I shamed Jim into sending me a bottle as well, which arrived on Monday, as did my latest dental crown. So I waited until today to try it:
Open 1 1/2 hrs. Fairly deep dark red color with blue/violet rim. Slight saline on the nose with dark pure cherry and black or ripe red raspberry fruit, a hint of background spice. The palate has a fairly soft, somewhat flat entry, but nice body and darker fruit density. Builds in the back of the mouth and sides of the tongue with late fine tannins and acidic prickle (don’t know if they added any acid, but I probably would have).
This is a wine who’s strength is in it’s back end (not unlike a number of us, I would suspect). It’s a deal for $19 and I would certainly be comfortable packing some away. Not a perfect wine for it’s front end softness, but an intriguing wine from a quality place. Certainly drinkable now, but I’d really like to see where it goes in 5-10 years.
Seems like the TNs have been remarkably consistent thus far in terms of the flavor profile and mouthfeel. So often people are all over the board for any given wine.
Third night out of the fridge and warming to room temp; lovely aromatics, soft raspberries, drinking incredibly nice with bright fruit, beautiful balance, silky soft. If you do not like this, give up and drink beer. ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink")
Anyone else have night two TNs? For me, this got a lot better. Acidity seems more prominent, elements a bit more integrated. Fruit has moved to the background, earthiness to the fore. The softness than John and Ron talk about is much less evident on the second night. I’m more of a fan now.
Michael
Michael – I edited/updated my note after night 2 to say that I thought the wine had improved a bit, too.
Sadly, I will not be able to tell you what this is like on the second, third or even fourth night.
A dingo drank all my wine.
Embarrassed to say at this was the first Oregon Pinot I’ve ever tasted.
A pretty medium dark ruby. The label didn’t specify abv. (or anything else). The nose was spice, bramble and a bit of black cherry fruit. On the palate, a nice acidic entry followed by black raspberry fruit and the aforementioned spice and bramble. Very pleasing right now, and I’d expect improvement over the next several years.
My benchmarks for “value” pinots are wines like Kutch Sonoma Coast, Rivers-Marie SC, Windy Oaks Cuvee and Ceritas “Costalina.” This wine was better priced than any of these wines and was quite distinctive within the group - lighter, more feminine, just as lively.
I’m very appreciative of Jim’s offer to taste this. Great value and a terrific wine in a lean and sexy style.
No, that was lame, CA humor.
I don’t think this wine will work for me, I’m a complete label chaser.
So what happens next on this? Does Jim contact everyone who signed up by PM or in the thread (I did the latter), or do we need to reach out again if he gets enough interest to pull the trigger?
Hey folks. I’m still in NCAA. I go back tomorrow. I am glad folks are reacting positively to the wine especially since it’s a young wine being shipped and popped. Notes are sort of as I would expect and mostly in the direction that I described.
Anyway, I have a wealth of stuff to go through. It probably would not hurt me to re-post here what this is all aboutbfor folks that are reading this that have no idea what this is about. Once I get back to Oregon I will get everything straightened out, recalibrated and brought up to date. At that point we can settle on the easiest method to make this happen. I will keep you all posted.
Thank you Jim! It has been really exciting to watch this whole thing unfold. I hope I get to try these one day.
I’m glad Mike wasn’t in the middle of a Martinelli bender when he tasted that.
I’m following with a glass a night. Nose is soft and luscious tonight. It seems to be getting better each night, so the future looks very promising, silky and smooth, not austere by any means, just like I said, silky and smooth with acid, fruit and tannins working harmoneously together with a balance toward the acid.
Last glass tonight and I paired it with a dill pickle. Passed with flying colors. This is one heck of a wine. It’s perfect tonight! A little metallic mineral sneaking in to the brightness like just a chrome accent on a Bentley! ![[highfive.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/db21b9263a9105e51f6f8b11e61dd4de095611f9.gif "highfive")
Quick summary: I still have not gone through everything. However, based on the total from a week ago and various PMs, phone calls, new buyers and upgrades posted as well as a couple of yet to be determined but seemingly likely large scale orders that we will far exceed the drop dead number of 600 cases.
