TN: Elouan PinotNoir OR '17...(short/boring)

Taking one for the team, I tried this last night:

  1. Elouan PinotNoir OR (13.8%; www.ElouanWines.com) Elouan/CopperCane/Acampo 2017: Med.color; strong grapey some PN/black cherry bit toasty/vanilla/oak rather simple grapey nose; rather sweet (1%+ r.s.?) soft/underacid confected simple/grapey slight PN/cherry/black cherry slight earthy light vanilla/oak fairly thick/heavy bodied rather dull flavor w/ light bitter tannins; short soft/fat off-dry light grapey/simple slight PN/cherry light vanilla/oak pretty dull/ponderous finish w/ light fairly bitter tannins; a rather dull/ponderous/grapey off-dry simple red that speaks of PN in a squeaky whisper and none of OR elegance as it’s touted to be; dull as dishwater; a simple confected commodity wine; ole CharlieWagner must be rolling in his grave over what his grandson has concocted; way overpriced at $20.00.

This wine was prompted by Jenise’s post of Josh Raynolds’ review:

It is, of course, easy to dislike a JoeyWagner wine, given his run-in w/ the OR authorities. I, in fact, thought Josh’s review was overly vitriolic and dramatic. It was not overly-sweet. The finish was pretty (thankfully) short. It was obviously made from grapes, maybe even PinotNoir, but not Cabernet or Teroldego. The wines primary fault…just boring as hell. But I suppose there is an audience out there, with undiscerning tastes, who might actually drink this concoction.
Tom

That cut and paste looks familiar. I sent it out to a few friends last week before Vinous took the note down. I was trying to get a comment from a Wagner Family enabler we have in one of our tasting groups.

With AG so litigious these days I wonder if I have any exposure. Just kidding.

Any chance the wine was tasted blind? Label tasting works both ways - you genuflect before a premier cru and you slam a mass-production job made by a party you don’t like. I haven’t and won’t intentionally taste those wines, but the Wagner style is known to be sweet, cloying, simple, and not something you’d really want to drink. So why even bother doing a review, unless they also review Yellow Tail, Barefoot, and all the other mass production wines. I’d love to put those wines in a blind tasting. They’d probably come in fairly low, but not 55.

And you know there’s an audience for those wines. Same audience that buys Oreos, frozen pizza, Pringles, Snickers, and MacDonald’s burgers. Was it the Simpsons that just used to label something generic “food”? I think the Wagner wines, at least those that I’ve tried, would be the equivalent of the generic “wine”.

Yellow Tail Sauvignon Blanc is way better than this concoction. Generic perhaps, but varietally correct. I abhored the 16 Elouan.

They didn’t take the notes down. Still there.

I don’t like or dislike Joey Wagner. If anything I admire him for the brands and business he has built (and yes I understand his father started the business - but he clearly knows his market). But that doesn’t mean his wines are anything less than complete bottom-feeding garbage, concocted in a lab, and spoon-fed to the suburban lifestyle crowd.

I’ve had Elouan, Belle Glos, Meomi and Caymus and they are all basically artificially oaked grape jelly. Anyone who can taste “Pinot Noir” in the Elouan is doing better than me.

Greg, fair point. I’m guessing more than a few Berserkers have had and even enjoy the items you mention above. And I’m sure most of us recognise that those items are garbage, even if they are a guilty pleasure or a “generic” calorie input.

But we also know Wagner wines to be garbage. The difference is that nobody is building a tasting menu around Oreos or McDonalds burgers. And I doubt most “average” people who consume them would play them up as quality items. Surely nobody who has had a McDonalds burger has stated that it’s the best burger around.

But not so with Wagner wines. There are plenty of people who think Belle Glos is a fantastic example of Pinot Noir. Or that Caymus is a great example of Cab. And that absolutely trickles down to Meoimo and Elouan.

PS I received a bottle of Elouan for Christmas.
Out of respect for the gifter I consumed it but my note matches Tom’s, save for being able to detect Pinot Noir.

PS I received a bottle of Elouan for Christmas.
Out of respect for the gifter I consumed it but my note matches Tom’s, save for being able to detect Pinot Noir.

!

You’re a braver man than I. First time I tried the Meiomi wines I was looking for some Chardonnay to put into a tasting. I’d never tried them before and couldn’t believe how bad they were.

Later, at a tasting with those same people, someone was dying for me to taste a Pinot Noir. Guess what it was? I took a sip out of courtesy and when she turned around pitched the rest into the sink.

I could indeed taste Pinot Noir, but hoped never to taste that one again.

The 2016 vintage of this wine might be the worst wine I’ve ever tasted.

They were down for awhile this weekend. I heard This from the Copper Cane thread. Both 2016 notes were taken down. Now þhey are back.

The original Elouan notes were taken down and new, less inflammatory but not more complimentary, notes were posted later

Here’s my note on the '16:

2016 Elouan Pinot Noir - USA, Oregon (12/30/2017)
Kind of what one could expect from Oregon “Meiomi”. Tons of oak char, vanilla, rich overripe fruit, no Oregon Pinot character whatsoever. (75 pts.)

Maybe the '17 is better?

I recounted in another thread that my daughter and a friend purchased a bottle of Elouan Pinot Noir from a dismal selection at a small suburban store. After each taking a sip, they decided to drink beer instead.

I’ve done that many times. Particularly good tasters will often describe the quality correctly, but many people who study wine and taste blind regularly will think they’re a bit more expensive than they are. I think a lot of it is that most wine people never taste those wines. The people who have bothered to become familiar with them are more likely to recognize the style. The wines, Wagner’s and those cheaper brands, aren’t really as bad as the (funny) reviews in this thread.

I disagree to some extent. A friend of ours is always trying to slip a Mer Soliel or La Crema Chardonnay by us in blind tastings and it never works. It was with him in mind that I sent the cut and paste e mail around that Tom quoted above.

I was subjected to the '18 last night. I would never have guessed pinot noir let alone Oregon pinot noir. Tom’s note is spot-on except it resembled a fat simple syrah. You know something is wrong when the back label simply states “prime vineyards on Oregon’s coast” and “made in California in the signature Copper Cane style”. I poured most of the bottle down the drain. It came in a take-home dinner pack including mushroom pot pie, elk stew, and other goodies. The food was good. The other bottle in the package was a '19 Boundary Breaks Cab Franc from the Finger Lakes. Can’t be worse.

I have had it before and it is not good. It sells like hot cakes at Total Wine I am sure.

Regarding tasting blind and bias - undoubtedly a phenomenon that affects us all, but I’ve found Mr. Hill to be a very trustworthy author of notes. I’m sure that he has biases, conscious and unconscious, but I believe him to be a reliable narrator (and he can detect Missouri outhouse in wines).

Agree on Tom’s notes. But I thought it was Kansas outhouse. Maybe Tom can even differentiate between Kansas and Missouri outhouses!

I consider Tom a personal friend as I got to know him at three HdR’s in the good old days and I once had the honor of hosting him for a fun evening when he was in my town for a fencing tournament.
My one exception to his being neutral/unbiased is as to Alban.
I don’t like Alban’s pricing or policies (booting longstanding customers off for failing to place one order), but I admire both John and his wines. They are too big (like the wine being addressed in this thread) but I don’t believe them to be spoofulated and they are certainly interesting.
Plus, John Alban once gave me a mano-o-mano tour even though I was not a mailing list customer and was instead just a vocally loyal fan. A visit I will never forget.
Sorry for the thread drift.