TN: Little bird and 00' Oregon Pinots

WINE TALK
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Little bird and 00’ Oregon Pinots- Last night we had an entertaining time at Little bird, which is Le Pigeon’s ‘little bird’ if you will. A big Thanks to everyone who joined us as it ended up being an educational evening visiting this ‘hot’ vintage at 15 years of age.
I’ve been a big Oregon fan since 1997 and the wines have come a long way, not from the quality standpoint but winemakers really dialing in exactly what they want to produce and style. The discussion took place about how much experimentation took place during the 99’-05’ timeframe and how awkward some of them showed based on the assumption that those winemakers were really trying to find there way, even if they seemed like old stalwarts.

We started with two mingling wines, both Chardonnay, one ‘old’ and one ‘new’…

95’ Eyrie Reserve Chardonnay- This wine was incredibly perfumed with lilacs, expensive French oak, vanilla bean, egg custard and just incredible lift. The wine opens with balanced acid a creamy mid palate, great texture and balance, this for me was the wine of the night and the best Oregon Chard I have ever had, it was delicious.

07’ (correct me if I’m wrong) Fichet Mearsault- On to something completely different. More blocky and angular this wine has a bit more complexity with more mineral, chalk, higher acid with moderate stone fruit, medium long finish that is slightly clipped. This is just a baby and has at least 10 more years until it reaches it’s sweet spot.


All flights, single blind.

Red Pinot Flight #1,

#1) Showing a little of it’s age in the nose with a bit of rust and bottle funk it opens to dark stemy fruits, rose like florals, bayleaf, Iron, blood and meat. More Earth on the palate with a hit of alcohol with Dark Cherry on the palate. A great showing for this complex wine and a great way to start.

#2) Somewhat muted with a little cola and seabreeze the wine is clean and pure with bright cherry and raspbery notes. Palate is light and lithe with a bit of funk on the mid palate made in a newish clean style but really tasty.

The reveal:

  1. Patty Green Bonshaw
  2. Belle Pente Wahle


    Flight #2

#1) Burley, high alcohol, intense, stems, cheesy and oak. Huge forward fruit, ripe but yet somewhat monolithic, bright acid and raspberry fruit. Large on the palate with not a lot of finesse. Really young.

#2)Bright and pure, very little stem note, alcohol, more creamy oak. The palate is creamy, oaky with Cola and floral notes, this seems acidified. This wine seems really simple and disappointing.

The reveal:

  1. Lemelson Reed and Reynolds
  2. Mckinley Ladd Hill

Flight #3

#1) High alcohol, lots of oak, vanilla with a creeping forest floor that turns into bay leaf. Blocky, disjointed, darker fruit, hint of Brett. Moderate+ acid with darker fruits leading to a fairly long finish. This was controversial as people really started guessing that something was off in this vintage.

#2) The color was of an aging Pinot, slightly cloudy but still a fairly maroon, no browning yet. The nose had rum or Brandy soaked raisins, halloween candy corn, smelled very sweet but in an oxidative way without really being oxidized… this is odd. The palate is way to rich and way to sweet. This wine was my last place wine by far. We talked about oxidization but partially determined for it to be sound, but just not good.

#3) Dark in color. The nose is slightly Bretty that turns into a really interesting christmas spice note, tons of complexity and on the young side. The Palate has moderate acid, fruit/wood balance, fairly complex with brambly fruits. Fully integrated with a fair amount of complexity. Needs 10 more years. This threw us off as this producer is pretty clean in style, not this wine… And it’s a hell of a lot more interesting because of it.

The reveal:

  1. St. Innocent 7 Springs
  2. Eyrie WV
  3. Penner Ash

Flight #4

#1) This was another dark fruited wine with a touch of Brett and oxidization. Stems, dark fruit, herbs a bit savory with a touch of VA. Creamy palate with red cherry, cola and vanilla. On reveal, I was really surprised who the producer is.

#2) Really pure bright cherry color. Bright cherry, fresh cut flowers, heavy handed on the oak but integrated well. The palate is all bright cherry, a little spice with moderate+ acid and a creamy mid palate. This wine was just about as perfect as you could have asked for, (I was the outlier on the oak as everyone thought it was perfect).

#3) Color is darker maroon to watering at the rim. The nose has a fair bit of stem inclusion, a little mint and Brett mingling together. The palate is darker with higher tannin than the rest of the wines, seemed fairly balanced.

