Highlights from The 10th Post-IPNC Bob Wood Memorial Throwdown features the 2015 Oregon Vintage

From this thread in Event Planner - The 10th Post-IPNC Bob Wood Memorial Throwdown features the 2015 Oregon Pinot Noir Vintage, Cristom Vineyards, Aug 1st - Event Planner - Online or Offline - WineBerserkers - I wanted to share my highlights, while I know others will share all/some of their notes as well. All 2015 Vintage Pinot Noir

Oh man, that was a marathon! 30+ wines blind in 3 hours, 8 flights! I learned so much, and it was a treat for me (who started buying Oregon wine far too recently, thanks to BerserkerDay) to experience what a bit of age can do to these beautiful wines and skilled winemakers.

Notes were short and sweet, stream of consciousness type of stuff as we had limited time, but I found some that are definitely now on my radar for future purchase. They include the following: (they have an asterisk as that’s how I indicated they were highlighted for me)

From Flight 2:
2. Earthy, ripe strawberry nose, bit of whole cluster on the nose, very nice ripe strawberry, more whole cluster on the palate, bright and lively, excellent (Anvil Estate Abbot Claim) *
3. Spring water, perfume, red berries, forest floor, ripe red berries, great acidity, good finish, very long, excellent * (Dennison Cellars Johnson Ridge Vineyard Tim Wilson )

From Flight 4: (All Temperance Hill, this was one of my two favorite flights - definitely will be seeking out Temperance Hill fruit from my favorite Oregon producers now - all three in the flight were highlighted!)

1. Pretty ripe nose, pine, baking spice, great acidity, bright red fruit, not silky but has some weight, long finish, well integrated* 2 (Vincent Fritzsche )
2. Bright fruit profile, touch of slate/rocks, pit fruits on the nose, big fruit profile, nicely ripe but the ‘big’ is more in presentation, gorgeous mouthfeel, builds to the finish* 3 (St Innocent)
3. Red fruit, cinnamon, dried leaves on the nose, maybe some pepper, red cherry, nice weight and softness, but bright as well, very nice* 1 (Walter Scott Erica Landon )
   (I was fascinated how each of these had a unique quality that we hadn’t experienced yet on any other wines, the baking spice/cinnamon quality - there definitely was a vineyard fruit profile that stood out)

From Flight 6:
2. There’s a unique freshness, plum and pitted fruit, aromatic flowers on the nose, nice weight and beautiful, expressive fruit, tannins integrated and carrying the fruit with it, beautiful * (Art + Science, Armstrong Vineyard - Dan Rinke )
3. Similar to 1 without the savory, shy nose but has a regal quality, yet nowhere close to prime drinking/sniffing window, round palate, great acid, sweet fruit emerges late on the palate and pulls hard through the finish, beautiful * (Vincent Fritzsche - Armstrong Vineyard)

The last was from Flight 7 and it absolutely floored me, I swore someone threw a Grand Cru Burg in there to throw people off:
2. Black cherry, complex, perfumed, beautiful nose, this is like Burgundy, gorgeous palate and fruit, wow, tremendous, everything is just spot on - anise, red and black cherry, seamless, interesting ** (Cameron Abbey Ridge)
There is no doubt I will be seeking out this wine, and the others mentioned above. Love that most of those I outlined above are BerserkerDay producers/sellers! WOOT!!!

Steven, thank you for your organization before, during, and likely after. Wonderful event, extremely educational for me. Was tremendous to have the opportunity to meet more Berserkers in person, which I always treasure. Unique among this event/group is that we, as consumers, had the opportunity to taste among the winemakers, almost half-half in attendance, and that is always a thrill for me, personally.

We had 8 flights this year. But about the same number of wines! Instead of 6 or 7 flights of 5, we had 8 with numerous 3 & 4 wine flights. More flights do take a bit more time. Several attendees needed to depart before the final Maresh flight.

