4th Annual Post-IPNC Oregon Pinot Noir Throwdown -- 2002 vintage

WINE TALK
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Attendees have posted notes in the offline thread, but few are seeing the comments. Here’s the link to the offline, and attendees:

For our 4th annual event we had 31 attendees & 29 unique Oregon Pinot’s from the 2002 vintage. Served double blind in 6 flights. Each attendee was required to bring 2 750’s or a mag.

A bit of history:

The 2007 vintage (which remains controversial) sparked our inaugural event hosted by Jim Anderson at Patty Green. The 2nd annual event was sponsored by Todd Hamina at Biggio-Hamina and featured 2005. The 3rd annual event was sponsored by Marcus Goodfellow at Matello featuring 2004.

The 4th annual event on Monday was hosted by John Grochau of Grochau Cellars at Bjornson’s new winery & tasting room (under construction, but finished enough to host our event) in the Eola Hills.
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the complete lineup.jpg
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Here is the list of wines by flight with a few of my comments. Rich Trimpi and others will have better notes than I. Overall I was impressed with the wines, and felt that most needed more time in the cellar to develop tertiary flavors. Many were a bit closed right now aromatically, with few showing any of the dirt & mushroom flavors of aged pinot. The Eola Hills wines in particular came across with significant structure that needs time to soften.

Flight 1:

  1.   Domaine Drouhin, Laurene (mag)

I loved this wine. A great way to kick off the tasting. Great balance, a wonderful expressive nose.

  1.   Eyrie Reserve

I was very disappointed in this wine, particularly after finding out it was the Reserve. It was the least of the flight for me. Perhaps more aging to develop tertiary flavors or longer decanting will help. My pour wasn’t a winner, but others had it on the their top 5 list.

  1.   Prive, Le Nord

On first approach it showed okay, but every time I came back to it I was less impressed. Others liked it a lot.

  1.   Grochau Cellars, Willamette Valley (mag)

I got a bit of Barnyard on the nose, but John’s 1st vintage held up well.

  1.   Cameron, Abbey Ridge

My 2nd favorite of the flight just behind the DDO. Balanced, showing some tertiary flavor development & light dusty tannins. No obvious brett, but others will likely differ. I’m not hyper sensitive to brett.


Flight 2:

  1.   Hamacher, Willamette Valley (1 bottle badly corked)

My first pour was undrinkably corked, and I still had a bit of that tainting my 2nd pour from the other bottle.

  1.   Cameron, Gehrts

Enough brett that I struggled to enjoy the Gehrts. Didn’t have that “cameron funk” I normally love.

  1.   Domaine Serene, Evenstad Reserve

Stewed. I couldn’t get past the nose. It was a winebid.com purchase, so provenance isn’t known.

  1.   Cameron, Clos Electrique

I loved this. balanced, great mouthfeel. I felt it would benefit from time in the cellar.

  1.   Thomas, Dundee Hills (mag)

The baby of the flight. Very structured, dark fruit. A bit was left so I brought the Mag home and enjoyed a glass last night. The day of extra air paid off. Exquisite.

Flight 3:

  1.   Carlton Hill, Yamhill-Carlton

a pleasing pinot.

  1.   Matello, Willamette Valley (mag)

very primary still. Marcus’ first vintage and this was surprisingly youthful and needing time to mellow.

  1.   Torri Mor, Reserve Deux Verres, Willamette Valley

I brought this and it wowed no one, including myself.

  1.   Van Duzer Estate

I found it a bit closed & flat, not enough acid to carry it forward.

  1.   Matello Homage A&D, Willamette Valley

The best wine of the flight. Just lovely.


Flight 4: (My flight of the day. delicious)

Perhaps not surprisingly the first 3 of flight were incredibly similar. This is a case IMO of the vineyard speaking more loudly than the winemakers.
the entire flight including the L&E was young, structured, rather closed during the tasting. I very much would love to have all of these in my cellar for long-term aging. Patience required.

  1.   Evesham Wood, 7 Springs en dessous

  2.   Patty Green, Anden (Anden was once part of 7 springs)

A little was left over and I had a glass last night. With a day of air it was incredible.

