Asimov and his NYT tasting panel on 06-07 Pinots

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/dining/reviews/02wine.html?pagewanted=1&ref=dining" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not overly positive…FWIW

I don’t know whether to condemn them for including a $17 bottle aimed at a supermarket audience (the A to Z) or heap praise on the Francis/Tannahill/Hatcher group for producing 65,000 cases of a wine that has the chops to be included. All in all, not a very comprehensive evaluation.

I have this vague recollection of Peter Cargasacchi being really big on the 2006 vintage in Oregon.

Well we’ll go back to some of these wines in 5-10 and see what we think then. I have a feeling the Soter and St. Innocent and Le Cad 07’s will be just what I’m looking for in Pinot.
Patience with Oregon pays off FWIW… (07)

At the time I don’t recall him having tried that many but I think those that prefer Cali Pinot will find 06 more in their wheelhouse.

Jason

Have you had an older Soter that did it for you? I bought two cases of the '02 Beacon Hill, and we’ve revisited it every few months since, but I’ve never enjoyed it anywhere near as much as I did when it was new. I agree that patience pays off with Oregon Pinot, but I’m not so sure about this one.

Have you had an older Soter that did it for you? I bought two cases of the '02 Beacon Hill, and we’ve revisited it every few months since, but I’ve never enjoyed it anywhere near as much as I did when it was new. I agree that patience pays off with Oregon Pinot, but I’m not so sure about this one.

These are just my thoughts. You likely know as much as I do on the subject. When it comes to aging of Oregon pinot, I think it all depends. Upon producer mostly. We can debate whether the ones that don’t age (change in a positive manner over time) have some particular characteristic in common-we all know some will get their feathers up if it suggested ripeness and size/extraction are directly proportional to flat-line, status quo wine over time. I have some of that '02 Soter BH left too, and I must admit making the same observation. Not 2 cases though-sheeeeeit, that’s $1000 for two boxes of wine.
FWLittleIW, I find that the pinots with higher acids are the ones that age well. I don’t care what Bob Parker says about acids not being important. Maybe not for Bordeaux, but for pinot they are. Brickhouse and Cameron in particular can seem pretty acidic early, but the acids integrate with time. Belle Pente too. Tannin structure seems to be important as well. Cristoms can be tannic early, but they smooth out with 8-9 years. Are all Oregon pinots that are immediately accessable doomed to remain stagnant or worse over time? I don’t want to touch that one. I really don’t know.

I’ve had two 99’s in the last six months or so that were stunning. Very deep and intriguing. I can’t speak to the 02’s perhaps they’ve shut down a bit as Tony usually makes them for the long haul and 02 was a vintage that should play into that dynamic.
Anywho these are my notes from the 99’s. Got them at HDH for 40 bucks per BTW.cheers

  • 1999 Soter Pinot Noir Beacon Hill - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton (6/28/2009)
    Same as last note-This really comes across as being pretty youthful yet.
    Sitting on my last two for another 5+. (93 pts.)
  • 1999 Soter Pinot Noir Beacon Hill - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton (3/24/2009)
    my kind of pinot. we gave this a good hour of air to get it going.
    the nose was very expressive,deep,and evolving~ early on it showed lots of funk,stinky socks and as the night went on it showed some baking spice,plums,cherries,raw leather,and some meat tones-i.e. beef jerky.
    wine carries tart raspberries,cherries, and spices through a very lively acidic core into a nice lingering finish.
    overall this wine still has plenty of life but is drinking great right now. Take your time with it as we did and it will bring hours of enjoyment. (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Nice notes on the '99… we still have something like seventeen bottles of the '02, so the plan is to continue to open them periodically to track their evolution, but to have plenty left when they reach maturity. Whether we’ll love them at that point, I don’t know. It will be a good learning experience either way, because we rarely buy enough of any one wine to track it regularly over its expected lifetime. To Mitch’s point, I consider Soter stylistically somewhere in the middle, but I’ve never had an old one. I’ve had Beaux Freres vintages back to '94, and have never liked them better aged than fresh. That’s why we stopped buying them after the '02 vintage.

Anyway, back to '06-'07 Pinot. It’s definitely an odd grouping of wines. Asimov makes a good point when he says that:

The truth, if I may use such an elusive term, is that Oregon pinot noir is still far more dependent on the stylistic inclinations of the producer than it is on the evocative properties of the land.

The write-up would be more helpful if it compared similar quality levels across the board. Say, twenty producers’ drinkable Willamette Valley cuvees, or twenty producers’ ageworthy reserves or vineyard designates. However, it’s written for a NY audience, and many of the wines that are very popular with Northwest wine geeks don’t really make it out of the region in large quantities.

Or, sometimes, at all.

I’m in the “heap praise” group. I think it’s a nice if simple wine.

I like Asimov most of the time but this is an odd duck of a column.