Rick,
The performance of the last 3 years: 98, 99, 2000 hasn’t convinced me to keep warmer vintages for 15 years but I bet 07s and 11s should last that long. Generally though, I’d agree, 10 years seems like a good heuristic. I’ll be very interested to see how the 01s fare at 15 years. I’ve been drinking them slowly over the last 7 years and they just keep getting better imho.
It’s really hard to compare 98, 99, 00, 01 and 02 Oregon Pinot to each other. The vintages stand on their own.
With 00, there are some great wines but many never performed all that well from the get go. So not really surprised to see the results as it’s what I would have expected.
Really hard to judge or pass off an area based on one vintage as some of the 94s, 98s and 99s are drinking great. Especially the 98s.
Paul,
The oak on the Murto to me wasn’t obvious oak aromas (cedar, char, ect.) it was more of the sweet perfume that I got, and it wasn’t from the grape. To me it was just a little to obvious in the aromatics and so to me a little heavy handed.
For me, I have always found that older Oregon Pinot needs a ton of air, as does most middle age Pinot to blow off bottle funk and to just wake up. Years ago I was convinced of this when I opened a 96’ Ken Wright Canary Hill, it was awful, over acidic and shrill, seemed completely over the hill so I corked it and left it for the next day. The next night the wine completely changed, the fruit became really lovely and bright, it picked up a ton of weight and texture.
Now, I’m not saying that any of these would have turned into Roses, but I think many of them would have performed much better. Even a couple of weeks ago we opened a 94’ and 93’ Panther creek Reserve and Freedom Hill, both wines showed substantially better after about 8 hours.
Also, it was warmer where we were at in the restaurant, which in a hot vintage only highlights the alcohol. I think if the bottles had a little chill on them or the room was a bit colder the alcohol wouldn’t have been SO pronounced. It certainly is an alcoholic vintage but given the factors I think they were a little exaggerated as was the VA.
So to me, I think that these have ten more years, they have acid, they had tannin, the fruit was just emerging, and were (for most wines) just entering their second stage of life. Yes there were certain issues with certain wines but I think the wines would have come together better with an extended aeration. I know logistics are difficult to work around which is totally understandable so it’s no knock on the way it was handled just expressing my experience with older Pinot.
Glenn,
Recently enjoyed a couple bottles of the 00 and its really in a nice spot, certainly improved over the last few years, but do agree its not in the league of the 98 (or 99 or 02). I have found it more rustic than other BFs and best when paired with food.
Rick,
Personally I wouldn’t keep a vintage like 2000 for 15 years, at least for how I like them to show or perhaps based on what they could show. For this reason, I ended up bringing the Burgundy to the dinner. In addition, I have drank all of my 2003 and 2004 Oregon Pinot Noir. I am also working through all of my 2006. I am happy with some 2009 PN, but will drink all of my bottles by age 10. The Murto from BP was probably the best wine to my taste. I was surprised on how much I didn’t like some wines, hopefully it was due to storage or care versus its true profile.
I think that after 15 years for an Oregon wine, you’re in the territory of good bottles rather than good wines. The post-IPNC tastings that we have done definitely shown that (most of the best wines last year came directly from a winery’s cellar). While my general rule of thumb is 10 years, 2005 and 2008 seem like vintages that will go longer, as were 1999 and 2002.
I agree Rick.
I had my doubts on 2002 but clearly I should have gone to last year’s post IPNC tasting as many seemed to have shown well. http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1513767#p1513767 They are only 2 years away from being 15 years old!
We can have a 2002 tasting anytime.
Great notes and fun tasting. The 2000 Witness Tree Vintage Select was that wine that hooked me on Oregon Pinot Noir.
Hmm . . . I’ve got a couple of these. Hopefully, they tend towards the ‘rocked my socks off’ side of the spectrum.
I’m definitely in the minority on this one but I’ve had such incredible inconsistency with Eyrie that I wouldn’t ever buy one of their wines again. I’ve only had maybe 2 dozen older bottles (the bulk of those at the winery) but all have either been outright flawed or too much rotting cantaloupe for my tastes. Your experiences may be completely different, and the 95 chardonnay at this tasting was certainly a tremendous wine but I’d rather spend my money elsewhere. FWIW, I’ve had better luck with the whites and the current releases are particularly appealing, but I’ve had enough “bad luck” with the reds that I’m not a buyer.
Funny, Eyrie is one of the few producers that I would be willing to age more than a decade…
I always look at vineyard and producer with cellaring Oregon Pinot Noir. Cristom, Westrey, Cameron, Belle Pente, and PGC are all wineries I think will go 10-20 years in most vintages. At a dinner a couple of years ago, 3 Cristom wines from 98,99,00 were still tightly wound and needing time.
Thanks for posting your notes, Jason and Paul. This was a super fun tasting.
I like rustic; great descriptor for the 00 BF. With you all the way when comparing that wine to other vintages.
This sounded like a great time. How does one get invited to such events in the future? 
Email me and I’ll add you to the list. We do something monthly, ish.
If ever in the Minneapolis area, send a PM as would be fun to an offline.