Reveal:

  1. DDO Laurene
  2. Belle Pente Murto
  3. Ringer-Bitouzet Prieur Volnay Les Mitans

Flight #5

  1. The nose showed oak, a hint VA with dark berry and vanilla notes. The palate had moderately acid with medium tannin, Cherry fruit leading to black raspberries. I knew what this wine was so it’s hard to be impartial, but I was disappointed in it’s showing. To me this wine seemed like it was still in it’s infancy, I see it another 10 years from now.

  2. Ripe Cherry fruits, sweet vanilla perfume with sweet confected notes. The palate is extremely ripe with RS, the fruit is sweet and it really could be used as a dessert wine. This was 2nd to last.

Reveal:

  1. Ken Wright Carter
  2. Chehalem Stoller

There were few of these wines that seemed to be over the hill, almost all had high alcohol which typically doesn’t bode well for aging but I see these wines for at least 10 more years. You may not like what they age into, but they will age. I also think that Slow O’ing or double decanting these wines would have helped a great deal as I thought they really needed more air, also it was fairly warm in the room so that may have led to a higher perception of alcohol but all in all a pretty good tasting with mostly interesting wines.

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Looks like a very fun tasting and thanks for the notes.

Great to see the Belle Pente Murto performing well. Brian was a touch heavy handed with the wood for a time. Approx. 10 years seems to do the trick for most of it to fold in. His Wahle Pinots strike me as oddly hit and miss with some bottles performing brilliantly.

PGC wines are sneaky, picking up unexpected complexity with age that’s not obvious in their youth. They often show bright and smooth early on…and those who track them over 10+ years, experience the rewards.

RT

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Suprising result on St. I 7 Springs. The few I consumed about 3 years ago were light bodied and delicious.

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Great notes. Thanks for posting. The Belle Pente Murto confirms what I have always felt about this wine.

It will be interesting to see how many OR pinots age particularly with the advances over the past decade or so. I am still holding on to many '02s with the hope that they will continue to evolve into interesting and tasty pinots.

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I’ll post my notes later but for clarification purposes, here are the wines.

Producer Vineyard/Desig AVA

1 Patricia Green Bonshaw Ribbon Ridge
2 Belle Pente Wahle Yamhill-Carlton

3 Lemelson Reed & Reynolds Yamhill-Carlton
4 McKinley Ladd Hill Chehalem

5 St. Innocent Seven Springs Eola-Amity
6 Eyrie Willamette Valley WV
7 Penner Ash WV WV

8 Drouhin Laurene Dundee Hills
9 Belle Pente Murto Dundee Hills
10 Bitouzet-Prieur Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans

11 Ken Wright Carter Eola-Amity
13 Chehalem Stoller Dundee Hills

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Thanks for the corrections Paul, got your email this morning. Great night, interested to read your take.

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If the Lemelson was indeed Reed & Reyolds, that’s Yamhill Carlton AVA and more recently known as Resonance vineyard (after Land & Reed I think had an issue with the original name). Warm site, next to the sprawling Gran Moraine vineyard due west of the town of Carlton. Now owned by Jadot.

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Fixed, thanks Vincent! I was really disappointed in how that wine showed since it was so good last year.

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2000 WILLAMETTE VALLEY PINOR NOIR – A 15 YEAR RESTROSPECTIVE - Littel Bird (4/18/2015-4/20/2015)

This is the third year I’ve put on this tasting.

For 1998 see here: http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1115601#p1115601
For 1999 see here: http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1487523#p1487523

I supplied 4 of the wines for the tasting that I’ve been collecting for this event over the past couple years, others either had wines from their cellars or sourced. I’ve got 4-5 wines lined up each vintage going forward, so I hope we can find a group every year to do it again.

Three wines showed extremely well, a few were terrible and the rest were just ok, with some folks feeling those wines need time and others feeling they might not come together given the warm vintage. I’m really looking forward to next year as 2001 is one of my favorite Oregon vintages.


