March 2010
Eight Oregon Pinot Noirs
Great Values and Simply Great Wines
When I tasted a line-up of Pinot Noir last year that contained only one from Oregon (the winner of the tasting, by the way), I received quite the shellacking from lovers of Pac West Pinots. You can... Read more Eight Oregon Pinot Noirs
Great Values and Simply Great Wines
When I tasted a line-up of Pinot Noir last year that contained only one from Oregon (the winner of the tasting, by the way), I received quite the shellacking from lovers of Pac West Pinots. You can see what I’m talking about here. I love getting this kind of feedback, and love responding to it even more. I knew I had to start focusing my attention a bit more on the great wines of Oregon (and Washington, too). Fortunately, there were quite a few producers more than happy to submit samples, and taking a look at a specific region, say the Willamette Valley, seemed as though it might prove to be fruitful.
In an effort to start setting things right, I present to you eight Oregon Pinots, full of the bright fruit and earthy nuances that set this region's wines apart from their southern siblings. These wines really do have a fiercely loyal following of fans who are quick to extol their virtues. Well, we put them to the test and found ...
Gregory Dal Piaz is a proponent and admirer of a broad range of wines and styles. During his decades of collecting and tasting he has discovered that a wine need not cost a fortune to drink well. Feel free to ask him questions at the Snooth Forums where he regularly engages with beginners and experts alike.
Well, we found that there is a lot to like coming out of Oregon. But first, here's a bit of a primer.
Oregon’s entry into the wine business is fairly recent, though historically there had been vines planted in the state as far back as the middle of the 19th century. The prevalence of Pinot and similar cool climate-loving grapes such as Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc is much more recent, dating back only to the early 1970’s.
David Lett can be credited with this relatively recent renaissance in Oregon. In 1966, with his wife Diana in tow, David moved from California to the Oregon town of Dundee, where he planted the first Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris vineyards in the state. The Letts bottled their first wine in 1970, under their Eyrie Vineyards label, and thus the seeds for Oregon's modern wine industry were planted.
Dundee, a small town about 25 miles southwest of Portland, must have at the time seemed to be quite an unusual spot to start making wine. Back in the late 60s winemaking was much less of the science it is today, and much more at the mercy of Mother Nature. These rolling hills wedged between Oregon’s Cascade and Coastal mountain ranges were, and remain, prone to cool temperatures and rain storms that would scare many a lesser winemaker.
I don’t know what motivated David, but in hindsight he was certainly a visionary. The explosion in popularity of Pinot, and the rush to plant it just about everywhere it is ill-suited to be has led to an ocean of over-ripe, goopy, soupy, candied Pinot. These are about as far from the Burgundian Benchmarks as one can imagine. Pinot in Oregon seems not only to be different, but consistently different, and mostly free from this affliction.
Now I’m not saying California or Oregon Pinot should taste like Burgundy. I’m just saying it should taste like Pinot, and Pinot seems particularly susceptible to losing its identity due to over-ripeness.
The cool, damp, and gently overcast valleys of Oregon have proved to be an ideal environment for Pinot vines, allowing them to achieve full ripeness slowly, while preserving the grapes' unique, if subtle, complexity. As it happened, David’s vineyard in the Dundee hills lies in what is now the central sub-appellation of the greater Willamette Valley viticultural area! Talk about prescient.
The Willamette Valley has proven to be ideal for the cultivation of wine grapes, and the family of Burgundian grapes in particular. At 150 miles long and up to 60 miles wide, it’s no surprise that the valley is home to no less than 6 distinct sub-appellations. No matter the name, all of these regions share the marine-tempered climate that reigns over the valley.
The conditions that many associate with the Willamette Valley--rain and clouds--are only a factor late in the growing season. Of course the final weeks of the growing season are the most critical: This is when a season can be made or lost. The factors that can endow Oregon wines with such balance and elegance--the cool, long growing season--can also lead to disaster. It’s a double-edged sword, but one that has rewarded the risk takers more often than not.
