Old Oregon Wines: The Herbfarm collection

WINE TALK
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We’ve had a chance to open a few more bottles from the older wines I picked up from the Herbfarm.

2001 Witness Tree Vintage Select: this was very interesting. On opening the wine had a higher level of CO2, and some fine sediment, which was not a great combination. There was a good fruit presence, mostly typical darker Eola-Amity Hills notes featuring dark cherry, some notes of wood, and a compactness to the wine that weirdly made me wonder if this was too soon?
While I enjoyed the Witness Tree wines when I was buying for restaurants, they usually seemed to fall on the weightier/denser side of WV Pinot Noirs. This bottle definitely fell into that category, feeling considerably more blocky and foursquare than the Brickhouse. That said, there was nothing over the hill about this wine. It was a very pleasant bottle of wine, and paired well with the grilled lamb we had for dinner, it simply lacked the superlative quality of the 1994 Brickhouse.

1996 St. Innocent Blanc de Noirs: I picked this up as Mark Vlossak has always made exceptional white wines, and I know he has always been committed to a longer tirage as well. That said, I generally drink Blanc de Blanc and only cellar a few specific cuvees. I like the freshness and bite of good, recently disgorged champagnes.

The nose shows good quality parmesan cheese rind, some leesy qualities, and hints of rainier cherry and other light red fruits. There are some excellent nuances, but the cheese rind is a dominant component at the moment.
The palate is quite nice on PnP, and over about an hour really opened up into a very lovely experience. On the weighty side, but with excellent mousse and perfect refreshing acidity. Fuller than my typical choices, this was very enjoyable and for a wine that would have been disgorged in the early aughts, I am very impressed. I didn’t have particularly high hopes for this but it was well worth the expenditure. The cheese rind made it a more intellectual experience for me, but I can’t help but wonder what this would have tasted like 10-15 years ago. A real surprise, and kudos to St. Innocent.

1991 Evesham Wood Cuvee J Pinot Noir

1991 was third in a string of good vintages. 1989 was held up as a superlative year, 1990 enjoyed the luxury of sharing good quality with pretty much every other wine growing region on the planet, and 1991 probably was overlooked at the time due to the world wide quality of 1990. That said, I have always really enjoyed the 89s and 91s for more classicly styled wines from the Willamette Valley.

Cuvee J is the top wine from Evesham Wood, the best barrels from the vintage. The name Cuvee J comes from the original owner, Russ Raney, taking the sediment from a superlative bottle of Jayer Echezeaux, and culturing it to utilize the yeast. Russ used the yeast to ferment all of his wines, and the new owner has continued to use this yeast as well. PIn my first vintage, I took a mother(about a liter of mid-ferment must) from Russ and used it to ferment one of my three fermenters. It’s an excellent yeast, and I enjoyed that wine very much, but opted for native ferments in 2003 and going forwards.

The 1991 Cuvee J also opened with slightly elevated slightly elevated CO2, and just a hint of fine sediment in the wine. The nose was a beautiful expression of older Eola-Amity Hills fruit, dark earth, subois, and tertiary notes of old leather, soft brown spices, and autumn leaves. The palate is more nuanced than the Witness Tree, and shows no signs of being over the hill. Rather it opened up over the couple of hours that we were enjoying it. The primary fruit is gone, and the palate has a nice subtle secondary, and savory feel to it, while still having a beautiful velvet texture. None of the fruit expression of the Brickhouse or the shut down feeling of the Witness Tree, this is definitely still in the plateau and ready to drink. I enjoyed this bottle very much, and while not as profoundly compelling as the Brickhouse, it was a great bottle.
The integrated nature of the darker flavors: earth, fallen leaves, old leather was beautiful and contemplative. Highly recommended, but best for a quiet evening and a thoughtful group.

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Nice notes Marcus!

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Loving this.

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We got together with Evan Martin of Martin and Woods, Andrew Davis of Radiant Sparkling Wine Co., and Evan’s friend Greg Van Wagner who was visiting from Aspen(he’s the wine director at Jimmy’s in Aspen).

It seemed a perfect opportunity to delve into a few more of the bottles from the Herbfarm cellar sale.
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1993 Bethel Heights Flat Block Reserve-this was stellar from the moment we opened it, and in a fabulous moment for consumption. The cork was soft but came out in one piece.
The wine jumped out of the glass with dark fruits and pine forest. Classic Eola-Amity Hills black cherry fruit, with a kaleidoscope of secondary nuances. Texture was pure silk, the fruit vibrant, deep cherry again, loamy earth, and just a perfect finish. We were all blown away by how vibrant the wine was, and how well it showed. We finished the bottle over the course of an hour, and it continued to drink incredibly well with no sign of falling off. This was another near perfect performance, texturally sleek and weightless, loads of nuance and non fruit qualities, all alongside the remarkably fresh fruit notes. Easily the equal of the 1994 Brickhouse, and co-candidate for my WOTY so far. I don’t remember what this cost but it was sub-$100, and I bought 3 bottles. I wish that I had bought a case.

Second wine was the 2001 St. Innocent Temperance Hill Pinot Noir.

On PnP aromatically a very pretty wine. Slightly lifted notes, the wild spicy aspect of Temperance Hill, there is a dense aspect to the wine though, as if it is still wound up and needs just a few more years. This is the second 2001 now that feels like a hold. The palate shows a similar tension to it, though like the nose it is still quite enjoyable. The wine shows the structure of Temperance Hill, and has the firmness I typically associate with St. Innocent wines. Very, very well done, and I would guess probably best with another 3-10 years.

