In my report earlier this week on my vacation in Oregon I wrote about the Patricia Green basic Pinot (oddly called the Reserve):
Willamette Reserve 2008 > - Wow, this is something special, back up the truck for this $25 wonder. This is certainly up there with the 07 vineyard designates and a great endorsement for 08 on Ribbon Ridge. While still primary it is already showing depth and great aromatics. A-/A
I also found the other 08s they poured (the only 08s we had during our visit) to have outstanding potential:
Balcombe Vineyard Dundee Hills 2008 > - This is a little hard to pin down at this stage but it appears to have the potential for a delightful big fruit and mineral wine. Laser sharp but with some earth hints. A bit hard to read at this stage but we bought it and I’m betting is an A before things are said and done.
Notorious 2008 Ribbon Ridge and Dundee Hills 2008 > - All oak treatment that might scare some off but not my SO. She just fell in love with this brooding big Pinot. Ripe and rich, this is an exotic and very spicy wine that takes no prisoners and might just warrant its $70 entry fee. If everything falls into place who knows? A???
I don’t have huge experience in Oregon so I could be completely off the mark (well not with the Reserve) but are we going to see pretty across the board good stuff from Willamette in 08 PN?
From the barrell tastings I did last month, it will be an incredible vintage. Will probably rival 02 to compete as vintage of the decade. Mother Nature did everything possible to make this a vintage to remember.
This will be the winemaker’s vintage. I heard of no one that complained about the quality of fruit they got. If there are wines you don’t like or are not fond of, it will purely be a stylistic winemaking issue. Any winemaker that falls on his butt, with the 08s, will probably be looking for a new job (outside the Valley). No excuses now! Put up or shut up time for the winemaker’s, and quite frankly I think a few are a bit nervous about it.
What? That’s a ridiculous statement, especially considering the vast majority of the winemakers in the valley also own the wineries they make wine for.
I concur with Phil, and my experience goes back to the 1992s. Everything has been stunning so far. My dog could have made good wine in 2008.
I likewise believe that your dog could have made good wine in 08. I also realize that many of the winemakers own their own operation, but
It doesn’t matter. If someone makes a mediocre wine, say under an 87 for $15/btl and below, and below a 90 for $15-$40 pinots, they and their friends will be the only ones drinking it. The distributors and the many retailers will be turning their backs on them. There will be plenty of great wine to sell and drink without their phlonk. The winemaker’s may own their own operations but you won’t see their wines being distributed. They may need a new job, not because they were fired, but because they have no cash flows/sales.
A long time acquaintice, and a well known grape grower, told me the guantlet as been put down on the 08s. He doesn’t have many concrete juice contracts. His comments were that if a winemaker turns out crap mediocre wine with his 08 grapes, he can look elsewhere in 2010 (it’s too late for 09) for his grapes. It will be the last harvest his vineyard appears on the bottle of that winemaker.
Only slightly behind you, been drinking WVs and visiting the area since the 93 harvest.
where do u actually live? in the valley? or in Portland?
and what do you do for a living? You seem to have an amazing amount of free time to visit vineyards etc
envious!!
When I think of a “winemakers vintage”, I think of 2007, where the talented winemakers made outstanding wines, and those with less talent - not so much. 2008 was a great vintage, probably right up there with 83, 85, 93, 99, and 02. The winemakers that I talked to at harvest last year thought that it was most like 99 - not a bad thing.
The 2008 vintage may become one of those rare vintages that make almost everybody happy. Nice fruit to make the fans of 2006 happy, but at the same time enough acidity to make the lovers of 2007 happy. I sampled a lot of 2008s from barrel, from all sorts of different styles. They all seemed beautifully perfumed to me, almost ready to go at the time. My gut instinct about this vintage is to tell folks to take your two or thee favorite producers and go long. Or back up the truck, etc. Fill in your own pet phrase here. But we’ll see, lots can happen between the barrel and the bottle.
Bought a bottle of 2008 Montinore Estate Pinot Noir, Trader Joe’s $16.99. I was interested in trying it since I purchased a case of the 06 Montinore and I wanted to compare them. 08 is a wonderful bargain PN, I would recommend it highly. I am filling the cellar with 08’s, going to be a wonderful vintage.
Put up or shut up time for the winemaker’s, and quite frankly I think a few are a bit nervous about it.
Gordon, who are you referring to with this statement? Saying “I think” doesn’t take away the need for elaboration. Who’s nervous about their '08s? I’m just one guy, but the one thing people aren’t nervous about is the quality of their '08s. Now if you say they’re nervous about their '07s, that’s been true. Or if they’re nervous about the wine market, that’s true. Or if they’re nervous about the weather and the '09 harvest in general, that’s true too (but that’s always true, '08 more than usual). But the quality of '08s? People are giddy about their '08s. I see what you’re getting at about growers expecting great things of their winemakers. But let’s also remember that no shortage of winemaking challenges result from grape nutrition or chemistry issues due to the grower’s techniques that make a winemaker’s job more challenging. I can think of one particular instance where the grower wasn’t up to the vintage in '08, and the winemaker bulked out the juice and ain’t buying there no more. The door swings both ways, but more so to the buyer in this market. I’ve love to be a grower who’s letting buyers go. Lately, it seems there are lots of grapes for sale.
Bob, thanks for asking! The Cedar Hills, Raleigh Hills, Sellwood, Happy Valley, and Concordia New Seasons stores either have it or will have by the end of the day (I’m making a big delivery today). Belmont Station and both Markets of Choice in Portland have it as well.
Fortunately, none of the wineries whose produce you like charge $75-$125 for their wine. I guess when your “tasting room” is a folding table in the lab or in front of the tanks under the cell tower, you can charge what your wines are actually worth (or less) instead of what your ego tells you what they’re worth.
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