Tasting Notes: 6th Annual Post-IPNC Oregon Pinot Noir Throwdown, August 1st 2016, Carlton OR

WINE TALK
21

Thank you again Ian for hosting this event, it was really informative and extremely fun.

I do not have near the experience of most, if not all other attendees but here are my thoughts:

I still really love the 2010 vintage. The vast majority of these wines were, elegant, acid driven and yet still had plenty of body. They had the balance that I find most appealing and food friendly. I would have happily enjoyed almost all of these wines over a meal or the course of an evening.

The fact that these wines were so similar in alcohol and all had probably very similar pick dates for fruit, I feel as though I missed some of the subtleties some of these wines had to offer due to the inherent format of the tasting. As someone mentioned, I probably would have enjoyed some wines more over an evening.

I really enjoyed flight six. I was very surprised by the Ayres Pioneer, I have had several of their wines in the past through various vintages and I don’t recall them being so distinctive.

I don’t know if I’ll get an answer on this but, what was everyone’s thoughts on the two Evesham Wood wines?

Both wines smelled off to me. It wasn’t quite VA, it didn’t quite seem like reduction…I couldn’t place my finger on it. Sort of reminded me of methyl mercaptan but I don’t have the experience to be sure.

22

My notes on the La Grieve Bleu include the idea that I think it’s a divisive wine that may come off as too acidic for many but it is in my wheelhouse. My neighbor was put off by the wine but I quite liked it.

23

Thank you to Steve and Ian for an amazing event!

I always learn something from the event by tasting wines but just by sitting next winemakers too. I learn so much about why i smell violets, or fertilizer or marshmellows, or or or. It’s a great community we have.

I felt many of the wines were pretty offering nice aromatics. The middles tended to be a bit light which i could have forgiven if there were more acid on a lingering finish. Generally i felt most wines were readier to drink than not and with a few exceptions, I don’t think many will improve–they just didn’t have the tannic or acidic structure to improve much, imho. As i said though, these wines were, as a group, very nice and many I’d love to have spent the night with.


