That said, in the hot vintage of 1974, my father and Joe sweated side-by-side at the tiny operation that was Joe Swan Winery tucked into the folds of the Laguna Basin in Russian River Valley.

Talking to my dad last night he remembers that he kept pressing Joe to hold off on picking the Pinot Noir that year because the fruit did not taste ripe.  This makes sense as 1974 was an incredibly hot year, probably best remembered for a series of freakish Zinfandels from Ridge and others that jumped into the 16 and 17% alcohols with residual sugar.  Too hot of weather makes for high-brix, usually due to dessication, and green flavors– a combo particularly off-putting in the delicate Pinot Noir.  Whether it was my father’s cajoling or not, the grapes clearly came in ripe, as the ‘74 Pinot Noir was a whopping 15.3% alcohol.

What was amazing though is that the wine was surprisingly poised, balanced, and fresh.  The bottle Chris sent had a ullage barely below a freshly bottled wine, and the wine itself was remarkable.  Blind, I would have guessed it a Russian River Pinot Noir from the early to mid-90’s.  When tasting I was thinking of the many 1997 Pinot’s I have had that were far more developed and descending into the senescence of their drinking lives.  ‘97 too was a hot year, but for some reason the vibrant acidity in the ‘74 had admirably preserved the color and brightness of the wine.

What stunned me as well was how the wine was SO Russian River Valley.  Having enjoyed a 2006 Paul Hobbs Russian River Pinot a couple nights before, I was blown over by the parallels of ripe, black fruit flavors, bergamot, and exotic spices.  In the ‘74 one could still pull out spice and caramel elements from the Nadalie oak that Joe used.  Remember, using French oak back in the early 70’s was by no means a given– in fact, it was hard to get and the exception to the rule.

All in all, an amazing testament to good winemaking and an important year in my father’s life.  It must have been reassuring to my father that such a relic from his young adulthood has preserved as well as he has.  In fact, now that I just did the calculation, my father was 27 when he and Joe made this wine– the same age I will be during the 2008 harvest.  Josh– expectations are set high for Rebecca’s this year!

My thanks again to Chris for sending the bottle out.

On a side-note, the other bottle of wine we enjoyed was a 1970 single-vineyard Barbera from Gaja.  Pretty fuckin’ spectacular as well.  That and the 1996 Lenoble Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs made for an excellent evening.