Flight 1 (Starter Whites)

  • 1995 Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay Reserve - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills (4/20/2015)
    Light, appropriate color for the age. Cool caraway on the nose, maybe some menthol too. In the mouth, round, pleasing pear but also, persistent and elongating acid. Very soft and elegant, feminine. A really complete wine. A great showing.
  • 2002 Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault Les Tessons - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault (4/20/2015)
    Open initially, then started to show some reduction after being in the glass for 45 minutes. When it was open it was very deep with pear, chalk, mineral and persistent acid. Beau and I were discussing Meursault vs Puligny-Montrachet and I just prefer the overt fruit of PM whereas this was complete and excellent, with good depth, it just wasn’t a stunner. A good value nonetheless.

Flight 2

Soft chocolate brownie on the nose, then very beautiful lilacs. Cherries in the mouth. Then a slightly harsh acid on the finish that turned just a bit bitter and stemmy. Other than that slight flaw in the finish, this was a gorgeous wine and my #3 red of the night. The nose was so complex and enchanting. Beau thought this was a 90s NSG ringer and that wasn’t a bad guess. Great showing.

Dusty notes from the wood, a touch warm but that’s nit-picking. Really pretty, pure Oregon fruit with just a touch of cola. On the lighter side of medium on the weight. Soft on the finish and resolved. Whereas the Bonshaw was aromatically more interesting, this was, as Andy said, the more pleasing wine, the one you’d want to sit down with and enjoy. Pretty much undisputed #2 red of the night.

Flight 3

Disappointing given how well the Sinnean Reed & Reynolds showed at the 99 tasting.

  • 2000 McKinlay Pinot Noir Ladd Hill - USA, Oregon (4/20/2015)
    I bought this bottle at a local wine shop that kept it in their passively cooled basement cellar since release because it was the surprise hit of the 1998 tasting 2 years ago. This vintage (or this bottle) didn’t show as well.

Soft and hot it showed some interesting lead, but then it was ultimately just too simple.

Flight 4

  • 2000 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (4/20/2015)
    This was hot and poopy. I couldn’t get past the Brett.
  • 2000 Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (4/20/2015)
    Rinke got this and a 2nd bottle from the winemaker, David Lett who instructed him to open both and bring the better showing one. I’m glad he did because the 50% chance we got the other bottle I would have been even more disappointed.

This bottle was really soft with blonde brownie notes from the oak. It was elegant and surprisingly clean for the producer (I had flighted it in the Brett flight as I hadn’t tasted it prior to flighting). The wine was pretty but beyond the pleasing oak there wasn’t much going on.

  • 2000 Penner-Ash Pinot Noir - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (4/20/2015)
    Rather bretty on the nose but then floral with some violets and earth too, wet, alkaline dirt. Some cinnamon spice that lingered. This was a very complex wine, especially for someone who enjoys a little funk in their wine.

Flight 5

Pretty red fruits a touch of cinnamon on the nose, then pure, classic, gorgeous red cherries on the palate. The oak showing as hazelnuts, perhaps nutella. The cherries seemed more elegant than other wines from this vintage tonight.

While my notes are light here, this wine was just about perfect and I’m glad I stocked up on 2010 and 2011 of this. Undisputed #1 red of the night.

  • 2000 Bitouzet-Prieur Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru (4/20/2015)
    Very pretty fruit with just a bit too much tannic structure to be really performing well, definitely hold for a few more years at least. Had a fair bit of oak notes showing as cedar and pine needles. Wine should show very well for some time. Wine was uncorked and left in bottle for 2 hours before drinking.

Flight 6

  • 2000 Ken Wright Pinot Noir Carter Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills (4/20/2015)
    Tons of nail polish on the nose, then hot, high heat. I wasn’t a fan.
  • 2000 Chehalem Pinot Noir Stoller Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills (4/20/2015)
    Tasted like LBV port. lots of residual sugar and high heat. Disappointing given the Chehalem Ridgecrest vineyard showed so well last year.

Harvested from 10/6-10/8/2000 @ 24.6-25.2 brix, 3.25-3.31 pH, and 6.8-7.6 g/l TA, from 2.2 tons per acre cropload. 14.9% alc and it showed.

Posted from CellarTracker

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Was 2000 a warm year?

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Yes. Not as warm as 98 but warmer than 2000. 2001 was much cooler. The vintage was praised at the time as the 3rd in a row of ideal growing conditions. Scores for these wines range from 88 to 92 on release.

Part of what we observed here was how different producers addressed the heat. I included the data from Chehalem since it describes how late you could have picked, even in a hot year.