Geographically, the vineyards of the Willamette are mostly on the slopes leading up to the hillsides that form the valley. Above about 300 ft the soils are relatively poor, of volcanic origin, and with excellent drainage. Lower than that the soils are heavily alluvial, remnants of the epic Missoula flood that tore through the Columbia Valley some 10,000 years ago before flooding the Willamette Valley and leaving yards of sedimentary soil below the flood line. These lean, thin soils force the vines to struggle, and the weather doesn't help all that much. The stress on the vines helps to create slow growth, better balance, a sense of delicacy, and rewarding complexity.
So what does that really mean? Well, we have but a small sample of Pinots, but some big lessons can be learned from them.
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One thing that really stuck out about these wines was their relative delicacy. Now, I won't be confusing too many of these with Burgundy, but the color and texture of most was, in fact, downright Burgundian! Most of these wines are at their best today and over the near term, say 2 or 3 years or so; my comments are mostly about what the wines are offering today.
The famed earthiness of Oregon's Pinots was apparent in a few of these wines, but what was really striking about these wines, as a group, was the marriage of ripe, sweet fruit to the rather lacy structures.
This is exactly what Oregon should be doing, in my opinion, and this small sample shows that many are doing it very well. My top wine was the superb Winter's Hill Pinot, which I preferred to the pricier Cuvee du Vigneron. The regular bottling had everything one could ask for in a Pinot, and is $20 winery direct. A stunning value!
The runner-up in our tasting was the Plowbuster, which showed more fruit in a round, supple style, but lacked the finesse, purity, and complexity found in the Winter's Hill. Nonetheless, it's another winner and also a good value at $20.
Two wines from Arcane cellars showed well, but shared an aggressively smoky quality that may integrate with time, making them the only wines of this group that I can see improving noticeably in the cellar. These are well-made wines but all that smoke will be off-putting to many consumers, so they're definitely wines to taste before you buy. Finishing somewhat at the bottom, but still a wonderful example of Pinot, were the base-level wines from two of the regions leaders: Adelsheim and King Estate. I'm not surprised that these wines lacked some of the distinctiveness of the higher-scoring wines. They are solid standbys and their national distribution makes them worth recommending and remembering.
Finally, the King Estate Acrobat was a pretty simple, easy-drinking style of wine. There is nothing wrong with it, but not much for me to recommend either.
2006 Winter’s Hill Pinot Nor 14.1%
Buy Directly from Winter's Hill
This is full of forest floor, stem, mushroom and light cherry fruit paired with faint baking spice. It’s a lovely, fresh, and complex nose. In the mouth, this has a lovely richness, feeling absolutely round and almost lush on the palate. The flavors of fresh berry fruit are wonderful and paired with great inner-mouth perfumes of mushroom, beetroot, sage, and cherry candy. There is a really nice structural tension in the mouth as well, to the point that you don’t even notice the acidity or the tannins until you look for them. There’s a black cherry medicinal tone on the backend, and the succulent tannins add a hint of refreshing astringency and some stemmy tones that lead to a long, layered, fruit-driven and spice-toned finish. Wonderful Pinot, richly flavored with a lovely texture. 92pts
2007 Plowbuster Willamette Pinot Noir 13%
Pale and more garnet that one would expect from such a youthful wine. The nose is certainly not fruit-driven but it is subtly complex with a touch of cinnamon Tic-Tac immediately upon pouring that is slowly joined by some quinine, marshmallow, and graham cracker. The notes sound like this is sweet and confected but, somehow, it’s not. It’s a touch stemmy and that helps offset the sweeter tones but even the fruit, dark and reminiscent of blackberries, doesn’t come off as sweet. On the palate this has some depth to it and is fairly seamless. It’s a very interesting wine, seemingly combining the best traits of a more fruit forward style without ever losing its sense of restraint. The flavors are a touch minty and earthy with rich wild berry notes that float across the palate. There’s a little meatiness on the backend and the finish is gentle and moderately with a hint of vanilla to the red cherry fruit. This is an elegant style of Pinot, not fruit driven nor the most complex, but exceptionally well-balanced and complete and an excellent value. 90pts