Flight 1 - WV
Division Un 12.1 bright red cherry, lifted, a bit of tar. Strong, pure fruit. Dundee?
Panther Creek Winemakers Cuvee 13 burnt rubber, soil. Ripe but not overpowering.
Boedecker Stewart 13.5 funky, wet chanterelles, soil. Earth. Deep nose. Intriguing. Palate: Ripe fruit. Deep plum but not cloying or heavy. Very Oregon
J Christopher WV 13 darker, but still a very nice nose. A bit more tannins than others but nothing distracting. Deep violets, a hint of freshness on the finish.
Antica Terra WV 13 darker, tar. Cherry skin. Mineral. Good acid.
Flight 2 - Eola Hills
Vincent Zenith Vineyard 13.1 deep, lead, sanguine nose. Very deep and enticing. Very different on the palate. Ripe fruit. Short finish left me wanting more of the fun stuff the nose gave.
Biggio Hamina Zenith 13 red hots. hot peppermint. Fish fertilizer. In the mouth, Very bright fruit. Disjointed finish.
Grochau Bjornson 13.1 darker color. Cool herbs, paint thinner, cherry skin. Cool mint on the palate. Long. Robust but not terribly intersting.
Witness Tree Vintage Select 13.1 wet soil. Muddy. Metallic nose, A bit livelier in the mouth. Not a great finish,
Walter Scott Dumb Ox 13.5 Pear skin, lifted, pretty aromatics. Raspberry in the mouth and on the long finish. A really nice wine.
Flight 3 - Yamhill-Carlton District + McMinnville
JL Kiff 13.7 Big bright fruit. strawberry. Lifted. Alcohol. Intense, candied ripe strawberry, evolving to blackberry
Belle Pente Belle Pente Vyd 12.9 Funky. Dark. Oak. Spicy. Dark raspberry. Heavier weight, long finish decent acid.
Denison Kiff 13.5 sweet fruit. Soil. Nice nose. Nice wine. Tart and tight on the palate. Needs time. Really the only wine that needed major time.
Seufert Coleman Vineyard - McMinnville AVA 13.5 brett. DPIM.
Stephen Goff Shea 13.5 hot pepermint. Ripe forward fruit. Easy to drink. Nicer in the mouth than in the nose.
Flight 4 - Dundee Hills 1
Walter Scott Holstein 13.5 lifted. Violets. Dark nose, alcohol. A bit harsh on the finish,
Belle Pente Murto 13 deep nose. Tobacco. A bit disjointed. should improve. I’d hold
Artisanal Murto Vineyard 12.5 maple syrup and barrel toast on the nose, raspberry . Big shouldered. Tastes expensive but not necessarily good.
Scott Paul Audrey (Maresh) 13.1 Smells like a can of tennis balls. mineral. Soil. Lots of bright pretty fruit with good acid. Sweet tobacco.
Arterberry Maresh Loie’s Maresh 12.6 toasty, creamy oak. Coconut. Big, forward fruit. Clunky on the finish. Lots of potential to integrate some day but not terribly great right now.
Flight 5 - Dundee Hills 2+
Anderson Family 12.7 Sour, dill, rasins, prune.
Matello Durant Vineyard 13.5 a bit advanced nose. Simple. Dusty. More fun in the mouth. With good fruit and cool green herbs.
Patty Green Balcombe 1B 13 brett, reduction.
Andrew Rich The Knife Edge - WV 13.5 pretty nose. Developed. Sawdust. pine dust. Pencil lead. Big, ripe fruit but nice. A big wine. Feels like WA Merlot
Thomas 13.1 Poop. Vension heart. A bit of wet cardboard. Dark with a fair bit of tannins on the palate. Alcohol.
Flight 6 - Ribbon Ridge+
Brickhouse Cuvee du Tonnelier 13 pretty. Tangerine pith. A bit of funk. Felt like Eyrie but a bit weightier. In the top 5 today.
Redman Reserve 13.7 deep nose. Extracted. Lavender. Very sweet but not pruny, just very sweet.
Ayres Pioneer 13.5 orange peel, saline. Crushed seashells, limestone. Tart finish. Really exciting and fascinating wine.
Evesham Wood Le Puits Sec - Eola-Hills 13 medicinal. Bandaids. Manure.
Anne Amie L’iris - WV 13.3 light pretty , lifted nose. Pure, light but excellent fruit. Really enjoyable. Silky. Cranberry tartness to the finish.
Flight 7 - Chehalem Mountains+
J. Christopher Lia’s Vineyard 13 lifted violets. Cool herbs. Big bright fruit in the mouth. Finished with a hint of olive. Resolved and ready to go. a nice showing
Carabella Estate 13.5 seaweed. Meaty. Savory. Savory finish. caramel, sweet barrel.
Beckham Estate 13.3 dusty. Simple. Dusty finish. Not showing any real fruit. Agave?
Evesham Wood La Grive Bleue - Eola Hills 13 high nitrogen fertilizer. Jalepeno. Hot mint.
Cameron Abbey Ridge - Dundee Hills 12.6 Advanced color. VA. Reduction. Cool wet stone hiding under Brett, brett, brett. Better in the mouth than the nose. Cool. But jeez, how many flaws can you pack into one wine?

I think we must have had different bottles of Evesham at our table because ours were so bad and flawed in the same way, i actually thought we mistakenly got the same wine again.

Anyhow. A great event and lots of fun side conversations about screwcaps, cropping, 2015 vs 2014, harvest decisions, storage decisions, etc, etc. Incredibly educational.

24

yeah, smelled like mercaptan issues from a stuck ferment. any winemaker want to correct me?

25

After reading Paul’s notes each year, which I do enjoy reading, I wonder if he even likes Oregon Pinot and why he bothers attending. I was so intrigued by his severe critique of Cameron AR that I popped one tonight to see if it could possibly be that bad. Will report back.

26

Paul is one of a handful of people I know who is offended by brett every single time. I tend to like brett so his barnyard is my desirable funk.

27

I think I outlined that pretty clearly in the first two full paragraphs.

Maybe my notes do come across as critical but that’s the nature of the event–you’re primed to look for differences. There’s also the obvious elephant in the room of my aversion to brett. Others perceive Brett as adding to a wine and I do not. So the notes read negative if I’m averse to a wine you like. I can’t convince you to taste something you can’t taste and you can’t convince me it doesn’t rob the wine, often completely.

