Thomas Pinot 2007 Bottle Variation

Maybe this has been posted before but I have noticed an incredible variation in bottles of this wine. Last night I noticed some sort of tingling sensation on the tongue, stewed strawberry, spoiled cherry. Other bottles have been pretty good. I am glad to be done with this one.

Other than the Anti flavor Group, a large percentage of wine drinkers didn’t like the 07 Oregon vintage to begin with. It was always a drink young vintage. The few 07s I purchased are mostly long gone. The bottle variations in 07s, in general, I believe are due to having just held them to long and they just dying at a slightly different rate.

Gordon. Please speak for yourself regarding OR 2007. Your sweeping statements border on buffoonery. The vintage was trashed early by a number of pundits…and quite a few recanted. It’s certainly not a “great vintage” but there was plenty to like and quite a number of mine continue to drink well. 12 years on, if bottles are passing through their peak (some improving, some peaking, and some slipping), it’s not very different from other OR vintages.

Speaking specifically to 2007 Thomas, yes there’s definitely bottle variation. There are lots of reports of variation in other vintages. I’ve experienced it with 04 and 13 and fully expect more (continuous vertical from 2004 - 2016) to be duds. Nature of the beast.

RT

Gordon is not too off mark. I think half the wines were awful. Those who did well, did well. But for many it was the first tough vintage they saw here in Oregon. Much like 2019…

Todd, somehow I missed the bad “half”. I’ll take your word for it since you were there sweating out the vintage and up to your elbows 24/7. I can rattle off 20 producers that made 2007s that I found quite enjoyable.

RT

Patience young grasshopper;
A meaningless story that one might ponder;
I have a friend (roommate from Freshman year of college) who just takes my word sometimes and buys wines I buy.
He started buying Thomas.
He waited until five years into buying Thomas every year before opening his first bottle.
He evidently expected angels to descend from the sky and instead experienced something markedly less dramatic.
He opened another bottle soon afterwards and had a similar non-stellar experience.
He wrote me to express his dismay. I basically shrugged. What else can you do.
A month later he shot me an email informing me that he had opened his third bottle and expressing his absolute Thomas epiphany.
He has since kept buying. He has never brought up the subject of mediocre bottles of Thomas again. I am pretty certain he never will.

Richard, there were an easy hundreds of labels in the valley in 07…

And by volume the quantities of swill the bigger producers put out. Not enviable.

2019…a good vintage to do well in. Just can’t sit around waiting for sugars in 2019, flavors were great before the deluge…but the 24 Brix crowd is probably going to be bummed(just like in 07).

I am pretty excited with what we have.

To the OP:

There are no great wines, just great bottles. With Thomas that’s the rule every year, not just in 2007. I had the 2007 Thomas back to back nights in 2010, and they were night and day back then. I can’t think of a good producer for whom YMMV is more appropriate.

…and by large percentage you mean the Anti Finesse Wine Elite?

[/quote]There are no great wines, just great bottles. With Thomas that’s the rule every year, not just in 2007. I had the 2007 Thomas back to back nights in 2010, and they were night and day back then. I can’t think of a good producer for whom YMMV is more appropriate.
[/quote]

Thanks Marcus. I don’t intend to pile on Thomas but I am very curious to learn what causes this type of bottle variation.

With all due respect for 2019, I didn’t taste any flavor in skins before the 28th of September for any of the fruit I’m responsible for… many were all picked by then, some already pressed off.

Today marks the second pick date for my house… and we are still waiting on flavor as the window closes and the birds eat.