Okay here I am for a rare appearance in this venue. As some of you know I am seriously adjective averse. I don't find all the things other folks find in their mouths very helpful to me. Some folks get to bloviating and find two dozen adjectives where two or three would do quite nicely. If you find tobacco, blackberries, chokeberries or dingleberries in your wine, that's fine. If you find sacred cow dung from Uttar Pradesh, well, that's fine, too.
Some of the wines I don't mention because production is so small.
I found some pinots that were pretty good today.
Let me start with a couple of young guys, Mikey and Jared Etzel. They have only produced a couple of hundred cases so far, but they are doing good. The wine for the cash crop is 2008 Horsetails, drinkable right now and pinot in character. 26 bucks.
The bigger wine is the 2008 Coattails (I like the name). A wine with potential. They had pretty good grape sources for both wines.
2007 de Lancellotti Estate Pinot Noir. Paul has a little pedigree, Kendall, his wife was a Bergstrom before they married. Yet another 2007 I liked. A little bit of wildness around the edges.2008 Estate Pinot Noir. A very big wine, should go for a couple of decades. I liked it a lot.
Tasted all of Lemelsen's current array, ending with the Jerome which never fails to please. (how's that for some fancy pageant-walking litotes?) The real treat was when he whipped out the 1999 Jerome Reserve Pinot Noir. Excellent.
I'm ending with the best. My friend Don Hagge is making some of the best pinot noir in Oregon, consistently, year to year. His label is Vidon and I am always hesitant to write about him , because I want to ensure there is always enough for me.He sources some of his grapes to some of the other very good winemakers here. They are primo. He always make three individual clones and then blends them, too. Some of the most drinkable Oregon pinot noirs I've ever had. Tasted the 2007 & the 2008 both excellent. Also some barrel 2009 which shows great potential. I'm not going to tell you about the one I asked him to put some of aside me. There's too little. But, there should be enough of the others available now.
Okay, I'm done. Gonna go eat my roast beef sandwich now. Again, bear in mind that I am usually just trying to put some names out there for those of you not here in the valley. I'll be back in a few months.
(Those of you who make to the August shindig - I'll take you up to Vidon).