2006 Evesham Wood Pinot Noir - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills (11/22/2009)
Initially a rather offputing chemical funk, something i’ve never experienced with an EW Pinot. The first glass was a bit disjointed but the next glass saw the off aromas subsiding and a rather full forward expression of dark fruited Eola-Amity terroir revealing itself. Lush but not offputting, it would seem this bottle is in a good window for consumption. Not a typical Russ Raney creation but preferrable to some of it’s hot disjointed vintage mates in other winemakers productions from 2006. Held up well on the second night as well. (88 pts.)
Thanks for the update. It has been more than a year since I tried this but my overall impression seems similar to yours. For the price it is a nice bottle of pinot from an iffy vintage.
It’s always fun to track the evolution of the entry level EW Pinot’s (The WV, Eola-Amity, and Greive Blue) over the short term aging window. While these wines are not always the most complex examples of WV Pinot they do you the favor of benefiting from a few years of bottle age. You can’t say that about too many other domestic PN in this price range.
Visited Russ back in August and tasted 08 barrel samples from the estate as well as Illahae and Freedom Hill I believe (I could be wrong on that one). Not super experienced on barrel tasting but from what I could tell seem to be shaping up very nicely. A good balance of fruit and structure. Russ was excited about the possibilities for 08.
As for the 07’s I thing the Grieve Blue and the Puit Sec are very enjoyable wines. Trying to keep my hands off them so I will have a few to taste over the next 2-4 years (perhaps longer on the Puit Sec).
I picked up the recently released 2008 bottling over the weekend and popped. I’ll be going back for a couple more. I only had two glasses since the rest went to friends, but the one glass I ran through the Vinturi revealed some smoke to a somewhat unforgiving (currently unforgiving) wine. The texture was silky, with minimal rough edges (which is verrrrry hard to find at this price point), and decent finish as well. Don’t get me wrong on the unforgiving part, because it is good, but needs a year or so for improvement.
This EW bottling is tough to beat for the price. I would be surprised to find a match at this price point. Look forward to trying many many more of the 08 Oregon vintage.
Talked to Russ last weekend about the '08s, he is very high on their ageing potential - in his mind the most age-worthy PNs since 1999. He really likes the “throwback” aromatic characteristics of the '07s but doesn’t think they will be particularly good agers, and recommended drinking them in the next 4-5 years. Guess I’ll be drinking the '07 Le Puits Sec and Cuvee J before too long then! Probably even before I look deeply into the '05s.
Nothing specific other than the above recommendation, but reading between the lines I’d say that although he feels the aromatics are great and they are very good wines (with which I heartily agree), the fruit stuffing for long-term ageing may not be there - just a shorter arc to maturity. His '07 and '08 WV bottlings back-to-back show the significant difference between the vintages. So far the few OR PN '08s I have had appear to have some of the sweetness of fruit of the '06s without the flabbiness that dominates some of those efforts. All winemakers I have talked to suggest a couple of years in bottle before touching their '08s - not that they are hard wines, just very primary fruit-dominated wines at this point.