Mystery Flight - new or rarely represented AVAs
1.1 Coeur de Terre Heritage Reserve (McMinnville AVA)
1.2 Phelps Creek Columbia Gorge (Columbia Gorge AVA, Oregon side)
1.3 Walter Scott Freedom Hill (Mt. Pingah AVA)
1.4 Johan Nils (Van Duzer Corridor AVA)
1.5 Elk Cove Five Mountain (Laurelwood Hills AVA)

Yamhill-Carlton
2.1 Belle Pente Estate
2.2 Angela Abbots Claim
2.3 Denison Johnson (Oops, this was Eola-Hills)
2.4 Anne Amie L’Iris
2.5 Goodfellow Heritage No.6, Fir Crest Vineyard

Eola-Amity Hills+
3.1 Cristom Eileen
3.2 Violin Willamette Valley (2/3 Eola-Amity Hills)
3.3 Cristom Mt Jefferson Willamette Valley (75% Eola-Amity Hills)
3.4 Witness Tree Estate

Temperance Hill Vineyard (Eola-Amity Hills)
4.1 Vincent (winemaker Vincent Fritzsche)
4.2 St Innocent (winemaker Mark Vlossak)
4.3 Walter Scott (winemaker Ken Pahlow)

Chehalem Mountains AVA (including Ribbon Ridge)
5.1 Patty Green Cellars Marine Sedimentary
5.2 (Todd Hansen suffered a flat tire on the way, we missed you, Todd!)
5.3 Brickhouse Les Dijonnais (Ribbon Ridge)
5.4 Goodfellow Whistling Ridge (Ribbon Ridge)

Armstrong Vineyard (Ribbon Ridge)
6.1 Red Electric (winemaker John Grochau)
6.2 Art & Science (winemaker Dan Rinke)
6.3 Vincent (winemaker Vincent Fritzsche)

Dundee Hills+
7.1 Thomas
7.2 Cameron Abbey Ridge
7.3 Belle Pente Murto
7.4 Grochau Anderson Family Vineyard
7.5 Scott Paul La Paulee (WV Blend / mostly Dundee + Chehalem)

Maresh Vineyard (Dundee Hills)
8.1 Scott Paul (winemaker Ian Burch)
8.2. Kelley Fox (winemaker Kelley Fox)
8.3. Arterberry Maresh (winemaker Jim Maresh)

I’m coming out of retirement just for this tasting. Great job Steve!

Overall, the 2015s were an excellent vintage and in a good place. The fruit is ripe and red toned, with only 1 or 2 showing blue notes. Most wines felt in balance as it seems winemakers handled the warmth well. Only a handful needed time to age though everything we tasted could have benefited from more time if you wanted to wait. If you own 15s, feel confident opening them.

Specific Notes

1.1 coure de terre heritage reserve dark, meaty, pure fruit. VA raspberry . cool mint.
1.2 Phelps Creek, Colombia Gorge spicy, stemmy, cinnamon, still some tannins.
1.3 Walter Scott Freedom Hill maybe mercaptan issues, still really tight. blue.
1.4 Johan Nils pretty raspberry fruit, some tannins, needs time. lovely now though
1.5 Elk Cove, laurelwood flawed.

2.1 Belle Pente Estate Reserve warm nose, gobs of pure fruit. simple.
2.2 Angela Estate, Abbott Claim Indian spices, low tannin, on the elegant side. Fascinating if untraditional
2.3 Denison Eola Amity. Johnson Ridge Vineyard cocoa, pure fruit, a slight bitterness on the finish. Denison.
2.4 Anna Amie La Ris pretty nose, VA, dill finish.
2.5 Goodfellow Fircrest vineyard flatter nose, tight, good fruit underneath

3.1 Cristom Eileen whole cluster, big fruity. spicy. Cristom
3.2 Violin soft, velvety, nice acid. pretty wine
3.3 Cristom Mt Jefferson pretty, raspberry, great fruit. driving. Cristom.
3.4 Witness Tree vintage select blue, fresh, lifted, licorice. love it

4.1 Vincent Freedom Hill boozy nose, good fruit underneath, nice length
4.2 St. Innocent Freedom Hill reduced, really bright fun fruit underneath, cool mint,
4.3 Walter Scott Freedom Hill did not like the nose. reduced but also something else wrong. Walter Scott. palate is ok but then grapefruit peel.