28

I can get Paul’s disdain for brett…I’m somewhat torn on brett myself. It’s often times VERY distracting for me. I can’t smell the fruit. With Cameron, it blows off for me. I love a lot of Cameron wine and I love a lot of the Beaujolais and Burgundies that have similar qualities but it has to be in small doses or the wine becomes one dimensional for me.

The Abby Ridge was about an 89 point wine for me. Very balanced with alcohol, acid and mouth feel but the brett was a bit much and it was hard to appreciate the fruit it had to offer.

29

Hi Paul, I’m not sure what mercaptan issues have to do with a stuck ferment. There are a number of pathways to reductive wines. Aside from late Sulpher sprays in the vineyard, most come from ferments moving away from an oxidized environment, not in an environment becoming more oxidative, such as stalling out ferments.

30

Thanks Marcus!

31

What do you mean by a “stuffed middle” Mr Osburn?

32

Overall, do the attendees of this event feel that the events justify the price?

33

Looking at the CT reviews on 2010 Evesham LPS and LGB it appears the incidence of off bottles is low. Strange.

34

Could you be more specific? Which events? Full IPNC, Sunday Passport, Post-IPNC tasting or a combination?

RT

35

The EW Puits were my bottles so I’ll be cracking in to more shortly. I might have some Grive too. Definitely planning more exploration of the Cameron Abbey.

Even though a number of my OR personal darlings under-performed…perplexingly, I still believe '10 to be one of the strongest vintages of the past decade. Belle Pente kicked butt. Matello (Marcus) had a fine showing. The wines were very unlike '08 with respect to restraint and ripeness. Way less heavy handed oak than average (IMHO) and the wines were almost uniformly prettier and more interesting to me.

RT

36

100% agree

37

I have a naive question; I had the impression that a fair number of winemakers attend. Is that not the case? I see Mr. Trimpi (how do you race a bike and attend wine events like this? My compliments to your versatility :slight_smile:) says the EW LPS was his so I guess not. My question being; if I were a winemaker attending something like this, I would be bringing one or even two back-up bottles just to make sure that a representative bottle was tasted. With John Thomas and John Paul, we all know that they won’t be in attendance! I think that with these two icons, it is only decent that the person bringing the bottle bring at least one back-up.
All that said, and from my seat in the peanut gallery, I am going to assume that four-five years out from bottling is just too soon to be judging the majority of these wines.

38

This will be a big part of our discussion for Season 7. I am personally leaning towards going back to 2007 again, then maybe 2005. Then going forward to 2011. We will do another vote to decide since having 2 bottles or a mag of the same wine to share is the limiting factor - especially with older vintages.

39

My faves of the day, in the order tasted.

J Christopher WV
Antica Terra WV
Walter Scott Dumb Ox
JL Kiff
Belle Pente Belle Pente Vyd
Walter Scott Holstein
Belle Pente Murto
Artisanal Murto Vineyard
Scott Paul Audrey (mostly Maresh)
Arterberry Maresh Loie’s Maresh
Brickhouse Cuvee du Tonnelier
Anne Amie L’iris
J. Christopher Lia’s Vineyard

40

This event is not anything related to IPNC except that it happens directly afterward, so visitors in town for the actual weekend events might still be around to attend.

Several winemakers come to this annual throwdown. Typically we bring our own wines but not always. Maybe half the attendees were consumers, so all together there’s a broad mix of producers and AVAs represented.

I found the wines generally as Richard says - pretty, not oaky, very enjoyable to my palate even if only a few really stood out. I think the wines were largely still early in their evolution but still in a fine place to taste and judge them for what they are now. A few showed some issues, and I wouldn’t say any were related to their youth. The Panther Creek seemed really reduced in a way that time won’t solve. A few showed brett that time won’t solve. Can’t remember which one but one showed funky ML character that won’t go away. Otherwise the wines were largely lovely, delicious, not at all shut or requiring more time for drinkability, but at the same time showed a grace and harmony and enough stuffing to last many more years, some undoubtedly to improve.

To be fair, my own wine showed as it has in the past, pretty - especially aromatically - but perhaps a touch light through the finish. I enjoy the wine, I am proud of it, but it’s not my best effort. I’d call it “very good.” The winner for me was the Ayres “Pioneer.” Just lovely grace, depth and complexity, still young, an excellent wine.