Subtitle: Patricia Green, Cristom and Dr. Loosen
A couple years ago I posted a TN on the 2001 Patricia Green "Four Winds", an Oregon pinot I found quite vile: fruitless and empty. There was no potential there whatsoever. Marc Davis might have been the one to respond that he and others had had a similar experience, and we lamented that such a wine would even be released. It was that bad, and no wonder my four bottles turned up at auction. They'd been DUMPED. Resentful, I haven't bought (or opened) any Patty Greens since. So the other night we needed a pinot to go with pan sauteed pork chops with a chive and mushroom cream sauce, and I pulled one of these (plus a 99 Domaine Serene for a surely-we'd-need-it back up) as I'm running out of cellar space, and sure-fire losers like the Patty Green have to go. Well, wasn't I surprised to find a viable wine here. It had a pretty raspberry nose with a spicy green note that reminded me of a bowl of nettle soup and which is a lot like the tomato leaf and dried thyme character of a cool-vintage Santa Barbara pinot. Pretty decent, especially good as a food wine, but not long for this world judging by the gentle fruit fade during the second glass.
Anyone have an 01 Patty Green Eason lately? The Oregon retailer I bought it from told me to hang onto it for a long time, so I'm thinking that's 09 or beyond, but I would be wrong if Eason's a relatively young vineyard.
An addendum to my note on the 2004 Cristom Syrah I was praising a few weeks ago after a taste at a Portland restaurant: opened one last night for guests, and to go with a Robuchon bacon and potato gratin. Wow! It was everything I remembered it to be. Stunning black cherry fruit with tons of black pepper. What's more, one of my guests, who is unaware of my own ambivalence to domestic syrah, said, "I'm not a syrah fan, but this is wonderful. Probably the best syrah I've ever had."
And finally a TN a German reisling so I can throw the empty bottle in the recycle bin: 1995 Dr. Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten MSR Spatlese. We chose this to accompany a dandy east-west entree of charcrute that had slices of sweet Chinese sausage and pods of star anise baked amid the sauerkraut, chicken-apple sausages and whole pork loin, and it was nectar: lemon, tangerine, tamarind and honeysuckle. Fairly rich, but the dish needed that.