Just finished an interesting hour with Nat White at Main Ridge sampling some barrell '04 & '05 and current release '03 (notes later).
The one continous thread amongst these wines that has changed, and now puts his Pinot right up there with the Chardonnay, is the complete lack of greeness in any of them. Sure, a string of great vintages, but he has adopted a new practise of dropping the underripe fruit much later in the ripening process. This, he says leads to far less variation by picking time, avoiding under/over ripe characteristics (sweet/sour), and it is evident in the wines - natural fruit sweetness and perfume.
My biggest criticism of Peninsula Pinots has always been the level of stalky or green tannins, and these wines are something different altogether.
Uncontrollably, the wallet came out and I spent too much.
Rory