WTN: Wines in Portland, Oregon

[Jenise]

By the glass at Oregon Wines on Broadway (thanks, Cynthia):

2004 Hamacher Estate Pinot Noir: Vitamins! Run into that before, but not on Oregon pinot. Seemed a touch extracted with a bolder berry note than usual, but both complaints settled out nicely in the glass. Interesting wine, I brought a bottle home for further study.

2003 Domaine Serene Evanstadt Reserve: Nose of spiced cherries. Also a creamy malolactic presence. Don't remember this about past Evanstadts, and I wondered if it was the wine or the bottom of a bottle that was getting tired of getting gassed.

A flight at South Park restaurant after, no joke, running into Bill Clinton outside the Heathman:

2005 Cristom Viognier: clean and elegant, medium bodied with complex viognier character and moderate acid.

2004 Cristom Pinot Noir: this was a single vineyard but I forgot the name. It wasn't one I was previously familiar with--Sommers? Pleasant pinot but simplistic and unsatisfying after the viognier.

2004 Cristom Estate Syrah: bright berry nose surprisingly LOADED with pepper. Berry flavors with fennel and bacon, and more pepper. Gorgeous balance. One of the best domestic syrahs I've ever had.
WOTN.

Thanks Jenise. I have been meaning to track down some Cristom Syrah. I think I will add the Viognier to the list.

Jason

Jenise,

Do you know if the grapes for the Cristom syrah are grown in the Willamette Valley? That is pretty interesting if so. Any idea of what price the syrah sells for?

Thanks,
Marc

[Jenise]

Marc, I presume so since, per the list, it was an "estate" bottling. Never had a syrah like that from this part of the world. I tried to buy some before I left, but only had time to check Vinopolis since it was near my hotel. They were out. So yesterday I checked Winezap and only found one retailer with 750's, but they're out too. The price was $27.50. There seem to be a lot of half bottles available, though.

A real surprise, and definitely a pinot-lover's kind of syrah. Not a lightweight, but agile and feminine. And oh that pepper--it just leaps out of the glass.

Boy, now the wine sounds really interesting. I was wondering if it came from Del Rio in southern Oregon where there are some grapes like Cab and Syrah planted or even from WA State grapes and bottled under their name. Makes sense though, great wines come from cooler climates.

[Jenise]

Marc, I've had Del Rio, Tyrus Evans and a couple other Rogue Valley syrahs, and this didn't have any of that extra ripe, warm climate weight. Let me do some digging.

[Jenise]

Okay, just talked to Steve Doerner, the winemaker, and here's the skinny: it's definitely estate fruit. Here's a link to a map of their vineyard: http://cristomwines.com/index/Vineyards.

03 was their first vintage and the only one their site shows as available. However, he is going to spring six bottles of the 04 loose for me--want one? 369 cases were made, and it's 100% syrah. In 05 they did blend some viognier in, but Steve wasn't crazy about the result (didn't ask why) and in 06, he left it out.

I asked for some of the viognier too, but he was pretty sure they're out. The viognier, for whatever it's worth, was planted in 1993 and 1996 was their first vintage.

Okay, just talked to Steve Doerner, the winemaker, and here's the skinny: it's definitely estate fruit. Here's a link to a map of their vineyard: http://cristomwines.com/index/Vineyards.

03 was their first vintage and the only one their site shows as available. However, he is going to spring six bottles of the 04 loose for me--want one? 369 cases were made, and it's 100% syrah. In 05 they did blend some viognier in, but Steve wasn't crazy about the result (didn't ask why) and in 06, he left it out.

I asked for some of the viognier too, but he was pretty sure they're out. The viognier, for whatever it's worth, was planted in 1993 and 1996 was their first vintage.

Thanks for digging up the info. Sure, I would love to try a bottle. What does the winemaker think about the 03 Syrah?

That Hamacher has gotten pretty fat lately, hasn't it. I always liked the Hamacher slimmer, Jenise.

[Jenise]

Marc, we didn't discuss the 03. I presume we can apply vintage generalities there, that there was probably no point mentioning it to someone who was so smitten with the 04.

Hoke, yes, the Hamacher was not quite what I expected. Had a hard time judging it, though, since the Serene was slightly out of character. A Penner Ash I brought home was more pleasing than either.

Hey, good to hear about the Penner Ash. I saw Lynne at the most recent WS tasteapalooza extravaganza in San Francisco. I like her (a lot) and I like her wine (a lot). The woman's got style, and the winemaker's got style.