In all its 50 years, the Cellar Society of San Francisco has never had a tasting quite like this: a virtual tasting necessitated by the global COVID-19 pandemic where all the participants received 2 oz jars with 8 different wines poured just 2 hours before the tasting actually began. It was quite a logistical challenge (especially considering it was a double pour) and I’m happy to say it went off without a hitch. Six club members in the Lake Tahoe area even had their own tasting at the same time with 6 of the same wines. Thanks to all the Executive Committee members, volunteer delivery people, and especially Steve Smith who first suggested the idea and identified the best containers and boxes to use.
As for the wines themselves, we tasted 8 different California Pinot Noirs from 2010-2013 with the goal of deciding upon one for this year’s Repast. The one chosen in the blind tasting with 33 participants was the 2013 Dumol Ryan Green Valley from the Russian River, which was also the most expensive wine with a list price of $80. Second place was the 2012 Bacio Divino Cellars Lucie Dutton Ranch ($45). For the 6 people voting in Lake Tahoe, the 1st and 2nd place wines were reversed.
Below are the voting results from the group in the Bay Area:
Here’s the results from the 6 members in Lake Tahoe:
Full descriptions of all the wines with their rankings can be found here: 2020-06 Pinot Noir results of tasting
Here’s a picture of the lineup in the order they were tasted. The winning bottle is # 5 (Letter D-DuMol):
Here’s a few pictures of the Zoom screens with all the participants:
In Tahoe, Chris and John Henry demonstrate the best way to do a socially-distanced pour 
Cellar Society of San Francisco 