Doing some “prep” before we make our trip to Willamette Valley next week. This wine was made in memory of Seth’s mother, who passed away in 2016, and is a blend of his three best barrels of juice from the 2017 vintage coming from the Seven Springs, Loubejac, and Yamhill vineyards. Aged in 55% new French oak.
Very perfumed nose of lemon/lime curd, almond croissant, vanilla blossom, hazelnut, saline, and crushed rocks waft from the glass. On the palate there is more orchard fruit presence, with lightly honeyed yellow apple and pear, ginger, cardamon, white smoke, and chalky minerals that linger over a long finish. There is a slight richness, and though the oak influence is more noticeable here compared to most of the other wines I’ve had from Seth (except perhaps the Seven Springs bottling) it is appropriately proportioned for this wine. There is fresh acidity but less firm than the 2019s I’ve had lately which may be vintage-related. The wine is elegant, but also notably soulful, complex, and layered in its flavors.
Such a gorgeous wine and a lovely tribute to Seth’s mother. I’m sure she’d be proud of the work he’s doing. (94 pts.)
You clearly love this winery so take my question with a grain of salt. Do you have a high tolerance/enthusiasm for new oak? We have found his oak influence to be beyond our desirable threshold. The 2019 Marine being a recent example of too much. But we did really like the 2019 Pink label.
I probably have a higher tolerance for it, with this being around my threshold where it starts to stick out. The 2019 Marine has only 15% new French oak when I look at the tech sheets, the Pink label none.
I’m fairly new to Seth’s wines, but tasted through his 2019s with him a few weeks ago and found the real through line to be reduction, which I sometimes mistake for new oak.
Nice review notes, Brian. Hard to tell between me and our one-year-old English Cream Golden Retriever whose jowls are watering more. Have a lovely trip to Oregon…I miss the Pacific NW badly. You do know you’re on a secret scouting mission to find the next unknown Willamette Chard fanatic. Expect detailed directions to their hidden tasting facility.
Sometimes I question my own notions of oak in wine as I’ve not found Seth’s wines to show overt oak. And in my mind, I’d like to think I’m rather oak-adverse. Confounding. Relatively small sample size, so perhaps I need to try more of his wines.
Ok so he just texted me: “Looking back at my notes, it was 530L, which is 2.3 barrels. It was just over one barrel of Seven Springs from new Mercurey CCL, one once fill barrel of Loubejac, with a bit of Yamhill from new Damy VLL.”
So about 1.3 new barrels out of 2.3, technically 57% new French oak but close enough.
I liked the 18 Marine much more than the 19 Marine. Seth actually told me he was disappointed with the 18 Marine and felt he should have used more oak. So I guess he did use more in the 19. I think he has a belief in new oak for Chardonnay similar to Walter Scott, that it supports and frames the wine. It is not for me to say if it is right or wrong, good or bad other than my personal preference. But I think oak is clearly there in addition to any reductive elements. By comparison, Goodfellow Chardonnay is generally reductive, but I don’t recall ever thinking they showed new oak.
Anecdotally, having tasted the 2019 WV, X Omni, and Marine bottlings, I don’t recall any of them to have been overly or unduly oak-influenced, at least to my taste. They had reduction in spades (particularly in the WV and X Omni) but not the usual characteristics I associate with new oak.
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