  1.   St. Innocent, 7 Springs

  2.   Evesham Wood, Cuvee L&E (probably from Le Puits Sec Vineyard, 100% pommard)

Compared to the 3 from 7 springs, this one just coated & gripped the mouth. Just wasn’t even close to peak.


Flight 5:

Another Eola Hills flight. Did the location of the tasting drive submissions of wine from the area? Not surprisingly the whole cluster of Cristom was obvious across the board. Most showed more oak than any from the first 4 flights. For me the whole cluster for Cristom in this vintage presented as chewy, mouth gripping wines. Which made me want to slow down and share with food vs. rapidly assess.

  1.   Cristom Reserve

  2.   Cristom, Jessie (mag)

  3.   Witness Tree, Willamette Valley

Oak flavors showed through. Very structured, but softer than the whole cluster Cristoms.

  1.   Cristom, Louise (mag)

Immediate blast of dark red/black fruit on the nose & palate. a bit of oak spice also showed through.

  1.   Cristom, Marjorie (mag)



Flight 6:

By flight 6 my palate was shot, which was perhaps appropriate as all of these wines were bigger & hotter than the previous flights. I was surprised to find the Anne Amie just as big as the rest in this group. Not what I expected, but perhaps reflected the winemaker at the time.

  1.   Bergstrom, Cumberland Reserve

  2.   Andrew Rich Reserve, Willamette Valley (mag)

  3.   Shea Shea Pommard Clone (Shea winery & Shea Vineyard - made by Jim Anderson in 2002)

  4.   Anne Amie, Rainbow Ridge

  5.   St. Innocent, Freedom Hills

My top wines of the day flirtysmile flirtysmile flirtysmile , simply in the order tasted:
DDO Laurene
Cameron Abbey Ridge
Cameron Clos Electrique
Thomas
All 3 7 springs wines from Patty Green, St. I, and Evesham Wood
Evesham Wood Cuvee L&E

The good news is the 5th annual throwdown is already confirmed. Andy Steinman & Ken Pahlow will host at Walter Scott. Most likely vintage will be 2008, but we will collect more votes before making a firm decision. Block Monday July 27th, 2015 on your calendar now. champagne.gif

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Since I forgot to on the other thread, I want to thank the hosts and everyone else who made this tasting happen.

Just my opinion- the '09s and even the '12s will be probably be drinking better than the '08s. I recognize that "08s, '10s, and '11s are more to the preferred board style.

P Hickner

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Thanks for posting, flights 4 & 5 look amazing (to me). Is there any discussion for next year’s wines? I’ll (hopefully) attend again next year.

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These Post-IPNC vintage tastings are a wonderful Berserker tradition. Excellent mix of winemakers and OR fans. Great to see the Walter Scott crew volunteering for the next one.

There was remarkable bottle variation. There were distinct differences between the 2 x 750ml bottles that I brought, purchased on release and cellared identically. I was much less impressed with the 02 Thomas from Mag (man did it suck trying to open it!) compared to a magical 750 the year before.

I expect to see a wide variation in favorites, partially attributable to bottle variation along with the usual differences in personal taste.

2002 Prive Nord - Wow, where did this come from? Great red fruit and acidity
2002 Cameron Abbey Ridge, Funky but quite tasty, 2nd fav of the flight
2002 Cameron Gehrts, probably my wine of the tasting. It screamed Oregon to me.
2002 Hamacher, beautiful balanced wine still with some lingering tannic edges
2002 Dom Serene Evenstad - 3rd fav of the flight which I hate to admit - blocky and big with some sweetness. I slightly preferred it to the Cameron Clos Electrique which was just a bit too funky for me, showing a little too much “wildlife” for my tastes (atleast that Monday afternoon).
2002 Carlton Hills - Didn’t love it or the heat, but it was my fav of the flight.
2002 Evesham 7 Spring Dessus was just gorgeous. Every wine in this flight was a winner… (PGC Anden, St.I 7 Springs and the Evesham Cuvee L&E.
The fifth flight was kind of nasty. Warm/Hot with some fearsome tannins. The Cristom Jessie was the pick of the litter.
2002 Shea Shea was my fav of the last flight…well balanced. The Bergstrom Cumberland ran a fairly distant 2nd.

