1999 Oregon Pinot Noir tasting

I was hoping the forumites here could help me out on this one. I am giving a tasting this weekend and the centerpiece of the tasting will be 3 1999 Oregon Pinot Noirs. To make it interesting, I was going to throw in a similarly aged Clos St Denis and Echezeaux and taste them all blind. I was looking for a retrospective report on how the 1999 vintage in Oregon has evolved but I have come up with nothing.
Incidentally the Oregon 99's are
1. Hamacher
2. St. Innocent Seven Springs
3. Beaux Freres
The Burgundy ringers are:
1. Domaine des Chezeaux Clos St Denis 1999
2. Maison Champy Echezaux 1997

OK- no nibbles so far.
Perhaps somebody would like to weigh in on decanting. My feeling would be to not decant, pour them straight from the bottle, but this is a very pro-decanting crowd I am pouring for (even if just for a few minutes) and it also makes it easier to serve blind.

The only one of the wines I've had is the SI 7Springs, which I quite liked, but drank my last of several years ago. But I think it should be great. I'd decant for sediment (and "blindness"). I'd also assume the Chezeaux CSD would benefit from air (this is really Ponsot?). The Champy Echezeaux is likely to be most mature (based on vintage character and house), but decanting right before serving shouldn't hurt it imho.

From my experience I would decant for 1 hour (Pyrex bowl or similar) back into the bottle, chill for 25 min. This should give them all a good head-start that they almost always need to show best. Take the capsule off the bottles and into bags (number the bags on one side only, flip over and shuffle, then insert the wines, getting someone else to place the bagged bottles, you will then be able to participate in the game, totally unawares). Please report back on the results.

From my experience I would decant for 1 hour (Pyrex bowl or similar) back into the bottle, chill for 25 min. This should give them all a good head-start that they almost always need to show best. Take the capsule off the bottles and into bags (number the bags on one side only, flip over and shuffle, then insert the wines, getting someone else to place the bagged bottles, you will then be able to participate in the game, totally unawares). Please report back on the results.

I can't say I totally followed that. Sounds like you are suggesting double decanting, leaving decanted for an hour then returning to the bottle, chilling for a bit, then a labelling system (that lost me) which would allow me to taste blind as well. Let me know if that is right.

A couple of thoughts:
1. I love the idea of the 25 minute chill as these bottles have been upright at room temp all week so won't be coming straight out of the cellar.
2. I was thinking about pouring straight from bottle but I have 5 identical small decanters that I think I will use.
3. I was going to label the bottom of the decanters with symbols which would be the key, then shuffle them, then get my wife to number the front of the decanters and pour.

Sounds like you have a system that will work. You were right about the double decant. And as for the bags, plain brown wine bags, number on one side only, turn bags over and shuffle. Then, with the numbers facing away, put each bottle into a bag. You can then have someone else carry the bags into the tasting room and arrange in numerical order. I've also found that if you have six wines and six people, it is easier if everyone starts with a different bottle. I like to number the glasses and score sheet with the same number (hard to screw that up and miss-place a score sheet or glass) and start with the number on your score sheet. Garage-sale stickers work great for the glasses and are easy to rremove. That way everyone is working on one wine at a time, and any wariation in air or temperature will be spread out over all the wines.

Dale and Richard,
Thanks for the tips. Richard, your last post clarifies that method nicely. I will let you know how it goes.