Last evening, my wife and I had the wonderful opportunity to taste a vertical of John Thomas’ Dundee Hills pinots, complements of fellow boarder Ed Fuss, owner and winemaker of Three Angels Vineyard, in Oregon’s Eola-Amity Hills. We were joined by several others, including another boarder Andy Steinman and his wife Sue. What a glorious setting on a beautiful Oregon summer evening in the heart of the vineyard with Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson off in the distance. I had had an occasional bottle of Thomas and was quite anxious to sample multiple vintages. All wines were from Ed’s cellar, purchased on release. We tasted vintages 1998-2007 unblind and oldest to youngest in flights of three. The wines were opened one hour prior to tasting tasting the first flight.
Flight 1
1998 - Dark core with brick edge. Wine has developed secondary notes with spice and sous bois. It lacked a bit in the middle to me with integrated tannins and some acidity on the finish. There is not a lot of fruit evident and the wine seems to have seen its peak.
1999 - It was definitely the lightest colored wine of the tasting. It appeared quite advanced with and orange brick color. Initially it had some interesting aromatics with the typical Thomas spice and candy red fruits, but seemed to fade fast, lacking in the middle. Definitely drink up. I had this wine earlier this summer and in my opinion this bottle was inferior, so there appears to be some bottle variation in these wines.
2000 - Darkest of the flight. General comments of the group, that one would have picked this as the 99 in a blind tasting. Not so however. Best wine of the flight. Nice spice, ? cinnamon and red fruit nose. Excellent mid-palate, balance and finish. This wine still has some life in it.
Flight 2
2001 - Medium color with slight bricking on the rim. Spice and mocha notes. Nice middle and finish.
2002 - Expectations were high on this wine. Typical spice and red fruits on the nose. A bit out of balance to me. Fairly nice finish with acid a bit prominent. Nice wine but did not deliver.
2003 - Lightest color of the flight with bricking on the edge. Some ripeness as expected from the vintage, but not overly so. Some caramel and cinnamon on the nose. Tannins well integrated. Medium body and nice length. Not a lot of complexity but enjoyable.
Flight 3
2004 - Dark ruby color. Nice aromatics of red fruits, honey and spice ( and everything nice) . This wine seemed to have the most life with a good solid acid backbone. Good wine to cellar for a few more years.
2005 - Slightly lighter color than the 04. Big, more rustic with tannins more evident than most of the other wines. Long on the palate. Somewhat 4-square to me and not sure how this wine is going to age.
Flight 4
2006 - Dark ruby. Typical 06 characteristics. Somewhat ripe, mocha, honey, candy red fruits on the nose. Again, a bit lacking balance in the middle. Soft tannins and sweet finish. Personally, I think it could use a bit more acidity. I would drink this now and not age for any length of time.
2007 - Medium ruby. Some herbal unripe qualities, but not unpleasant. Medium body with good acidity. This wine might surprise like a lot of 07’s and improve with some time.
So all in all, a very nice lineup of wines and wonderful to meet new friends. I must say, I was a bit disappointed in the older wines. I had thought that they might age a bit better. I know that Andy has had some older vintages, that have showed quite well. He might want to comment. All the wines were much better with food as one might expect. Great beef kabobs Ed. And again thanks Ed for your great hospitality in a such a spectacular setting.