The 2001 vintage went through a lovely stage from 2005-2010, and while Pinot Noir can go through phases, it’s surprising to me that these wines feel so coiled. I do wish that I had another 2-3 bottles of the St. Innocent.

As a kind of wrap up, I should note that Megan and I opened a bottle of 1992 Bethel Heights Chenin Blanc a few nights later. It was solidly over the hill. I took a flyer on this bottle because I knew that Chenin in the Willamette Valley was known for having extremely high acidity. However, 1992 was a hot year and the earliest harvest at the time, with a lot of the heat coming late in the growing season. For $30, it was worth the risk, but based upon tasting, the heat trumped variety.

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For those that haven’t yet dug into the treasure trove that is the Herbfarm cellar, they are having a sale on 6+ bottles before they clear out a good portion of their cellars to the auction market.

Carrie’s email below:

Hello

Thank you for previously adopting (or at least expressing interest in!) some of the CELLAR TREASURES from The Herbfarm Wine Cellar.

The Herbfarm is getting ready to clear out a large part of that cellar that we have baby sat for so many years. We are making room for new wines.

Over these past months I have received some very positive feedback about how not only the reds but the whites too have aged well in our cellar and are drinking nicely.

I want you to be the first to know that these bottles will be moving to a west coast auction house later this month. As you may know, auction houses add a “buyer’s premium” to every purchase. Before the release of this large tranche of bottles I invite you to take a look again at our offerings: Where else can you find perfect examples of historic Oregon and Washington wines?! Wines that will never be available again—in such pristine condition. Of course you will also find classics from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, California and more!

As a friend, customer, and appreciater of good wine you not only have the opportunity to buy some amazing wines available nowhere else but I’ve included a further reason to shop now and avoid auction buyer premiums.

Use the code: August Sale at checkout, your discount for 6 or more bottles will be 20%!

So, break out your mouse and scramble on over to The Herbfarm Wine Cellar to claim your treasures now.

You may pickup at The Herbfarm OR we can ship domestically—your choice at check out.

Cheers to you! Thank you for everything.

For The Herbfarm,
Carrie
PS- Feel free to share this opportunity if you know someone who might properly appreciate this offering.

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Fascinating thread. Not for the wine but rather because in the early/mid ‘90’s the Herb Farm (in a different location) had a literal one year wait for a reservation. I live in Washington.

D. C.

And built a business trip around our reservation. A week before there was a catastrophic fire which closed the restaurant. Some time later the restaurant reopened in Woodinville. But it did not feel like the original Herb Farm (which we were fortunate to walk around and in on an earlier Seattle area visit).

We eventually went to Woodinville but the original was special-for all of America. I never had dinner there but over the years have made a dozen or more dishes out of its extraordinary cookbook.

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Amazon.com Is the link to the cookbook and a bit of background about its founding chef, Jerry Traunfrld, and it’s “enchanting” character.

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Resurrecting this thread for one of my bottles from the Herbfarm cellar.

2004 Matello Souris pinot noir. Purchased from The Herbfarm cellar sale in late 2020. Had been in their cellar since release. Bottle was pristine and cork perfect. Opened and poured a half glass and left to breath for a couple hours. That first glass was ready to go and I didn’t find it evolved too much over the 3-4 hrs it was consumed. Dark red fruit with some high-toned acid. Just a little tart on the palate. Some fine tannins that extend to the finish. A really nice wine. Super fun to try an older bottle of Marcus’ wine prior to @goodfellow……and from the label I kind of wish he’d kept the madwines.com name! Don’t know that this will evolve too much but definitely has at least 5-10 yrs of life left and drinking great now.

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That’s a great cookbook. I never ate at the original location, but I did eat at the Herbfarm twice while Jerry Traunfeld was still there. Both were exceptional meals, that I left after 9 courses feeling inspired and also feeling like I had eaten exactly the right amount of food.

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Many of these wines have shown up at Spectrum auctions in recent weeks. I picked up a 4-bottle lot of “2006 L’Herbe Sauvage Anden-Balcombe Cuvee”. On the back label it states: “WILD HERB is an Oregon Pinot Noir cuvee created each year for Herbfarm by Patty Green at Patricia Green Cellars.” There were a couple of other lots of different cuvees of this wine. Perhaps Jim Anderson can shed some light on this effort.

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We made a bottling they called L’Herbe Sauvage every year from 2001-2009. We would bring 12-15 potential wines (generally 2-3 barrel blends IIRC) out of barrel for them to taste and 1 would ultimately get selected. It was always pretty good stuff as the price paid was not insignificant. I obviously have not had any of those wines in awhile but I would bet HEAVILY on that 2006 being very good. The 2006 Anden was the best wine of that vintage and in the 2000-2011 era of PGC was probably one of the top 3-5 wines we produced.

Good times. Remember the tastings and dinner fondly. Seems like a million years ago at this point.

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Great note! You should add this post to the Virtual Tasting for Charity thread featuring PN going on right now.

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Thanks Jim - I’m super-excited to pop one of these! I think I will tonight and report back…

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So, drinking the 2006 L’Herbe Sauvage right now. Really nice, super flavorful Pinot. On the riper end of the OR Pinot spectrum, but still retains good WV character. There’s a little bit of VA on the front palate that detracts a bit, but doesn’t intrude too much.

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Opened another bottle of the 2006 L’Herbe Sauvage and it showed a little better (less noticeable VA) than the first bottle. Also had a 2004 L’Herbe Sauvage a few days ago and it showed very well, too. Last night, opened a bottle of the PGC 2000 Balcombe picked up from the Herbfarm collection (all via Spectrum Wine Auctions - $19.50/bottle after BP!) and it was spectacular.