5.1 Patricia Green Marine Sedimentary familiar nose, rich fruit, nice finish. but of spice.
5.2 flawed
5.3 Brick House Le Dijonnais flawed
5.4 Goodfellow Whistling Ridge cigar box, nice fruit, good acid on the finish. perhaps acidified.

6.1 Red Electric Armstrong pretty nose, ripe but good fruit. little stewed. lots of barrel
6.2 Art +Science Armstrong funny nose. great palate, jolly Rancher, lots of length
6.3 Vincent Armstrong matchstick, tight. not showing yet.

7.1 Thomas Mexican food, refried beans, mushrooms. canned olives.
7.2 Cameron Abbey Ridge Cameron DNPIM
7.3 Belle Pente Murto really nice fruit. but simple. floral finish. a bit hot but true to the vintage
7.4 Grochau Anderson Family lots of tannins, slightly interfering with the wine.
7.5 Scott Paul La Paulée lots of fruit, raspberry, black tea,

8.1 Scott Paul Maresh nice nose, some tartness, great fruit. one of the best today
8.2 Kelly Fox Maresh tight, but will be great
8.3 Arterberry-Maresh Maresh highly aromatic nose, almost confected. great fruit. driving. .

Thank you Steven for setting it up and to Cristom for hosting.

It was really enlightening, as usual to see the wines in this way.

Some thoughts from the tasting:

1. when grouped by AVA, it seemed that we uniformedly struggled to determine the AVA of the flight. Outside of the Dundee Hills flights, which was process of elimination, guessing the AVA was challenging for the group.

That said, all of the flights had good through lines within them(excepting the Dennison wine in the Y-C flight, and flawed bottles). But everything seemed a bit odd to me. I think the differences of AVA are more easily seen in contrast to each other. But I would be interested to see if the wines would show more clarity if we could get them to the winery a few days early and not have them have to drive the day of the tasting.


2) The Dundee Hills flights seemed the most evolved and ready to drink to me. Followed surprisingly by the Eola-Amity Hills flights. I think that 6-10 is a good age for DH wines, but I would love to see older vintages for Ribbon Ridge and Eola-Amity. The structure is very different and whooe I enjoyed the flights, I feel like these wines along with the Yamhill-Carlton flight could have used more time.

3. Temperance Hill really stood out to me as unique and different from the Eola-Amity Hills flight. It was more rugged, with great movement and nuance. It was a dynamite set, and great work by the three wineries.
   
   \

4. much as I love Pinot Noir, given the warmth of the day, I will stand by doing a couple of Chardonnay flights.

5. loved the Walter Scott THV, Violin, Cristom Eileen and Mt. Jefferson, John Grochau’s Red Electric, and the Brickhouse. But lots of good wines.

This was a great tasting! Thanks to Steve, Gaironn, and the Cristom crew for coordinating/hosting. It was a treat to have Todd French join us as well. Todd and Paul have covered the highlights pretty well here, although I feel like there may be a little disagreement between their thoughts on the Cameron Abbey Ridge.

Looking forward already to next year!

I heard about Paul’s lack of affinity for baking spices in wine…HE’S WRONG!

Did not put in mouth?

2015 was a fun year to put together flights, which was complicated by having a few guests who did not have wine to bring, a few who only had one option from 2015, but also the growing reality that the group tends to collect many of the same wines. I did a bit more back and forth discussion with past attendees (who weren’t coming this year) to get their feedback on flight design and a bit more trading between parties (I still owe Andy something for the Cameron Abbey Ridge). Then, of course, the usual complications of cancels and wait-list clearing.

