I just got back from four days in Willamette Valley. This time I was traveling with my childhood best friend, who is in the retail business in Alabama. As a result, we only visited places that are distributed in AL, which explains some of the odd choices. I didn’t take detailed notes, but here are some high level impressions of the places we visited. (My last trip was detailed here, it’s been three years! These are higher level impressions.)
Overall Impressions
We tasted a lot of 2015s, and it was rough going. By and large they were more similar to each other than not. Every 2016 we tried was a breath of fresh air. I make no claims about what will happen to these wines over the next ten years (a bit about that later), but right now they’re not to my taste. The 2016s we tried were much better, with great freshness and energy. I plan on going long on 2016.
On the flip side, we visited a few of the traditionally Californian producers, and I didn’t find them to be particularly overwrought. Maybe they would’ve stood out more in a more subdued vintage, but with 2015s I was surprised by the relative lack of bombast at some of the addresses below.
Clone, clone, clone. Everyone talks a lot about clones. More so than soil, but there’s lots of talk about soil too. Next time I want to ask about spacing and trellising and pick decisions. For now, if you come to Oregon you’re gonna talk about clones.
Spit, spit, spit. I don’t think I saw one other person spit while we were there. It made me nervous to be on the road! People! Spit out the wine!
Thursday: Eyrie
Did some barrel tasting with Jason Lett, which is such a treat. Jason’s theory on clones is that after 20 years or so, site character overtakes clone as a determinant of character. We tasted some Wadenswil from each of the estate vineyards, then circled back to some Pommard from the Eyrie vineyard. Indeed, it definitely tasted more like the Eyrie Wadenswil than anything else.
Also got to taste some upcoming releases that were being bottled. The Pinot Gris is a pretty unique style for the valley, highlighting some tropical fruit and less focused on acidity than most other examples I tried.
After tasting the Pinot Gris and Pinot Munier (very good) from tank, we went to the next tank. Jason says “This wine should be obvious”. Blind tasting, even for just varietal, in front of one of the top winemakers in Oregon was unnerving to say the least! I guessed chardonnay, which was right. Whew! Best blind call of my life. It was a real standout. At under $30, this was my pick for chardonnay value of the trip.
Jason also has a bunch of interesting experiments cooking, including some amazing fortified solera-style wines of both pinot gris and pinot noir. I felt lucky to get to try them.
After tasting, we were fortunate to be able to share dinner with Jason; his family; and Mark Savage, a MW who brings his wines into the UK. We had a 1998 Reserve Pinot Noir, which was absolutely stunning. Jason also served a bagged wine. It was fun to watch Mark, who has many more years of experience tasting than I do, try to puzzle it out. I guessed something related to a skin-on, five-year-in-barrel pinot gris we’d tasted earlier. It ended up being a 1978 Melon de Bourgogne. Pretty oxidized, but with some life left, and a birth year wine for me. Super fun and interesting.
Friday: J Christopher
The next morning we started at J Christopher. I am not familiar with the details of the partnership between J Christopher and Loosen, but they have a stunning new tasting room and winemaking facility that must’ve cost quite a bit. I’m sure there’s a story there!
The wines here were all solid, but the 2016 Uber Sauvignon Blanc was the white wine of the trip. I’m still thinking about it. Electric energy, extreme power without weight. I hadn’t had much suav blanc in my life, and this was a complete revelation.
An interesting tidbit I learned here is that Jay is now getting all of the Abbey Ridge fruit that used to go to Westrey. Which makes me curious: What’s going on at Westrey? Anyone know? Rhonda (Jay’s wife, and an excellent host) said that the Sandra Adele was primarily Abbey Ridge. Looking at their web site there is also a SVD, but we didn’t get to try it.
Bergstrom
I’d never had a Bergstrom wine, but I am aware of their reputation for over-the-top-ness. The 2015s we tasted were typical for 2015, but not any more over the top than anywhere else we tried. They were fine, not particularly my cup of tea. We did try an interesting California Syrah from a different label, Gargantua. It was definitely shooting for a middle-of-the-road style (as opposed to an SQN-like style, which is what I expected). I found it pretty uninspiring, but enjoyed the style.
Trisaetum
Stopped quickly at Trisaetum before out next appointment. Tried some white and sparkling wines, which made for a nice change of pace. I enjoyed the sparklers quite a bit (although probably not at the price they’re charging). My friend thought they had too much RS. Sadly the web site doesn’t give that level of detail, so we were left disagreeing about just how much RS was in the wines. The rieslings were good, but not the best we had on the trip. Nice place to stop by for a change of pace.
Colene Clemens
Ended our day at Colene Clemens. I had never heard fo this place, so was skeptical. (Haven’t I obviously heard of all the great wineries in Oregon?!?) It also is a beautiful tasting room on a lovely estate vineyard, which increased my skepticism. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the wines were pretty good. We were tasting 2014s here, and they had a nice sappy quality with enough acid to match. The 2015s may be terrible, but I quite enjoyed what we had. I thought the Margo (second wine on their rung of four) was the best value for the money, and would definitely consider picking it up. They also opened a 2011 Adriane for us. My friend doesn’t like 2011, which was a recurring discussion. The 2011 here was surprisingly round and open and quite delicious. They claimed this was a recent development, and that the wines needed time.
(One pet peeve here: winery staff who claim that the bottles can age for longer than the winery has been making wine! Say you hope it ages, say you think it will age, but don’t say it’s gonna age. You don’t know!)
