2013 Oregon Chardonnay Tasting

On Saturday, a number of Berserkers (mainly lurkers) gathered at the Heater Allen Tap Room to taste 2013 Oregon Chardonnay. This is our fourth year of this endeavour. I thought the quality was better overall than previous years though that might be partially explained by our trying to include wines from better producers. We tasted 7 flights of 3 wines, which was slightly cludgy (5 flights of four would probably have been better). Wines were served double blind for the most part.

Flight 1
Vincent - Rich, some oak, good mouth-feel, a little pickle in the nose. WOTF
Bethel Heights - a little sulfur, lacked concentration, nice finish
Walter Scott Cuvee Anne - a little oaky, good concentration, a little harsh, nice finish

Flight 2
Evening Land Seven Springs - Very well integrated with no rough spots. WOTF and my #3 wine of the tasting
Walter Scott X Novo - Reduced, with a weird burnt aroma that mostly blew off with time, nice apple/pear, good acid
Evening Land La Source - Nice mouth-feel, lemon custard, good balance.

Flight 3
Walter Scott Vojtilla - Great nose, some oak, great acid WOTF
Longplay - Some said corked. I thought is was flawed but not corked.
Hamacher - Shrill, lacks the body and mouthfeel to stand up to the acid.

Flight 4
Arterberry Maresh Maresh - Lemon/yeasty nose, rich, great mouthfeel and finish. WOTF and my #1 wine of the tasting
Goodfellow Durant - Muted nose, slightly reduced, good balance
Coleen Clemens - Tired, lacks acid

Flight 5
Crowley Four Winds - Lemon/yeast nose, rich, good balance, a little oak. WOTF and my #2 wine of the tasting
Johan Visdom - Oak, good acid
Keuka Lake Vineyards (ringer from NY) - Funky, bitter, weird.

Flight 6
Brick House Cascadia - Lemon/oak, intense, good acid
Goodfellow Richards - Reduced, oak, showing it age a little, nice balance WOTF
Trisatum - Well balanced, a little oak

Flight 7
2010 Roulot Bourgogne (ringer) - Lemon/oak, peppermint, intense lemon yeast, good finish
Liquid Farm (ringer from CA) - Reduced, flabby
Cameron Abbey Ridge - Intense lemon, great mouthfeel, nice finish. WOTF

A couple of thoughts - first, more people are making great chardonnay in Oregon. I didn’t have high hopes because it was a little bit weaker vintage, but the overall quality was high. Second, I was a little surprised that I liked the bottom level Evening Land better than the spendy stuff. Good to remember.

2014 is a better vintage, so next year should be interesting (and hopefully we’ll have more people that are willing to post.

My reactions were very similar to Rick’s. Given 2013 didn’t have a great rep due to the rain, I was very pleasantly surprised with the overall quality. Yes, there were some big duds and Rick’s notes point them out politely. That said the stars just rose above the rest.

One mental note I made was the # of wines that needed to be paired with a meal. It’s tough to win a flight against another wine that’s better as a sipper to enjoy without food, but might not pair as well as the wines with some acid. Wines that I felt needed to be a food/wine pairing included the Vincent, The Vojtilla, the Visdom, the Cascadia.

I loved both of the Evening Lands. And agree that the base level was a star given it’s price point had the prettiest nose of the entire tasting and was simply delicious.

For whatever reason, none of the 3 Walter Scott’s did much for me on Saturday. The Ex Novo was matched up with the 2 exquisite evening land’s so it wasn’t a fair fight.

I would love to do a h2h compare with these 5 at some point. The 2 Evening Land’s, The Maresh, the Abbey Ridge, and the Crowley. All were great and I could imagine enjoying a full pour of each while reading a great book.

Lastly, agree that fewer flights without random non-Oregons would be better. Set them off to the side to enjoy beforehand or afterward.

Could u tell the Roulot was burgundy vs the rest is Oregon? Or no way to tell?

We were debating what it was… A few guesses went round the table. No one (I think) thought it was a 2013 Oregon.

Cool. Sounds like a great tasting. If this ever opens up to new guests, would love to try and make it.

On the other hand, it didn’t stand out that much. It wasn’t head and shoulders better than the Cameron in that flight. It would have been interesting to put it in a flight with the Arterberry Maresh and the Evening Land wines. In addition, It’s a bit unfair to compare a 2010 White Burgundy (great vintage, more age) against 2013 in Oregon that was a so so vintage.

Thanks Rick for starting the thread. I thought the highs from the 2010 tasting were higher than 2013, but that the 2013s were across the board the best vintage tasting yet and much improved over the 2012s. I’ve always understood the dynamics of the vintage, but thought it was an unfairly maligned vintage.

Mostly in agreement with Rick’s notes, although the Goodfellow Durant was my WOTF 4 and one of my wines of the day (which surprised me as I usually prefer the Richard’s to the Durant, but not on this occasion). Also really disliked the Cameron AR, which I brought and I’m an avowed Cameron fan. Too tropical/weird for me.

The Walter Scotts all showed more reduction than I’m used to with those wines, but only the X-Novo was so reduced as to be odd. Really enjoyed the Cuvee Anne and Vojtilla.