2006 Winter’s Hill Vineyard Cuvee du Vigneron 14.1%
With a fruity, new world nose, this is not trying to be something it’s not. There’s just a ton of dark cherry and blue fruit here with vanilla, Oreo cookie, and sweet, toasty oak backing it up. It’s rich on entry but with great acidity keeping this light and lively. There‘s a fair amount of oak-derived spice, vanilla, and cookie tones in the mouth, too, but the very bright cherry fruit is more than intense enough to never lose one’s attention. The moderate finish is really the wine’s highpoint as the acidity drives the fruit, which is surprisingly fresh, on to a nicely tannic finale. It’s a wine that captures its sweet fruitiness without becoming vulgar. 90pts
2008 Arcane Cellars Pinot Noir 13%
Nomacorc closure
This smells surprisingly autumnal out of the gate, with leafy, damp soil tones that gain a sweet, slightly confected edge to them. This is fairly smoky and with the same strong earthiness as the 2007 but with clearer fruit and a spicier edge. It's soft and round in the mouth with good volume and a sense of delicacy, even though it’s not a small wine. There is a distinct grilled meatiness to the wine that battles with the dark raspberry fruit for prominence on the mid-palate, and a top note of burnt orange/tangerine peel. The finish is light and refreshing with lovely tannins and a hint of vanilla that is a bit off-putting due to the wine’s meaty, earthy character. It’s complex and well-proportioned, but the sweet/earthy dichotomy is a bit jarring. I think I may enjoy this more than many others will. 88pts
2007 Adelsheim Pinot Noir 12.8%
Another translucent Pinot that makes you want to taste it. This has a touch of meatiness on the nose with lots of spicy porcini tones and notes of forest floor, flowers, and toasted oak over a dark base of cherry with hints of apricot. Absolutely silky in the mouth with nice acidity that may be a bit pronounced for some palates. The fruit is very crisp and fresh in the mouth and the tannins almost non-existent. This really develops lovely inner-mouth perfume that is very well-balanced by the fresh fruit. There are note of forest floor and earth with a subtle medicinal edge that leads to a medium length finish that really focuses on the red fruit. 88pts
2007 Arcane Cellars Pinot Noir 13%
Nomacorc Closure
This smells terribly smoky and reduced on opening. With air this reveals a deep, earthy, and bitter root element on the nose that never fully loses that smoky edge but incorporates it into a more layered bouquet that hints at Necco wafers and has elements of bacon and hot iron. In the mouth this has fine, stemmy tannins that support an earthy, meaty palate profile. The raspberry fruit takes a back seat to the distinctly earthy mid-palate, which leads to a light, refreshing finish that ends with some youthful tannins. 87pts
2008 King Estate Pinot Noir 13%
This just looks good, pale but vibrant with a lovely ruby tone. It’s very aromatic as well with cherry, soil, black raspberry and hints of pressed flowers and tree bark on the nose. This is a lightweight wine but its got very nice pure, fresh Pinot fruit. There’s a hint of spice up front, and a touch of vanilla, but the mid-palate is dominated by red berry fruit with integrated acidity and the softest tannins. It finishes with a nice mineral edge that gives it some mouthgrab and just a hint of heat. It’s got excellent length and is an all around crowd-pleasing style of Pinot, but this is no cocktail wine. 87pts
2008 Acrobat Oregon Pinot Noir 13%
This has a definite creamy edge to the nose with nice backing notes of herb and spice. There’s a nice fruitiness but it is a bit anonymous. Really flat and a bit loose on entry, but the intensity of flavor quickly plasters over those issues. This is a fun drink, full of sweet, slightly candied red cherry fruit with modest spice notes and a nice finish that is all about the fruit. It’s ultimately a bit simple but well made nonetheless. 86pts
Oregon's Pinot's offer Great Value
2007 Plowbuster Pinot Noir
Priced from $19.99
This is a bit of an unusual wine. It's not really fruit-driven, but it does has a noticeable amount of oak on it, and the earthy and herbal complexity of the wine manages to help the light fruit balance out those vanilla and spice tones. A wine that makes you think, and continues to evolve.
2006 Winter's Hill Pinot Noir
Winery Direct Pricing $20.00
This is just a wonderfully perfumed, delicately balanced Pinot Noir that is perfect for current consumption, and a great value to boot. There are solid notes of forest floor, stemmy herbs, rich fruit, and a dusting of baking spices that create a truly alluring, complex yet accessible package.
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