Saturday: Walter Scott
Next morning was with Ken at Walter Scott. Ken is such a nice guy I would want to go here even if the wines were mediocre, but they are not. Barrel tasting 2017 chards and pinots here, and both were terrific. Ken had a different approach than most to the pinot. Instead of picking and fermenting clones separately, he tried to get blocks in vineyards with a variety of clones so that he can do one pick and ferment them all together. Whatever he’s doing, the wine is delicious. Sojourner was a highlight on the pinot side, but I think 2017 is the last vintage? The chards, of course, were terrific. My favorite was “all of them”.
We also learned about an interesting upcoming collaboration. Jason Lett’s original chardonnay vines are falling to phylloxera, and only have a few years left. According to Ken, Jason reached out to a few winemakers and offered them some fruit from those final vintages to get their take on it. Jason decides when the pick is and delivers fruit. As much as I love Eyrie chard, I am very, very excited to try this. It sounds like it will be extremely limited.
A side note: phylloxera pressure was a recurring theme. I’m curious why folks planting in the 70s and 80s didn’t use resistant rootstock. Wasn’t phylloxera generally known then? Maybe they thought Oregon was immune? An unanswered mystery.
Bethel Heights
There was a recurring split between places with nice tasting rooms on beautiful vineyards, and more rustic accommodations. Bethel Heights is in the former camp. I’d never had the wines before. We tasted a lineup of 2015s, and they were fine, but tasted like 2015s. It was hard for me to tell them apart.
St Innocent
I think when we made this appointment we thought St Innocent was still at the Zenith vineyard, near the other places. It is not! They have moved far, far south. The new place is really odd, right off of I-5. The tasting room staff kept commenting on how nice the pond was, but all I could see was cars. The wines are still the same, though. I like them a lot.
Brooks
I had never had Brooks before this trip. They make a dizzying array of single vineyard rieslings and pinot noirs. We focused on riesling this trip, and I thought the whole lineup was very, very strong. There were dry and off-dry styles that I found impressive. The few pinot noirs we tried were from 2015 and undistinguished, but I really liked the whites.
I was also very impressed by the tasting room and the staff. This was the only place that had beer on tap and a reasonable food menu; it looked like there were plenty of folks just hanging out on the beautiful patio, enjoying a fine sunny evening. This is going to be my go-to recommendation for people visiting Oregon, especially who may not be as into wine. There was something for everyone, the staff was very knowledgeable but laid back, and the wines were quite good. For me, this was the surprise of the trip.
Sunday: Elk Cove
Again, a beautiful vineyard and tasting room. It was also interesting to see a winery at this scale. Along with their Pike Road label they do 80,000 cases a year. Walter Scott, by way of contrast, does 5-7,000. The reds here weren’t to my taste. The 2015s tasted watered back. The nose was overripe, but the body was thinner than any other 2015 we tried. The 2016s were much better, although value-wise not something I would seek out.
Cristom
It was fun to visit Cristom for the first time; I’ve been enjoying their wines for a while. We took the time to hike around all of the estate vineyards, which was really fascinating. Through a few hundred feet of elevation gain it was easy to see the effect on ripening. Almost fully mature grapes at the bottom of their vineyard, and grapes that had yet to see veraison at the top. This was also the only winery where a non-winemaker did barrel samples. Unfortunately, the barrels that were selected were new oak, so I couldn’t tell much about the underlying material. The wines were solid, definitely some of the best 2015s we tasted. Like St Innocent, a remarkably consistent producer.
One sad note here: The syrah has some unidentified vine disease, and did not look to be in very good shape. I hope they figure it out; I always enjoyed the syrah.
Monday: Archery Summit
First, the good. If you have the opportunity to stay in the Archery Summit guest house, you should take it. It’s very nice accommodations, great location, sunsets over the vineyard! Thanks to Archery Summit for the hospitality! We also got to taste the wines.
Owen Row
This was definitely an interesting diversion. Owen Roe has moved all of its production (including pinot noir) to Yakima, so this facility is now just a tasting room. We got to taste a bunch of Washington wines as well as pinot noir. My friend found these a little slick; I enjoyed them a bit more. The malbec was serviceable, the chapel block syrah was admirably restrained. The pinots were 2015 and, again, hard to distinguish. The DuBrul chardonnay was my number two chard value of the trip, and I would definitely not be mad if someone brought it to my house for dinner. Definitely a fun stop, and good to have some variety.
Patricia Green Cellars
I have long been a fan of PGC, and this was my first time visiting. They poured a wide array of 2016s, all of which I found very attractive. I bought a bunch of Estate Old Vine because I do that every year, but I particularly liked the Marine blend. The estate Sauv Blanc was delicious, but was definitely second place to the J Christopher Uber. I know some here accuse PGC of being too big, but I think they do a great job of delivering what the vintage gives them. The 2016s were very fresh, very delicious, and seemed balanced enough to last for a long time. (I also appreciated that Abi, who was running the tasting, said that they didn’t know how long the wines would age since they had only been making them since 2001! 15 years and counting is pretty good, though!) I really enjoy these wines, and getting to taste a bunch of them at once was a treat.
Jim also stopped by at the end and shared a bottle of 2009 Olenik. Drinking this wine made me question my week of dragging the 2015s. It had no heat at all, and was starting to develop really lovely secondary characteristics. It was delicious. Is this where 2015s are headed? Should I be going long? Good thing PGC has already moved on, leaving that decision for another day.
In conclusion
This was a fantastic trip. For folks on this board, I would definitely say to hit up Eyrie, Walter Scott, Brooks, and PGC. Those four were the highlights of the trip for me.