Marine soil wines definitely are for the patient. Always slower developing than the volcanic sites and when they’re not in the best place they can be pretty rugged. Exactly why I love them.
1998 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Arcus Estate - nose: fragrance floral bouquet of roses and lily along with liquorice, anise, and fennel. Taste, clean transparent violet edging. Fruit and acid working together, still causes a slight pucker over time. Medium length finish with bare hint of alcohol. Very little earth or tertiary flavor. Pomegranate and cranberry throughout with subtle spice box to start.
2012 Ken Wright Pinot Noir Canary Hill Vineyard Purple deep edge, Blueberry, bosenberry, earthy alcoholic nose. Significant bramble, earth, moderate forest floor, and trumpet mushrooms. Significant stem inclusion and alcohol opens over time… and can be cellared for some time more. Definitely need to give it time to open up. Blue fruits and tart currants, with slight bit of fig, and apricot. Significant persistence due to the alcohol.
Great BD purchase. The 2010 and 2011 were even better.
Picture of my goddaughter dog. Lost her in 2020. Good dog.
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2013 Iota Pinot Noir Pelos Sandberg Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills (12/12/2020)
Identical to the bottle a couple weeks ago. This was my last of the case. Easy repurchase for berserkerday.
Very good. Nose has a big mossy aroma, euro like. Attack is tart cherry followed by ripe raspberry. Medium plus acidity gives a elegant mouth feel. A light stem or oak plank finish with resolved tannins makes for an entertaining wine.
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Woof
So a bunch of people are going to have tasted through 9 Walter Scott wines shortly. 
2012 Belle Pente Murto Vineyard Pinot Noir
Ripe jammy darker Pinot fruit with mild baking spice aromas and subtle loam. Bright very integrated briary and black cherry fruit attack. Jammy and slightly dessicated but not quite raisined. A bit of Kirsch. The oak is judicious. Good length and pleasing acidity with cooperative tannins. It’s missing more overt secondary nuances that I typically expect from their Murto. Still a solid all around effort reflective of the vintage. Some mild warmth (listed 13.9% abv). Probably a good idea to start drinking through these if you have them.
RT
2008 Beaux Freres Pinot Noir Beaux Freres Vineyard - Popped and poured at cellar temp. Lovely nose of sour cherry, creosote and underbrush. Nice bracing acidity on the palate with sour cherry fruit and a spice filled finish. Still a youngster, with plenty of time left to develop.
Did they share the bottles? You don’t get to double up. I am not that rich. (Seriously…I’m not)
Ah…it’s the barrel tasting thing?
David, since I didn’t sponsor a week this year I’ll help cover the cost. After it’s all over I’ll venmo you.
Bring it kids! Make it hurt.
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Condolences. We also lost our exceptional pup this year. Good long life. She’s missed.
RT
No worries. I got it. Feel free to chip in some for the pets if you want.
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This was a berserkerday wine from last year but this bottle was gratis from Marcus.
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2017 Goodfellow Family Cellars Chardonnay Durant Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills (12/12/2020)
Color has a pinch of green swirled around the medium light yellow.
The aromas sure smell like a white burgundy, great wine for a blind tasting . Has wet stone and a little flint and a touch of petrol on the back end. Still there the next day. Bravo.
A lot of green apple on the attack. The mouth feel has a bit of glycerin but it’s quite nimble on the palate because of the medium plus acidity. There’s a hint of menthol at the finish, leave that cool feeling in your mouth.
Excellent.
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Glad to see you picked up on the flint. I have been noticing it more often in Oregon Chard than in Cali Chard. I wonder why.
For lunch, I had a sandwich of spicy coppa, fresh mozz, onion, and pickled banana peppers. To accompany it, I grabbed a 2017 Biha Andreas Vineyard Gewurtraminer rose. The wine is well-balanced, with spicy, waxy notes and a bit of an apricot fruit profile running underneath it. The finish is long and pleasant. If I had to find a fault, it would be that there’s a bit of a hole in the middle, between the attack and the finish. That’s picking nits, though – it’s just the teeniest bit of a hole. The richness of the wine was a great match for the mozzerella in the sandwich, and the spice of the gewurtz stood up well to the spice in the coppa. Fantastic value on this wine, but I can’t recall the actual price off the top of my head.
