TN: Oregon Wines

WINE TALK
#1

I used to be quite familiar with Oregon wines back in the early days when I was racing cars at the track in Portland several times a year. We’d finish that and then head out for McMinnville and Nick’s Diner and into wine country. That was a long time ago and I had lost touch with Oregon wines so looked forward to this event.

2021 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Chardonnay Arthur - citrus nose, clean and tasty on palate and god length - very nice chard!

2019 Drouhin Oregon Roserock Chardonnay - a step up in complexity and a quite Burgundian nose with floral and lemon notes. Very clean long finish and a definite step above the Arthur.

2013 Cristom Pinot Noir Eileen Vineyard - lovely berries and smoke nose, a medium dark red colour and some nice floral notes that came out shortly after it was presented. Smooth on palate and well balanced with suitable levels of oak.

2011 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Momtazi Vineyard - darker yet, with a very good sweet fruit and spice but I found it a bit lacking on palate right at the end.

2019 Lingua Franca Pinot Noir AVNI - good nose of red berries and spice and in the mouth some strawberry, good length - the first wine that might have been mistaken for a Burgundy?

2015 White Rose Estate Pinot Noir Appellation Series Dundee Hills - lighter colour, spicy and a tad earthy, decent nose, and medium length. Good wine.

2015 Lingua Franca Pinot Noir Mimi’s Mind - a more spirity nose and a bigger wine, this wine had excellent concentration but I though it a bit lacking in the nose until it had been open quite awhile. Good flavour concentration.

2021 Holocene Pinot Noir Apocrypha - medium colour, slightly cloudy and with a ripe bubble gum nose, it had good concentration and length but seemed on the young side - it would be interesting to see what a few more years brings.

2017 Delmas Syrah SJR Vineyard - our cheese wine, this was made from Walla Walla fruit and was obviously spicy syrah in the nose along with red fruit, not black, and it was dark, supple and had a long finish - wish it was available up here!

8 Likes
#2

Nice notes. I love, love, love Delmas Syrahs and especially appreciate what the Viognier does for the nose/bouquet.

1 Like
#3

Yes, the best wineries up here in BC are also adding just a soupcon of viognier to enhance the bouquet and it does wonders (I’ve been able to taste preblend vs. post blend samples at the winery, which was Le Vieux Pin). Their premium wine, Equinoxe, usually gets as little as 1% viognier and they tell me that any more doesn’t do anything for the wine.

#4

Thread drift: what were you racing at PIR?

#5

I raced one of these:

and also this:

1 Like
#6

Awesome! I still see a few Cobras at track days down here, probably kit builds at this point though. I’ll confess I don’t recognize the 12 car though!

#7

The couple on the right looking at the camera have “who the f*ck is that with the camera” look :grin:

I really have no idea of what car that is but the rear quarter panel looks to be Mercedes SL300 from the 1950’s.

#8

The red car is the hind end of my 1963 TVR Grantura Mk 3. I acquired it and built is because it used the same driveline as my MGA but had a tubular space frame and independent rear suspension (they also put ford V8s in them and called them Griffiths) They made 70 of them - this one is now racing in the UK.

I have always tended to accumulate cars, but I have improved - I am down to only 6 now, two modern sports cars and three classic ones plus my old MG race car

3 Likes