Frankly, I was still decompressing from the sensory overload of eight tastings in two days and was tempted to leave almost immediately after I arrived. However, I quickly became aware that nearly all of the participating wineries were pouring a range of wines in addition to their Pinot submissions. Wonderful! A Pinot tasting with varietal variety!

And so I set out in iconoclastic fashion to taste my way through such wines as the appealing 2008 Lascivious, an anomalous blend, in its own right, of Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvèdre and Syrah from Paso Robles’ Asuncion Ridge and the exceptional 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Frank Family. The very vivacious Teri Michele Love impressed me with the quirkily-labeled 2008 Tiggy Paso Robles, an asymmetric mélange crafted from Grenache and Tannat by her Gioia Wine.

From Sonoma, UPTick Vineyards vinted an amiable 2008 Russian River Valley Estate Syrah. A well-familiar operation, also from Sonoma, Simple Math showed itself as delightful as when I first sampled their wines last year; this time they featured the 2007 Convex, a Syrah blended with 20% Grenache.

I managed to find a couple of contrasting whites in this crowded room, starting with the 2009 Chardonnay from Leveroni, the same family that produces Clover Stornetta milk, one of the Bay Area’s most iconic (Tip Clo through Your Two Lips) brands. While Chardonnay is a natural complement to Pinot Noir, the excellent 2008 Riesling from Oregon’s Firesteed Cellars proved a surprising yet welcome contrast to the expected.

Temecula may be California’s most unpresupposing AVA, but I am always glad to make new discoveries from this Riverside County enclave. Here, Woodworth Vineyards proved their mettle with the pleasant 2007 Black Dog, a modest blend of 65% Cabernet, 25% Syrah, and 10% Merlot. I also sampled their 2008 Estate Pinot Noir, a wine that underscored the vast geographic range where this varietal can flourish. From that point, it simply became a matter of tasting as many Pinots as I could squeeze into the time remaining.

I was surprised I had not previously tried the wines of Santa Rosa’s Adler Fels, but found their 2008 Pinot Noir Santa Barbara more than approachable. Roudon-Smith’s winemaker Brandon Armitage inaugurated his eponymous, 70-case production of the 2008 Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains. Coming in slightly larger, with 425 cases of Pinot Noir and a mere 75 of Cabernet Sauvignon, Fotinos Brothers of Carneros impressed with their sophomore vintage offering, the 2007 OSR II Block Los Carneros Pinot Noir. Similarly, Coghlan Vineyards of Los Olivos produced only 300 cases of their 2009 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir, with a bottling of Grenache Blanc to be released this fall.

I moved about the other tables with relative precision, seeking out new labels, eschewing the imports, and exchanging pleasantries with established friends. From Healdsburg, Portalupi showcased an austere 2008 Pinot Noir Russell Family Vineyards they describe as “Côte du Nuit not Côte du Rhône.” Over the years, I have sampled numerous Pinots from the Sonoma Coast, but only once before encountered Sonoma Coast Vineyards, which poured their delightful 2007 Pinot Noir Balistreri Vineyard. North by a few miles, Standish Wine Company featured their whimsical Wild King label and its 2007 Pinot Noir Bosc Block.

The curiously named Zoller Wine Styling constitutes a Paso Robles enterprise producing an assortment of ten far-ranging labels, represented here by their 2008 Pinot Noir Keller Vineyards from the Sonoma Coast. Embracing a wide swath of Central California, virtual winery Pacific Coast Vineyards introduced themselves in stunning fashion with their superb 2007 Pinot Noir Babcock Vineyards from the Santa Rita Hills. Similarly spreading out from their Templeton base, Icon Estates’ Wild Horse offer an amiable 2008 Pinot Noir Central Coast.

Not to be confused with Wild Horse, WildAire from the Willamette Valley impressed with their 2008 Pinot Noir Timothy. Returning to California, Cotati’s James Family Cellars offered an unpretentious 2008 Pinot Noir Stony Point Vineyard, while nearby, overlooking the Sonoma Plaza, Sharp Cellars poured the highly impressive 2007 Keenan's Cove Pinot Noir.

Perhaps my relentless pursuit to taste and catalog the finest wines from the West Coast for Sostevinobile has left me a bit jaded. I can’t countenance such secular activities as Wine Tweets or the circus-like atmosphere at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Maybe this popularity pageant at the Pinot Noir Summit presented a valid exercise in broadening these wines’ appeal to the general public—as one might say in Québec or France, however, ce n’était pas à mon goût. But still, I recognize that this event did introduce me to quite a number of wineries I had not previously encountered or, in several instances, even heard of, and I did get to sample some very fine Pinot Noirs this evening, along with a far more diverse selection of wines than I ordinarily encounter at single-varietal tastings. So, contrary to my initial inclination, je suppose que cette fête ne fût pas si mauvais, après tout.