TNR: AlexEli

This is more of a request for information about the winery in question than it is about a particular wine. Searching the forum for AlexEli drew blanks, so I've got to reach out and ask for information. I would like to know if anyone has any experience with this small boutique winery, whose website states that they are an Oregonian winery producing reds almost exclusively from Pinot Noir, and whites primarily from Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Muller Thurgau.

Cheers,
-> Pinchas

I couldn't help but look at that web site after you mentioned it. Exciting to have limited production kosher Pinot coming out. I must say, though, that they are a new winery, their competition results were not good enough to make a splash (thus accounting for the rousing enthusiasm of the contributors to the board-probably never heard of Alexeli) , the wines have probably been in the market only a very short time and there's only 182 cases of the kosher wine coming out, in a variety that has yet to win a medal for them. By all means taste it and report back, but it definitely looks like you'll be one of the first here, either kosher or nonkosher. Prices seem pretty reasonable, let's see whether they hold down prices with the kosher as well. They say $32 for the kosher one, but remember, it's more expensive, and it's only a 2010, so it probably is a very light style from lesser fruit. I'm looking forward to your thoughts on this one.

I do not think competition results mean anything, as has been discussed elsewhere. Sure the tag looks good on the bottle so what.

Bob, you're correct, an occasional competition result is meaningless. Consistently high competition results for a particular wine of a particular vintage, or a history of such results for a particular wine over several vintages, highlight that wine as a wine to watch, one worthy of trying, and is therefore meaningful. A couple of medium results from out-of-the mainstream competitions, is, of course, meaningless. What I was trying to say is that a brand new winery has few chances for publicity and notice, outside of competition results, unless it has something like architecture or money or hotshot winemaker with a history, or something else to make the press and get people interested. However, because this winery doesn't have any of that, chances are that most or all of the contributors in this forum haven't heard of it.

How are your favorite wine writers going to hear about a winery? They'll probably be deluged with marketing papers by everyone and his brother, which will go straight into recycling. However, they will probably at least look at the results of the largest and most important competitions, which may give them an idea that they want to taste a wine.