Vintage 2000 was our third great vintage in-a-row, providing full ripeness and excellent weather throughout the growing season and through harvest. The average to one week early harvest, September 29-October 26, saw only 1.09 inches of rain. Fruit quantities were bountiful, permitting crop thinning to obtain ideal croploads of 2.50 tons/acre for Pinot gris, 2.55 for Chardonnay and 2.31 for Pinot noir. White wine characteristics are between 1998’s round fleshiness and 1999’s crisply structured ageability. Red wines benefit from less extreme extraction at Ridgecrest than the prior two vintages, thanks to normal croploads of 2.49 tons/acre and improved and excellent quality from the other vineyards. The overall quality in the Pinot noir cellar exceeds 1999 and is similar to 1998.

and here are the vintage notes from Bethel Heights

The 2000 vintage: 2000 followed the typical pattern for a
good Oregon vintage. Bloom in mid-June under sunny skies set
a large crop that had to be thinned aggressively. Sunny dry
weather, not too hot, through the summer, and a shot of rain in
early September kept the vines healthy through a long slow
ripening period. Harvest in mid-October with no rain. The most
unusual feature of the vintage was extraordinarily high sugars at
harvest, with no loss of natural acidity.

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Nice notes guys – sorry I wasn’t able to attend. I missed out for sure.

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Great tasting and lineup. Would have loved to be there.

Had a 2000 St. Innocent Freedom Hill last night and while it was good it wasn’t great. Extremely earthy with little fruit. I never had one of these before so don’t know much fruit it had to begin with but don’t really see this getting better. Was consumed over 4 hours and never really changed.

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We picked that fruit on October 7th which is what I would call (14 vintages later) pretty historically average. For instance in 2006 we picked it on the 2nd. In 2007 we picked it on the 12th. Pretty much goes that way. It is a warmer, south facing block and typically does not do as well in the warmer years (although the 2006 is very nice) and we did not bottle it in 2009 and will not in 2014. I don’t remember 2000 being notably hot but I do remember it being quite dry. I never thought it was in the league of 1999 or 1998 but thought it was a solid vintage with good, strong wines in it. If you plopped it down in the here and now I would certainly take the relatively easy conditions. Harder to manage than 2014, 2012, 2008, 2005 and 2002. Easier to manage than 2013, 2011 2010, 2007, 2006 and 2003 and sort of on par with 2009, 2004 and 2001. Not making quality statements, just talking about the ease of growing and harvesting fruit (2004 was easy because there wasn’t any).

I think given the same conditions most everyone would make better wines now than back then but I am not surprised there are good wines showing nicely at this point. Wish my social schedule hadn’t precluded my involvement.

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I sourced the St I from winebid. I would love to try another bottle from a trusted local cellar.

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It was 02

I wonder if the oak was due to more sediment as you had the last or second to last pour and the wine was not decanted.

Not to pick a fight here but what makes you think this will improve? Will the VA fade? Will the alcohol evaporate?

I certainly agree, a decant off sediment would have been ideal but I didn’t feel it reasonable to ask everyone to do that much pre-work. I decided against it, put two of my wines in the first flight and opened them at home. By the last flight, the Ken Wright had been opened 3 hours, in the bottle, but with the cork out. That’s a decent amount of air. Plus the 10 minutes or so in glass. I’m biased but I don’t think air would have helped that wine. I’m interested in your thoughts.

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So out of eleven Oregon Pinots, three or four sounded like they tasted good/great, while the rest had either winemaking and/or storage issues, or just weren’t meant to age 15 years. This isn’t convincing me to hold my Oregon Pinots longer than 10 years. In addition, it appears that a lot of our wine storage is sub-optimal.

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I’ve never lovingly wrapped my arms around the 00 Beaux Freres. Never in the league of the 98 for me.

Cool idea for a tasting.

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Thanks for the notes. I didn’t buy much 2000 Pinot but even still, I was surprised to see that I was down to 1 bottle … the 2000 SI Seven Springs [wow.gif] Although we did have this at a dinner in 2013 and it was the clear wine of the night. Young, fresh and trade mark 7 Springs, since I believe this was before the split. Hopefully my last bottle shows better than the one at your dinner.

Of note, at the dinner in 2013 I did bring the 2000 Erie Marguerite, which I had tasted two months prior and it rocked my socks off. I was super pumped to share an identically stored bottle at the dinner but sadly the bottle was way different and did not show well at all.

Jason