Back in November I promised Marcus I would post my note on this wine after I popped it. I totally forgot about it. What a cad! Sorry, Marcus. But better late than never, so here it is.
2011 Matello Pinot Noir Durant- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills (11/27/2014)
An elegant wine, with airy red fruit and lots of spice, but no doubt there’s a lot of whole cluster in this. Terrific structure, quite firm, but this needs at least another couple years to soften up. I did notice this was the first bottle at the table to be finished! Very nice wine, but hold.
Lovely wine, but if you don’t have more than a few bottles I would leave them alone for a few years. By the way, if you’re in the neighborhood, a stop at Matello is well worth it. The wines are very good, and Marcus is a great host!
Had this wine for Thanksgiving 2013 in PDX, and was really great then. Made me realize I had not been buying and drinking enough OR wine and that I needed a lot of Matello in my cellar.
Only have two bottles of this and probably won’t touch for at least 3-4 years.
Marcus is one of the most talented and knowledgeable winemakers (both white and red) I have met. I feel he does a great job of using the right amount of whole cluster in his pinots from vintage to vintage. I do think his wines are meant to last (of a similar profile to Dunn perhaps). I am not sure if there is an expectation that all US pinots should be forward from the gate or if the forgiveness of a “hard phase” hasnt been learned for US pinots like those of Burgundy, however, I am highly confident that these wines will be beautiful in due time (and many are beautiful early). In the meantime ill drink his pinot gris!
Waded through some older TNs and found one from Sept 2013 where this '11 Durant was WOTN in a blind lineup (along with an 07 Hamacher) ahead of a couple of bottles of Rhys and a 2005 Jadot Corton.
Cellaring all the Matello 2011 SVDs for a couple of years sounds like the right move. With their sleek structure, I expect there’ll be a minimum 10+ year drinking window.