WTN: Lenne and Ayoub

[Jenise]

To go with a vegan dinner of fried potatoes and onions topped with roasted broccolini, I opened:

2013 Ayoub Pinot Noir Estate Dundee Hills
Color looks good for age but it's the only thing that's right about this bottle.
Decent nose but there's zero fruit on the midpalate, so we set it aside to wait for further developments and instead of fruit we eventually got rotting cabbage. Those evil mercaptans!

2014 Lenné Estate Pinot Noir Jill's 115 Yamhill-Carlton
So I opened this instead, and I think we woke it up. Tight, lean and grumpy for the first hour, improved somewhat after that and especially with food, but firm acidity and tannins built a wall between us and the pleasure one seeks in new world pinot.

[David M. Bueker]

I guess I will be glad I don't know either of those producers.

[Jenise]

Ayoub was a big deal when these were first released. IIRC, the Speck went crazy over them. Wasn't a subscriber but you know, word spreads, so I picked up a few at a Total Wine to try, two chards and two pinots. The other pinot, a '12 from Brittan vineyard, was good. The two chards were identical in origins, but consumed weeks or so apart one was bright and en pointe and the other dark yellow and bruised tasting. This winery clearly has/had bottling line issues. Would never buy again.