If you have 1998 Oregon Pinot Noirs in your cellar now may be a good time to start drinking them up but apparently there's little reason to hurry. They have a reputation for long life, and last weekend our informal wine dinner tasting proved the point: only one of the Oregon Pinots we tasted, the lovely at-its-peak Shea Shea, wasn't a young wine. All were tasted blind.
1998 SHEA SHEA VINEYARD I love Shea Vineyard, so no wonder this was my number 2 WOTN, the group's number 1. A memorable, elegant almost Burgundian wine with plenty of interesting secondary characteristics. Searching hard for a flaw I wondered if it could use more fruit. Maybe it could as by the end of the long evening it began to sag. Drink up if you are lucky to have some.
1998 PANTHER CREEK FREEDOM HILL My number 3, the group's number 4. A true to type Oregon cherry-strawberry fruity wine with a tad more sweetness on the palate than it needs but still reasonably in balance and quite charming. Seems very young.
1998 WILLAKENZIE CROFT Corked.
1998 WILLAKENZIE ALLIETE My number 5, the group's 6. Another typical Oregon fruity wine with little in the way of secondary development. A pleasant quaffer but one hopes for just a little more after this much cellar time.
1998 SIDURI CALIFORNIA Would I have rated this my number 1 WOTN (the group rated it number 2) if I had first seen the humble "California" no-vineyard apellation on the label and known the wine cost a measly $20 on release? I hope so. I don't know what vineyards the grapes came from, but this beautiful bricky apparently unfiltered charmer with a dreamy nose and a luscious finish made me a Siduri fan. Wish I had a case.
1998 THOMAS WILLAMETTE VALLEY My number 4, the group's number 3. The nose was a little closed at first and then there was an off odor that hinted at VA but that disappeared and revealed a pleasant, complex, mostly secondary wine but with enough fruit to hang around for a couple more years or so.
1998 EVESHAM WOOD PUIT SEC My number 6, the group's 4. A refreshing minty nose followed by a disappointing grassy palate. The night's only wine other than the corked one that I wouldn't look forward to drinking again.