Susan & I tried these three wines this weekend:
1. OrangeBeard NorthCoast Skin-Frmtd WW (14.2%; 60% PinotGrigio/40% Muscat;Frmtd on skins 45 days) FreyVnyds/RedwoodVlly 2024: Med.gold slightly cranberry color; some phenolic/VM/resinious/pungent fairly floral/muscatty rather aromatic very attractive nose; bit soft slightly off-dry light VM/phenolic rather grapey/muscatty/floral flavor w/ little tannins; very long slight VM/phenolic light floral/muscatty finish w/ dreadful bitter/oxidizedaftertaste that ruins to wine on the palate; not a typical young orange wine because of the strong floral/muscat character which gives it a strong floral lift; quite a nice orange wine except for the bitter/oxidized aftertaste. $17.50 (KK)
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2. Tintero Favorita Dd'OC: Langhe (13%; KerrmitLynch/Berkeley) Elvio Tintero/Mango 2023: light gold color w/ much tiny bubbles that persist; fairly aromatic floral/gardenias/Vermentino citrusy/grapefruity some stony/mineral/bit chalky very attractive savory nose; fairly tart/tangy/slight metallic lightly floral/Verm/gardenias citric/grapefruity fairly rich very attractive flavor; very long minerally finish that tracks flavora quite pretty minerally/stony expression of Favorita at a great price. $16.00 (KK)
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3. Coury OldVine Semillon DavidHill Vnyd/WillametteVlly/OR Ode to Chuck (12.38%; Own rooted OldVines/DryFarmed; Oldest known Semillon in PacificNorthwest; U/U; www.GoldenCluster.com) GoldenCluster/ForestGrove/OR 2021: Light gold color; very strong Semillon/figgy/green olive bit dusty/OV rather fragrant no oak some complex nose; very tart/tangy/some metallic quite figgy/green olive/Semillon rather austere/savory/briney some dusty/OV rather complex flavor; very long dry/savory/briney finish that mocks the flavor; would like a bit of oak; quite a savory/structured Semillon much like a ClareVlly Semillon w/o the oak; a real ager that will be great at 10 yrs of age. $26.00 (KK)
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More orangebeardy from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. Frey was the first Certified Organic wnry in the US. It then was the first wnry to adopt Biodynamic growing & winemaking. It always gave me a sorta sanctimonious feel to try their wines. The wines were rather rustic/coarse and really not very good. So I gave up on them quite a few yrs ago. So when I saw this Frey on the shelf Fri, I thought I'd give it a try w/ verylow expectations. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Maybe the secret to making young VM wines is use of a strongly aromatic grape to take off the tannic/phenolic edge.
Favorita is an "indigenous" variety of the Piemonte grown mostly in the Roero. It is "genetically related" to the Vermentino/Pigato of nearby Liquria. I find they are often on the spare/bland side. I was quite taken by this Favorita.
Golden Cluster is a new OR wnry to me. Being a fan of Semillon, I jumped on this wine to try. It was founded in 1896 by Adolph Reuter, an immigrant from Germany. It is now owned by Jeff Vejr, who also owns l'Orange Restaurant in Portland. He has a strong history of his heritage vines and is trying a lot of new (to OR) varieties. I am sufficiently inspired by this effort to try his other wines.
Tom
