Adding from Cellar Tracker, but I would love to hear from others tasting 2012 OPN about the balanced ones. I was hesitant about the vintage at the time, and I am growing more skeptical over time. To visit the vintage, we tasted five bottles over 10 days and only one was good. Two of the others, both of which scored 93-94 on release, were so bad that we poured them out after 5-6 hours. The good one - this Matello, restored some hope. But please let the group know if you find others.
2012 Matello Pinot Noir Souris(4/22/2018)
This gem has triggered great relief in our house. Five recent bottles of 2012 Oregon pinot from various lauded producers made us despair for this vintage – all were flabby fruit bombs. But here we found salvation in a well-structured, slightly spicy final vintage of Souris. Dark cherries, asian spices, forest floor over a good acidic backbone. I’m glad we have more bottles. Phew! (91 pts.)
I too haven’t had a lot of luck with the 12’s. The ones I opened up early didn’t have much charm and just seemed sort of dense and closed. Others were kind of boring and sappy without much energy. That Matello is really nice. I opened an Eyrie '12 a couple of weeks ago that was gorgeous and accessible – one the best I’ve had from 12 so far. Opens reduced but blows off quickly and is really pretty and delicious (though admittedly on the bigger side for Eyrie). I’d seek one of those out if you can. Doesn’t seem built to make old bones but you can never count out Eyrie when it comes to longevity.
If you’re going to be a buyer of 12s, Matello/Goodfellow is very hard to go wrong with. I don’t believe Marcus is capable of “flabby fruit bombs”. Probably his genetics.
I’ll throw out a plug for Patty Green and my usual, nearly unconditional, plug for Belle Pente. There are others. 2012 was such a rudely ripe follow-up compared to '10 and '11. Caveat Emptor.
BTW, the Souris bottling is typically a keeper…a bit more wood IIRC and they tend to blossom around 10+ years from vintage.
RT, Agree with the suggestions, and I own all those, but one of the stinkers was the '12 BP Murto. I normally love Brian’s wines, and thought the Murto might have been a little less ripe due to the higher altitude, but I had no such luck. I’m not writing it off (as I have five more bottles of it), but it was a disappointing bottle.
Brian does tend to let vintage character shine through. Not sure if that’s what you mean by “stinker”. It’s rare that they go completely out of balance and that includes horribly hot 2003. 2012 was largely a pass for me, bought heavy in 07, 08, 10 and 11 so it was a fairly easy decision.
Not to thread drift too much from the discussion of Marcus’ great wine, but I’m curious about the 2012 vintage wines in general. There are a couple of producers (Jim A. with PGC, Brian O. with BP and others) that keep updated cellar notes with drinking windows on their websites. 2012 is still a HOLD for most of the PGC wines and all of the BP wines. For the most part, I’m holding my 2012’s including about a case of the Matello Souris. Time will tell.
I think holding 12’s is a good call. I think it might be time to start dipping into the 11’s. Opened a 2011 Arterberry Maresh, Maresh Vineyard this weekend and it was glorious. All the rough edges were gone. I would check in on some Dundee Hills stuff from 11 if you have it, as it tends to be a more approachable AVA, IMHO.
Great note Ryan and I am glad to know that the 12 Souris showed the balance the vintage was actually capable of.
I know you have a bottle or two of the 2012 Heritage. I opened one recently, and it’s still quite energetic, and I would say tight. I also am really happy with the 12 Whistling Ridge but have it in the hold category.
The Bishop Creek and Durant bottling I think are fine to drink, although the Durant is still a little straightforward(more than I typically expect).
Rich, just a heads up, but with the 2012 vintage being the Goodfellow debut, more of the new wood went to tue Heritage, and the vineyard designates took another significant chunk.
The 2012 Souris has less new wood than usual, but I experimented with a long post ferment soak to resolve tannins(3 fermenters were left on the stems and skins for 45-48 days). The textural evolution was exceptional, and a set of 2-3 fill barrels from that experiment is a big part of the Souris.
The other very unusual aspect of the 2012 Souris is the use of a VERY late pick of secondary fruit from Durant.
With some concern about the warm fall, I asked the Durant’s to consider a second pass for ripe seconds. On Nov. 2nd we harvested 1.1 tons of seconds from Durant and fermented it 100% whole cluster. It was 19 Brix, and finished at 12.1% abv.
Glorious aromatics, and a nice sharp acidic finish. I held one barrel of free run separate and used the remainder for topping wine. The individual barrel went into the Souris (1 of 14 barrels total). The 12 Souris is 13.2% abv, the next lowest for Goodfellow in 2012 is the Whistling Ridge at 13.5%.
Also-I have always been really impressed with how good Patricia Green wines are in warm vintages. Also J. Christopher, Kelley Fox(super 12 although thats tasted 3yrs ago(or so)), and, in general, wines from Temperance Hill.
Frankly…this is surprising to me. Nov 2nd and only 19 Brix for the ripe seconds of the 2012 vintage? Is this an idiosyncrasy of Durant? I’m no winemaker, but would have expected 22 - 24 brix.
Yes to Jay and Kelley in riper years. I’m never sure what to make of Temperance Hill. Cooler site from what I understand but I often find the wines full of elbows and knees and not particularly elegant. No doubt there are exceptions to the rule.
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