RT

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(cut and pasted from the other thread)

Great event. Thanks to all!

I vote for 08, though they may be tight it would be a nice snapshot.

My favs:

Eyrie Reserve
Privé Nord
Cameron Abbey Ridge *
Thomas
Matello WV*
Cristom Marjorie**
Cristom Reserve
Shea Shea (made at PGC)

Good times.




Funny, while the Abbey Ridge was absolutely gorgeous the other two Cameron wines were so brett addled that for me they were undrinkable.

Your idea of storage at 55f for potential brett bombs is spot on Rick, it makes complete sense.

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Wow, great tasting. I can only echo what has been said above regarding the outstanding nature of the event. Great friends, wines and spirit. Thanks to all the organizers, contributers and hosts.

Regarding next year–I’m in favor of 08. Perhaps the wines should be decanted at home before the tasting for a few hours? Maybe even ‘venturi-d’.

In this tasting, I had many favorite wines. Loved the Prive Le Nord, the Cameron Gehrts, the Torii Mor Deux Ver, the Carlton Hill, the Evesham Wood Cuvee L and E and the EW 7 Spring (prob my overall #1), the PG Anden and the Andrew Rich Rsv.

Somewhat disappointed with the 02 Eyrie Rsv but have had better examples. DDO Laurene en Magnum was super-young.

Overall, the quality of the 02 vintage is what stood out. The age-ability of good Oregon PN continues to impress. Can’t wait until next year.

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I think 2010’s would be enjoyable. They’ve shown well since release and while they may not be peaking, there’s zero chance the 2008’s have peaked and a good chance many won’t be open for business (at least not without a decant, like Doug suggested). In a discussion with Jim Anderson he noted that the 2010’s may be a bit young, but will actually be older than 2007’s were in 2011 at the first post-IPNC tasting (and 2010 is a more approachable vintage than 2007 in many cases).

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I am very much open to either 2008 or 2010.

Rich Trimpi and I shared a 2008 Cameron Arley’s Leap the other evening and it showed very well.

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Andy – I’ve got a couple of these and recall reading somewhere that they are quite funky. How did you and Rich find them on the Cameron funk scale?

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For my nose, less funky than usual, but I am less “funk sensitive” than many.

I generally find the WV, Dundee Hills and Arley’s bottlings far less funky than Clos or Abbey Ridge.

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I’m sorry to have missed the event. I’m glad my gehrts showed well but it’s always fascinating how divisive Brett is. Richard noted he loved the Thomas last year and I found it undrinkable. As for next year, revisit 07s?

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There certainly are some polar opposites in the group.

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Paul…for clarification, I tasted a bunch of Thomas pre-during-post IPNC last year. Not so much this year, but still some (including a sadly tired '94). Last year’s post-IPNC Berserker Tasting '04 Thomas was a “mess”. Not good at all = bad juju.

What I loved, loved, loved was a 750ml bottle of '02 during a post-IPNC dinner last year. This year’s Mag fell well short of that experience. C’est la guerre.

RT

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Thanks for the clarification, Richard. Sad to have missed the event (sort of, I’m in Hawaii)

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What do you mean, Todd? You saying the candidate years we’ve discussed are polar opposites or are you saying the people on this board have very different opinions about what we should taste? Or were you referring to Paul’s post suggesting 07s (saying there is a wide range of styles in 07). Straighten me out!

Ron

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Sorry Ron, I found some wines horribly flawed and undrinkable while at the same time being others favorites.

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I agree with you. I attribute some of it to different tastes but I swear in several cases the 2 750’s were very different, so one table got a very different impression than another. This was verified in a couple of instances by Trimpi walking over and getting wine from the other table. In other instances we didn’t bother and I wonder how often bottle variation was at play. In past years I don’t recall tastes being quite so different and this is largely the same group of people. Hmmm.

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So next year each side of the table should get a different bottle, that way we can conveniently double check on the spot.

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got that Andy & Ken?

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rolleyes Gee, that sounds easy!