Our regular group’s October tasting was at Andy and Lisa’s house, with a theme of Oregon Pinot Noir. The wines were not served blind and were drunk with appetizers and dinner.
2005 Argyle Brut Willamette Valley. We started things off with this sparkling wine, which has a somewhat simple nose at first, growing a bit with time to pull in aromas of bread dough, apples and lemon zest. It is nice and yeasty on the palate, with a mouth-filling quality, mild acidity levels and full-blown apple and citrus flavor. It has an easy finish and is a pleasant enough way to start.
1997 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Willamette Valley. This was a really tough wine to judge, for it promises great things on the nose but pretty much fails to deliver on the palate. The bouquet is really interesting and rather Old World in tone, featuring aromas of beautifully sappy cherries, sous bois undergrowth, mushroom broth, iron filings and smoky tea. On the palate, though, one is very hard-pressed to find any ripe fruit remaining, and it is the very definition of an earthy pinot noir—profiled by flavors (and maybe even textures) of dirt mound, clay, iron, smoke, ash, dark cranberry and black tea. I know it was a tough vintage in the Willamette Valley and I think it shows in this wine.
1992 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard Willamette Valley. The very appealing nose of this wine features a lovely core of sweet raspberries and sappy strawberries accented by interesting notes of clove, nutmeg, fireplace ash and forest floor. In the mouth, it has a nice sweet berry entry and expands out through the structured mid-palate where there’s more airy tartness to the profile but still plenty of cherry and red berry sweetness. The finish is drier and maybe even a bit tannic still, with lots of brown spices along for the ride. I like this a good deal. My WOTN.
1992 Panther Creek Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard Willamette Valley. There is a much darker-profiled nose to this wine, featuring aromas of scorched earth and creosote, spiced plums, white pepper and toasty stems—with a nagging little hint of cough syrup at times, too. In the mouth, it is more densely concentrated and solidly broad-shouldered than the St. Innocent. Cool dark cherry and cranberry flavors are strong, full and direct, with a brawny edge at times—making this seem a bit more youthful and less layered in comparison to its vintage 1992 flight-mate. Still, it is in a good window for drinking right now and delivers on a more masculine interpretation of the vintage.
2007 Dobbes Family Estate Pinot Noir Grande Assemblage Cuvee Willamette Valley. This wine is a bit tight on the nose, smelling of baked cherries, baked clay, white pepper and earth. In the mouth, it has a nice viscosity and a silky texture, with pretty decent depth of red and purple berry fruit and a ton of tingly barrel spices riding on top. It is medium-weighted, fairly polished and finishes with a sweet dusting of mocha paste. I don’t find it nearly as dynamic as the 2006 Quailhurst from this producer, but it is a nice cuvee for easier drinking.
2006 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve Willamette Valley. The nose here is decidedly inviting--giving up all kinds of mixed berry aromas to go with sexy notes of incense, sweet cocoa powder, spicecake and cinnamon stick. In the mouth, it is again all about lavish spicecake, mace, mocha and vanilla, but also tar and lots of spicy toasted oak. The dark berry fruit is fleshy and ropy-thick, with lots of sweet flavor, but the toasty oak probably needs another 3 to 4 years to really integrate. Still, it is really fun to drink right now and was my #3 wine of the night.
2008 Erath Pinot Noir Oregon. The nose on this bottle is rather light, bright and transparent, with simple but lively and pure aromas of soft strawberries, Swedish fish candy and chalk dust. It is young and tight and a touch austere in the mouth, where tangy strawberry and gentle spice flavors show some surface level tension but not a lot of depth or promise of a second gear.
2008 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Ribbon Ridge. This wine is more weedy and murky on the nose than any other wine on the table—with aromas of sappy cherries, forest ferns, tomato leaves and a bit of struck match. The palate is fairly rich and dense, featuring a creamy texture and full-blown flavors of cherry paste, cranberry salad and melted milk chocolate. For me, it could use a bit more elegance and a less weedy bouquet, but it certainly has a lot of very good raw stuffing to work with over the next few years in the cellar.
2008 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Temperance Hill Vineyard Willamette Valley. This wine is really nice to smell, with pretty aromas of sour cherries, blueberries, iodine, forest greens, and clay displaying a lot of character and drawing the taster right in. In the mouth, it is sappy-textured and features a nice combination of sweet red fruits allied to earthy limestone and chalk notes. It finishes with more of a sour cherry tang and dry edge, making it seem perhaps a tick tight right now. Still, this is a crowd favorite even now and was the group’s WOTN.
2008 Ken Wright Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard Willamette Valley. This is one of the darkest-colored wines of the night, with spiced plum, allspice and mixed berry aromas in a rich mixture. In the mouth, it is somewhat fuller-bodied and displays a lot of extracted blue and purple fruit right out front. The tannins are also pretty aggressive, and taken together with the toasted stem notes on the mildly austere finish, leave me a bit cold. But perhaps it is just young?
-Michael