The result was a fun tasting. I particularly enjoyed putting together the single vineyard flights and comparing the expressions from 3 different winemakers for similar fruit. The reality is some of these vineyards are large and different blocks can be dramatically different. A block may see less sun, have less water, different clones, older vs. new vines, and different pick dates! Then, of course, the winemaker has many options, from vineyard to bottle. Vineyard flights are also challenging because of $$$ flowing into the valley. Numerous vineyards are rarely available to other winemakers today vs. 20 years ago.

Andy noted that Seven Springs used to be an iconic Eola-Amity Hills Vineyard (despite its relative youth compared to many in Dundee). Everyone, it seemed, had a terrific wine from Seven Springs. Today, many newcomers to Oregon Pinot have never even heard of Seven Springs. Somewhat sad given how vital the vineyard was to the fast-growing industry for two decades! My plans of building a 20-year+ vertical of St. Innocent Seven Springs went up in a puff of $$$ in 2008. (That said, the 2002 St I SS is drinking fabulously right now).

This vintage demonstrated that heat could erase the usually fairly obvious soil-driven AVA contrasts. No one could put forward a correct AVA opinion until only Dundee remained. The vintage made picking out whole cluster fermentations challenging as well. Many, many wines were big, bold, and tannin forward.

I didn’t take great notes, but I’ll come back with a separate summary of my thoughts on the flights.

Yes. Paul is not a Cameron fan…at all. I favor Clos Electrique over Abbey Ridge, but hard to go wrong IMO.

Interesting notes on the 15s. May need to pull some of mine to check in.

Yeah, that was my thought in the other thread as well. 2015 seems young to me. I have sampled a couple of 2015’s over the last few months. If I remember correctly, 2015 Arterberry Maresh Maresh Pinot and 2015 Vincent Bjornson Pinot. Both really good and showing promise, but no where near ready in my opinion. I’ll continue my limited research of 2015’s. Tried to locate a bottle of the 2015 Anderson Family Pinot last night to check in, but I was unable to quickly access one.

The Dundee Hills wines seemed fairly available, but for my palate the other flights all seemed to want some time.

Given the deeper soils in the Dundee Hills and the lower use of stems, and in the wines yesterday, I believe Kelley Fox and John Grochau are the only producers using stems(and the wines with tannins noted in the tasting notes so far) the fruit sweetness and balance of those wines really stood out from other flights with shallower soils, more wind(THV), and more whole cluster.

Most of the wines showed promise(and fortitude) but seemed early in their evolution.

Very jealous. Looked like a neat tasting with wonderful attendees and the play by play I was getting from the Toddfather had my mouth watering. I had to go pour a Kelley Fox Maresh Vineyard Royal Ann Block.

Wow, even blind!

Cameron is never blind.

Love it or not, every year we struggle to determine AVAs and then debate which vineyard the Cameron wine is with 100% confidence in producer.

Serious reduction that John embraces wholeheartedly.

It’s easy to pick out burnt rubber…

We had several Todds there…missed you!

Revenge of the Todds!

This Cameron was a veritable cornucopia of microbiological stuff. Interestingly the burnt rubber wasn’t there this time!

Todd Hansen of Longplay (our 2024 host) blew a tire on the way in a place where he couldn’t leave his car. We offered to go get him, but we’ll see you next year Todd!

That said, may need to implement a Todd Limit.

All Todd

All The Time.

My notes were pretty much nonexistent this year. I can make some broad comments about the various flights and which wines I found compelling on Monday.

My general notes from earlier still hold. The warmth of this vintage was decisive in terms of making it very difficult for terroir to be a significant factor contrasting wines & flights.


