Oregon Native: Help with Pinot Nior Education

Hello all,

I’m new to the boards and relatively new to wine. My fiance and I have been thoroughly enjoying learning about wine over the past 8 years or so by venturing to as many tasting rooms as we can find around Oregon.

I have become obsessed with pinot nior in recent years and have been trying to educate myself as much as possible. Characterizing the wine has become almost as fun as actually consuming the wine. I’m fascinated by being able to identify flaws, types of yeast (brett) leez, viticulture practices, vintage etc etc.

The purpose of this post is two fold: First I’m curious if there are specific threads, sites or blogs that focus on Oregon pinot and actually have good information. Just from skimming through this forum, I see names of wine makers I recognize so I’m very excited to browse through and read input from actual wine makers.

The second question I have is, do you guys have any suggestions on how I can further educate myself with regards to tasting? “Tasting more wine” is always good advice but I’d like to do pinot specific tastings where I have the opportunity to learn either from others around me or learn through the nature of the tasting. For example, the annual vintage pinot tasting hosted by a few on this board seems absolutely amazing. I don’t know if that’s something only open to wine makers or open to members or anyone interested but that just seems incredibly fun and educational. Any and all advice is welcome :slight_smile:

Hey Brandon,

Welcome to the board. This place is probably as good as any blog. Here are a couple of threads. You may have already come across them but if not, here they are.

And perhaps the grand daddy of them all, started by our greatly missed friend Another Shitty '07 Oregon Pinot Noir - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Further education. So much to read. http://www.amazon.com/North-American-Pinot-Winthrop-Hæger/dp/0520241142/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448737048&sr=1-2&keywords=pinot+noir Maybe a little dated but a solid book. And if you love Pinot, you should spend some time with The Prince http://www.princeofpinot.com/ Rusty tastes and loves all pinot but I would say he leans toward Cali.

Have you done any blind tasting? Different AVAs, vintages or producers.

And of course if you are in Oregon, get to know the wine-makers. And ask questions like crazy!

Cheers,

Jason

Jason, many thanks for posting that Bob Wood thread. I was drinking a lot of WA reds at that time and buying few OR PN, the '07 AT being one which took many years to finally get around to drinking a few years ago. I guess all those warm climate wines overwhelmed my palate and prepped me to appreciate those thin insipid cool climate wines of my own backyard.
I’ve worked on the curmudgeon part and cannot hold a candle to Bob. His diplomacy and bringing all together is greatly missed. [snort.gif]

Come visit, I’ll tell you everything I know. It won’t take long.

I suspect that Todd is being modest. I would guess that he could teach us a lot about Pinot Noir.
By the way, it’s Pinot Noir, not Pinot Nior.

Phil Jones

A bit, but in all sincerity go taste at Alexana, then immediately taste at Eyrie. Depending upon your preferences you may include or exclude a slew of stuff. The only right is what you like.

And get a bottle or two of this: It will keep the ghost of Bob Wood from tainting your wine. [cheers.gif]

http://sevenofheartswine.orderport.net/product-details/0010/2013-Curmudgeon-Cuvee

I have not ventured out into your area yet but I will certainly get there soon. I’m running out of areas I have not tried in the Salem/Newburg/Carlton areas.

I really enjoyed Alexana and have had a few bottles of Eyrie but not enough to state which producer I’m most fond of.

If I had to pick 5 producers that I really love it’d be: Cristom, Brickhouse, Carabella, Cameron and J. Christopher. I have to add Vincent and Goodfellow as two new wines to me. They are making some amazing wine that I really enjoy. I just don’t have more than a few vintages under my belt for them.

I realize those guys are really quite different but I’ve had a lot of their wines over the years and they’re consistently really good to me.

Thanks to those of you who answered, I appreciate it. I’ve not done a lot of blind tastings and that’s what we’re doing more of these days with our friends. I’m fascinated by the whole process. How different clones from the same site taste significantly different, how the same clone, same site and different wine making tasting vastly different. I love that and I’m trying to learn how to describe what I’m tasting and identify why wines taste/smell the way they do. The best part is I just need to drink more wine to get better and taht’s pretty easy to do :slight_smile:

Thank you for the links, I have been going through them and there’s some great stuff.

Hi Brandon, Welcome to the boards. There’s a lot of great wine being made in Oregon but Your 5 producers list is top notch, and I’m glad you added a few of mine and Vincent’s wines. Honored, given who your other choices are.

Hi Brandon,
A very interesting book about Pinot Noir in general is “The Heartbreak Grape” by Marq de Villiers. It’s about Josh Jenson’s startup of Calera Wine Company.