For those just checking in on this and wondering what this is here is a short synopsis. In 2013 we bottled a Pinot Noir from the Chehalem Mountain AVA. It has great bones and very good vineyard pedigree and I consider the wine to be in the upper tier of wines we made in 2013 even though it is not singly sourced. We bottled 890 cases and fully expected to sell this wine through our normal channels. In a different thread I made an off-handed remark about having this wine in quantity and if just 6-700 Berserkers got together we could offer this wine up at the price at which we would sell it to our distributors. People took this as some sort of sign and anted up publically and privately. I posted info on the wine and sent out sample bottles to regular tasting note posters.
And so here we are.
On Tuesday I will figure out the ways that people can make good and sign up for the wine. It still has to be labeled which means a label has to be determined and printed. I am not sure how long it will take us to get there. Hopefully sooner than later. Would love to be able to ship the preponderance of this in he spring. I will post info on Wednesday about how to proceed.
For those with skin in the game thanks for your collective diligence and fanaticism. I’m impressed, amazed and honored to be a part of this whole thing. If you are new to this let me know your interest. More information to come.
Late to the party, but just got back in town and had a chance to taste the wine. Initially a bit of reduction, however that seemed to blow off rather quick. Red fruited, cherries, some mineral and earth on the nose. Very soft, feminine, elegant palate with excellent flavors. Soft tannins and balanced finish with enough acid. Very easy to drink now. Better on the second day. Therefore excellent value!
TN; 2013 Patricia Green Un-Labeled Chehalem AVA; this has a distinct (as in singular) nose of piercing red loamy cherry fruit with a tea-leaf sassafras edge, just plain and simple pleasurable to hold up to the nose and smell. Though decanted eight hours in advance, it was still fairly closed on the palate, everything seems to be there including the mid palate in excellent proportion, but it’s coiled a bit tight and needs time.
Stylistically, as is to be expected, this is on the more elegant side of things, but still a powerful wine, the type of wine that sneaks up on you a few seconds after the initial palate impression rather than presenting an immediate wave of fruit-but this is extrapolating out based on present form. There’s a lot going on in this bottle and it’s presently quite pleasurable with no hard edges and yes, it’s what I would expect from a north of $40 bottle.
disclaimer: I have read the tns above.
3 of us had the wine Monday (thank you Jim) night in Zaltos, bottle open > 2H before we tried the wine. As everyone has stated the wine could be priced easily in the $40 or above pricepoint. It has tea, seasalt and a whiff of smoke, some WC bitterness seems discernible thru the mid-palate and on the finish though I have read no mention of WC anywhere yet.
Things we did not get: cola, heat, sweet fruit. I’m surprised this wine has a predominance of Dijon fruit. I think 2-3 years in bottle will make this interesting to own.
I did not taste on day #2 as headcold overtook me. Mel didn’t find the wine markedly different.
Belatedly, I have just placed my order at the Patricia Green Cellars website. Will be my first PGC wine, and really looking forward to it as I really like Jim Anderson’s philosophy of wine. From his many Burgundy TN’s, I can see that what he is searching for in a wine is the same as me, for the most part. And of course the stellar reputation of PGC adds to my excitement.
The TN’s in this thread are of two types. Several say the '13 Berserker Cuvee is a very good entry level Oregon pinot at a great price. Several others say it is much better than that, indeed an outstanding 2013 Chehalem Mountains wine. Jim Anderson would be in this latter camp, ranking the wine in the upper tier of all his 2013’s for quality (but available to us at wholesale price as a one-time special, because the wine doesn’t fit his SVD-focused marketing strategy). Makes me curious and eager to taste.
I am reminded of the time Rhys Vineyards declassified the 2006 Family Farm PN and sold it as Alesia San Mateo County for as little as $23/btl. That was (and is) an outstanding wine IMO, light in body, delicate texture, but very fine intensity on the palate, followed by a deceptively long and exquisitely balanced finish. In 2012 I served it blind with Fourrier 2006 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Gruenchers, and the two wines were shockingly close to identical in every way. And yet, that Alesia never got the respect it deserved as a great wine. It was very popular as a $23 QPR, but its absolute quality was largely overlooked, because of the declassified label and the bargain price. I am very curious to see for myself if this Patricia Green “Berserker Cuvee” is another example of a really good wine that is taken less seriously than it deserves because of its bargain price.