The 200O Dehlinger Octagon Pinot Noir is a terrific wine. Fully resolved at age 16, the wine is silky smooth with a wonderful finish. Still plenty of cherry and pomegranate fruit with some earthiness on the back end.
A question for longtime Dehlinger drinkers. Does anyone think the recent vintages of Dehlinger Pinots, with their bigger style and elevated alcohol, will taste as the 2000 Octagon at 16-years-old?
There has been such a stylistic change from the wines Tom used to make to the wines now made by his daughter, Eva.
I don’t think the wines have been as good since about 2003. I thought that Tom initiated the change in winemaking, and it was a shift from the style he and Fred Scherrer were doing in the 90’s. Whatever happened, the early post-Fred wines (like 99/00/01/02) were really good (as were those before) and by 04/05 they became noticeably riper and fatter.
I also had a 2000 Octagon recently and I concur. A beautiful and fully evolved RRV pinot noir.
As for Dehlinger in general, I think Craig has it right. 2002 was the last “classic” vintage, and the wines were a shadow of their former selves starting in 2003. I finally stopped buying them after the 2010 vintage.
That said, I think the pendulum began to swing back in the other direction beginning with 2008. What I’ve been drinking from 2008 forward has been excellent, to the point where I may begin to buy them again.
So to summarize, I’d avoid the pinots from 2003-2007, but otherwise I think they’re terrific. And the people behind them are great folk.
Craig and John, do you feel that way across the board or specifically about Dehlinger’s Pinots? I’ve absolutely LOVED the Syrahs and Claret/Cab from 2005-2006, in particular, and most of my 2007’s as well.
Well…I’ve…uhhhhh…followed the Dehlinger Syrahs…from the very start. I’ve not observed any diminuation in their quality in the
recent yrs. They age amazingly well.
Tom
The pinots have definitely become very ripe, concentrated, and high in alcohol. They’ve done the California thing and just list them all at 14.9% now, which makes me suspect the real number is higher than that, but who knows.
At the same time, the producer and vineyards have an excellent track record for aging, and while I don’t know all the numbers, I think their pinots in say 2001 or so were still well over 14% and not especially acidic, crunchy or whatever in their youth, and those aged beautifully.
I also find them too heavy for my tastes these days and have stopped buying. The ones I was buying up until a couple of years ago, I figure I’m going to let them sit for awhile and hope they turn out well like all those 1990s and early 2000s ones did with age, since I’m not digging them that much in their youth now, whether because of my tastes changing, the wines changing, or both.
I threw out the question and I am not really sure of the answer. I have been on the list since '95 and, to me, the Pinots from '93 through '03 were terrific, and I am glad to have some remaining bottles from that era.
Something happened in '04, and I think Tom D. has admitted as such, and the Pinots, as Tom wrote here were plagued by something, maybe VA, but were certainly too ripe and just off.
I have also felt that '05 and '06 were a miss, and though the '07’s were better they were definitely a different style from those earlier wines.
As Chris pointed out, all the pinots recently seem to list the alcohol at 14.9% which also makes me suspect that the real number could be higher.
Also, I think this stylistic change seems to have affected the Pinots and Chardonnays much more than the Cabernet or Syrahs.
Finally, does anyone think it is ironic that back when Dehlinger was releasing, say, their '00 through '02 Pinots around 2004/05, it was exactly at the point when the “big” pinot craze was in full bloom, and here we are over a decade later and as more California pinot producers try to produce a more restrained style that Dehlinger, led by Eva, are now producing high alcohol, very ripe Pinots?
I’m not sure I’ve had enough to say. I tend to sit on them for a long time anyway and I didn’t buy a lot of Cab or Syrah in those more recent vintages.
In any case I wouldn’t be as worried about those. For me, Pinot Noir becomes a different sort of wine when it passes some ripeness threshold, and I don’t find it very attractive. There’s more leeway for the other grapes to my taste. Dehlinger Cab and Syrah were always pretty plush in a good sort of way, and I expect that can be stretched.
They were never real AFWE wines either, so if people liked them before they may still.
One final thought…the older Dehlinger Pinots always had this amazing mouthfeel (texture). Even with recent vintages dialing it back this has still not returned. For me it was something unique to Dehlinger.