Mystery Flight - new or rarely represented AVAs
1.1 Coeur de Terre Heritage Reserve - bold tannin forward
1.2 Phelps Creek Columbia Gorge - tired is a polite term. I sourced this for the event and didn’t know what to expect.
1.3 Walter Scott Freedom Hill - I love Freedom Hill, and this wine did not disappoint.
1.4 Johan Nils - Always a winner from Johan. Lovely.
1.5 Elk Cove Five Mountain - solid

Yamhill-Carlton
2.1 Belle Pente Estate - caught me by surprise that this was a Belle Pente. Cheated and looked back at my flight list. big, tannic wine. Needs serious time.
2.2 Angela Abbots Claim - meh
2.3 Denison Johnson - I messed up putting this wine into this theme. It didn’t fit, but solid.
2.4 Anne Amie L’Iris - Not sure if this was my favorite of the flight or the next. A touch of sweetness holds it back.
2.5 Goodfellow Heritage No.6, Fir Crest Vineyard - gladly brought a bottle which was somehow a 1/3 full home. delicious.

Eola-Amity Hills+

All four of these wines showed well. I particularly liked the Violin.

3.1 Cristom Eileen
3.2 Violin Willamette Valley
3.3 Cristom Mt Jefferson Willamette Valley
3.4 Witness Tree Estate

Temperance Hill Vineyard (Eola-Amity Hills)

Our first single vineyard flight. Vincent’s didn’t quite match the others in one sense. It was much lower alcohol which Vincent noted was because of the block location. Perhaps the only wine of the day that felt like it came from a different vintage. All 3 are gorgeous wines. My fave was the St I as I found it the most balanced with great structure with good promise for another decade in the cellar.

4.1 Vincent
4.2 St Innocent
4.3 Walter Scott

Chehalem Mountains AVA (including Ribbon Ridge)
5.1 Patty Green Cellars Marine Sedimentary - came across as hot, was my least favorite of the three.
5.3 Brickhouse Les Dijonnais (Ribbon Ridge) - showed a lot of spice. wasn’t the obvious dijon clone it usually is.
5.4 Goodfellow Whistling Ridge (Ribbon Ridge) - got distracted and didn’t make a note.

Armstrong Vineyard (Ribbon Ridge)

This was a super fun flight. All 3 wines were completely different, but tasty across the board. If I hadn’t known this was a single vineyard flight not sure I would have guessed such as the theme. The big art & science was my fave of the three.

6.1 Red Electric
6.2 Art & Science
6.3 Vincent

Dundee Hills+
7.1 Thomas - others had more negative notes than me. In general, Thomas never shows well at these tastings. This example, to me came across as too tannin forward compared to the rest of the flight.
7.2 Cameron Abbey Ridge - showed some brett on the nose and palate. not offensive to me, but always offensive to Paul.
7.3 Belle Pente Murto - Murto is my largest cellar holding, and this did not disappoint. Lovely.
7.4 Grochau Anderson Family Vineyard - I don’t recall tasting this bottling from John before. Big & bold with more mouth coating grip than the rest in the flight, but fit right with the experience across the board this day.
7.5 Scott Paul La Paulee -we recently cracked open one of ours. then we were very pleasantly surprised it had evolved some under screwcap. I have, in general, not been thrilled with these screw cap wines developing the tertiary flavors I crave even with a decade+ in the cellar. Good, but right after the bold Grochau wasn’t noticed.

Maresh Vineyard (Dundee Hills)

We closed the day with one of the most sought over old vine vineyards. Will be interesting to see if we can put together a later vintage with three different producers or not. Kelley still has access. Scott Paul, unfortunately, has closed.

The Scott Paul Maresh was my choice for wine of the day (despite the screwcap). Makes me wish I had a bunch more, but I do have at least one more bottle in the cellar. The Kelley Fox at our table didn’t match up to the other two. I should have sought out the other bottle to compare. Expected much more. The Arterberry simply needs a lot more time and was not ready even after being open for 3.5 hours before we poured. The only wine of the three that was under cork vs. screwcap. Not sure why Kelley is doing screwcaps, but I hope she has moved away. I would rather risk a wine being corked than try to age anything of the quality she is known for under a screwcap.

8.1 Scott Paul
8.2. Kelley Fox
8.3. Arterberry Maresh