I have begun to explore Oregon pinot much more of late. I would like to hear from the beaverheads how they would characterize the personalities of the different areas. Also producers and bottlings that exemplify these characteristics. Thanks so much. Corey.
Oregon isn’t Burgundy…yet. IMHO, winemaker/grower influence and vine age have way more to do with Pinot quality and character than the AVAs. Dundee Hills and Eola-Amity tend to be my favs with plenty of good wines also coming from Yamhill-Carlton, Ribbon Ridge and the Chehalem Mtns. Don’t know what to make of the McMinnville AVA yet.
RT
Have you done a search on here for “Oregon Pinot”? That will give you many threads with many of the answers you are looking for. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but it is a lot easier to search on what has already been talked about than rehashing the same bits of info.
To me, I’m not able to pick up the subtleties of the different AVAs. The biggest differences are in producer, especially since many get fruit from multiple AVAs. What OR Pinots have you had that you enjoyed?
Thanks… I have read many threads. Searching “Oregon pinot” results in a somewhat prohibitive amount of results. I appreciate the consensus that the appellations do not have consistently distinctive characteristics. I apologize for attempting to spurn discussion on an apparently redundant topic.
Corey, the issue (much discussed), with respect to new world Pinot regions, is that there’s simply not enough experience to discern the preferred locations - exposures - clones - trellising - soils, etc. It’s a work in progress. There’re a wide variety of Pinot styles in the WV…not to say that winemaking isn’t still evolving in Burgundy.
IIRC, the first US Pinots date back to the 1940’s with the first plantings in the Willamette Valley…approx mid-1960’s. Burgundy has a head start of several centuries with a grape history back to Roman times. Most of my favorite OR producers had no appreciable family ties to winemaking (that I know of!) and weren’t even thinking about Pinots until the 1980’s and later.
RT
I agree with what Richard is saying. Corey, if you can give of a sense of what types of pinots you like, or even what OR producers you’ve enjoyed, we can gladly give you some others to seek out.
Thanks everyone. Well aware of the stylistic spectrum, as well as the youth of all domestic wine regions. I think any generalizations regarding the flavor profiles of wine regions are just that, generalizations. Even in burgundy the generalizations don’t always apply. The variations are even wider in California, with picking windows often extended, as well as larger appellations. That being said, in both California and burgundy, I have a sense in my mind of some typicities. I haven’t gotten that in Oregon.
Lots more to taste. I have enjoyed examples from cristom, brickhouse, j.Christopher, stoller, evening land, anam cara, beaux freres, bergstrom, and some others. Have some Thomas pending. I specifically didn’t prefer a soter, a willakenzie, and an antica terra.
I have a fairly long hitlist, thanks to past threads.
Is there a producer that comes to mind that bottles one from each appellation?
White Rose bottles from a couple different AVAs, and they might fit your profile. They use a lot of whole cluster fermentation (like Cristom). Bergstrom has vineyards in 3 different AVAs (though Ribbon Ridge is a sub-AVA of Chehalem Mountains, so you could say only 2 diff).
Generally speaking, I think you’ll like some of the same producers that many other people on the board like, so if you’ve got a list from the various threads, that should give you a good starting point.
I spent 2 days tasting there a couple months ago, and by far the standouts to me were domaine drouhin and Matello. I purchased from a variety of wineries as I like to try the wine again at home before really deciding and those are must purchase again wines for me. Others i liked were willa kenzie (not sure of the spelling on that one at all as I cant seem to find my bottle right now to look it up) as well as domaine serene and white rose (although the price to value ratio on the last two is not there for me)
Patty Green and Ken Wright make more bottlings of WV Pinots than any other producers I know. Not sure how geographically diverse all their vineyards are. I expect Jim Anderson knows.
RT
Another winery to consider is Patricia Green Cellars. They make a number of wines from various AVAs (I can think of Dundee Hills, Yamhill Carlton, Ribbon Ridge at least).
As far as typicity is concerned, I think Dundee Hills is somewhat distinctive (though is can be confused with Eola Hills), with a more red-fruited flavor profile. I tend to associate a black fruit profile with Yamhill Carlton and Ribbon Ridge. I haven’t been able to figure out McMinnville or Chehalem Mountain (which is way too big with too many soil types, exposures, etc).
Right now we are making wine from the following AVAs:
Ribbon Ridge (Estate, Estate Old Vine, Estate Etzel Block)
Chehalem Mountain (Olenik Vineyard Wadensvil Clone, Olenik Vineyard The Anklebreaker Block and Lia’s Vineyard)
Dundee Hills (Durant Vineyard, Balcombe Vineyard (and the Block 1B bottling) and Ana Vineyard
Willamette Valley but ever-so-close-to-being-in-the-Eola-Amity App (Freedom Hill Vineyard)
We used to source from 3 different Yamhill-Carlton sites (we still have a couple of the 2010 wines on hand) and a McMinnville vineyard. We might have had all the WV sub-apps at one point. There are likely other wineries that cover that sort of geographic/geologic diversity but we’re about the only one insane enough to make an obsession out of it. FWIW I think the Dundee Hills and Ribbon Ridge probably have the most inner-Appellation specificity due to relative geographical size, relative soil uniformity and, in the case of Ribbon Ridge, relative elevation uniformity.
By the way, started picking today at Olenik Vineyard and a tiny section (from an amount of fruit perspective) of our Estate Vineyard. Good to get the equipment running and teach a couple of newbies about what sorting is and how you clean a destemmer.
Thanks everyone. Jim, I am hoping to make it up next year. Plan on visiting with you guys if possible. Corey