1998 Torii Mor Seven Springs Vineyard Pinot Noir:
Amazingly improbable journey for this to end up with me after what occurred. This came from the first harvest of what was then the new planting at Seven Springs. Some combination of Pommard and Dijon 115 but I only know that because it’s written on the back label. Super fine and silky texture. Initially smelled like older Barbaresco. The nose is caving in a bit and a little grass seed component is showing. The fruit mid-palate has lots of dark, sweet fruit. The finish has some pencil lead and the fruit thins out a bit but there is still some vibrant tannin to do the lifting in the back. It’s really nice actually. It’s comforting. It speaks to how good this vineyard was/is and the super old-school wine making methodology in action. I think anyone here would consider this a treat and it’s nice for me to have this bottle journey all the way back to me.
This also smoked two Burgs. One a GC, the other a top, top 1er and both from highly regarded producers if from less than heralded vintages.
2018 Violin WV Chardonnay
Will worked/studied at Walter Scott before starting his own Eola Amity focused winery. He joined Berserker Day for the first time last year. Don’t miss him this year. He is a tiny winery and makes impressive PN and Chardonnay. This is his entry level Chardonnay for $25.
Lovely pale gold “champagne” color. Scents of fresh cut baking apples (Chehalis or Mackentosh), pineapple, coconut, honeysuckle blossom, and flinty reduction. More of the same on the palate with flinty tartness. Very nice stuff. Somewhat like a WS Chardonnay without the new oak presence.
The regal exquisite beauty is Yang, whom we rescued eight years ago when she was eleven months old. She had a sister named Yin who had already been adopted. I ask her wine buying advice (usually quantity) and she gives me a “yea or nay” look. It’s turned out pretty well. I don’t recall her ever saying nay.
Cameron Clos Electrique 2011
This is, maybe not quite “extreme” because that sounds like a criticism I don’t intend, but it’s out on one end of the spectrum as far as any detectable sweetness to the fruit. 12.5% alcohol.
Yet it has concentration and character — it’s just somehow the essence of cherry and strawberry with almost no glucose. A hint of bay leaf, watery mineral, and some citrus peel towards the finish.
I think this would appeal to some of the more strident AFWEers around here. I’d love a touch more ripeness and some spice or other complexity, but it’s a good wine in its own way, and I can appreciate it.
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2013 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Berserkers’ Cuvée - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (12/12/2020)
For the weekly wine challenge to benefit the Daikin Humane Society. Pop and pour and follow for 3 hours. An excellent wine, but available only to Berserkers! Bright red fruit and interesting citrus-like acidity on the back of the palate that makes the wine seems very fresh and bright. Color was light when poured but got darker as the evening wore on. Nose is muted with a bit of alcohol aroma and a floral component that I cannot identify. No pinot funk/cola flavors, which is why I am reaching the conclusion that I like the average Oregon pinot more than the average Cali pinot, because I am not a fan of the funk. There are plenty of outstanding Cali pinots that I love, but I’m talking “average” and I find that annoying component much less prevalent in Oregon pinot. This wine has miles to go before it is over the hill and I suspect that it will get better before it gets worse. PS - a real bargain when the winery needed to move inventory and offered it to Berserkers at a price equal to what it would have gotten from wholesalers and sold out almost immediately. (91 pts.)
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2002 Patricia Green Cellars Goldschmidt Pinot
The color is still vibrant with no sign of bricking. Nose is earthy, mushroom, forest floor. Still very acidic, so a great pairing with dinner. Darker fruit profile. Very intense. Look forward to trying again tomorrow. Wonderful example of aged Oregon Pinot. The Goldschmidt Vineyard is now the Winderlea Vineyard.
2017 Resonance Hyland Chardonnay
My first experience with Resonance Chardonnay. It lacked the piercing minerality of a Goodfellow or Walter Scott Chardonnay, but it was enjoyable. A lot of the same descriptors in a rounder style.