Not a Burg head, but the Roulot did not stand out from the better OR wines of the day.

Yeah I didn’t pick the Roulot out. I did write the word “finesse” for the first time all day for that wine. Not that othere didn’t have finesse. Really fun tasting, good notes so far.

Sounds fun! Thanks for sharing. Pretty sure Isabelle Meunier made the 2013 Seven Springs just prior to her departure. As much as I didn’t like the Tarlov operation, some very respectable wines were made. I’m an Eric Hamacher fan so nice to see his Chard in the line-up. Roulot has gone over the top cult-wise. His base level Bourgogne Blanc is solid…but $70 - $100 retail…is just bonkers (used to be $30 - $35). I’d prefer most of that OR Chard line-up… any day of the week. Also great to see the Johan and Vincent Chards duking it out…serious value. Young Jim’s (is he still young?) A-M Chards were eye opening several years ago. Seems like he’s still on and/or improving his game. If you’re a restrained Chard loving Berserker and not making a diligent effort to stock up on Goodfellow, Walter Scott, Crowley and Cameron…you’re missing the boat.

RT

Aha, so that’s where you were last weekend, Scott!

Many of my faves in the lineup- Crowley’s Four Winds, WS Vojtilla, Arterberry Maresh. Jim is especially passionate about his chardonnays. He uses custom stainless “barrels’ after fermentation and bottles under Diam 30. In addition to his Maresh bottling, he also makes chardonnay from our DUX vineyard (1 acre of Draper selection in Dundee Hills). Both ‘16 (first vintage) and ‘17 are wonderful (totally unbiased opinion, of course!) Rumor has it that Jim will be crafting Vojtilla chard in upcoming vintages as well.

Fellas, thanks for the notes and color me jealous for not being there. It’s nice to see some love for the 2013’s. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy many 2013 Chard’s, but I have a good stash of 2013 Pinot’s.

Coincidentally, I opened a 2014 Walter Scott Cuvee Anne Chardonnay and 2013 Vincent Bjornson Pinot Noir for a dinner party on Sunday evening. Everyone enjoyed the wines. I should have probably decanted or opened the Vincent sooner, because it kept developing and gaining complexity throughout dinner. Very nice wines.

RT, great list of producers in your post. I had a bottle of the 2012 Arterberry Maresh Maresh Chardonnay a few months ago and it was electric.

Looking forward to a Patricia Green tasting this evening with Margaret. I don’t think that the Chardonnay is on the list, but I look forward to retrying the 2017’s from bottle.

James

Extremely Disappointed that I could not make it this year. That said, we recently opened a 2013 Ponzi Reserve Chardonnay Which was extremely good in a rich, round And fruit forward style. Still structured and with decent acid but served blind to our wine group most thought this was a California wine.

Regarding the vintage 2013, I suspect the vast majority of Chardonnay was picked before the torrential rains. At that point, the vintage would be considered a warm to very warm vintage.

Last comment Is that we opened a 2010 Roulot Meursault Tillets at 11 Madison Park a few weeks ago that was…Wait for it…pre-moxed. Didn’t realize this could happen to Roulot. They graciously comped the Roulot and we moved on to a beautiful Francois Carillon P-M…

Bummer on the pre-mox’d Roulot Doug.

Good point on much of the Chard coming in before the torrential rain in late September. Megan Joy of Goodfellow and Temperance Hill Vineyard made a good counterpoint at the event that Chard and rain is not like Pinot and rain. So even later stuff probably wasn’t vintage marked like the Pinot was.

Awesome Notes… Very Jealous. If you guys ever want some new blood I would fly up in a heartbeat for this event…

Sean

Oregon is so totally the place! I do love Pinot but I’m an unrepentant Chard drinker. The IPNC Throwdowns that I’ve been to are great… How did it not occur to me that Heater Allen was THE place to go for a Chard Throwdown? Live and learn. Oregon chards just max the spectrum… but I’m not surprised that Four Winds showed so well. Would love to bring some Ceritas next year to mix it up a bit.

Awesome Notes… Very Jealous. If you guys ever want some new blood I would fly up in a heartbeat for this event…

Sean
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+1

I opened up my other remaining bottle of the 2013 Walter Scott X-Novo tonight (for science). While still reduced, this didn’t have the burnt aroma that I got on Saturday. After about half an hour it just blossomed in the glass, showing lemon and green apple, with some oak in the nose. On the palate, it exploded with concentrated lemon, lemon curd, and green apple. Excellent balance, very good acidity, some oak showing, and an elegant finish. If only this had been the bottle I brought!

Two observations - First, at six years old (at least for Oregon chardonnay), there is more of a tendency toward great bottles than great wines. Second, it’s a lot more interesting to be able to sit with a wine for several hours as it evolves. I don’t think that would have saved the bottle I brought to the tasting, but it probably would have helped.

I can pour you some pretty solid Pinot Noirs from 2013 right now

If the vintage marked the Pinot Noir, I am pretty happy with that scar right about now.

Ken switched to Diam closures beginning with the 2014 Vintage so hopefully compromised bottles will be a thing of the past.

We’d be happy to replace both the damaged bottle and Rick’s experimental bottle.

Thanks Andy! Maybe we should drink them together!