Winehunter: 07 Oregon Pinots

WINE TALK
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Must’ve been a severe case of mass delusion. Let’s do it again. [cheers.gif]

RT

42

Let’s discuss a theme for this year. I’ll start a new thread.

We have a thought of old vines vs. young vines comparison. Perhaps further narrowing by vintage.

Steve

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Define “old”. [cheers.gif]

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Note that it is Bob and the other 2007 drama queens who turn every thread that mentions a 2007 OPN into a thread about how they are superior because they love the vintage. That’s rehashing the old topic. Let’s just be clear, “we” were doing this again, before I joined the thread.

I’m sure these same folks think 2002 CdP are underappreciated and that 1991 BDX is simply misunderstood.
[soap.gif]

If wine novices listen to these opinions, Oregon will never get new customers.

45

If we cut you in half and count the rings I think that number would qualify!

I think that would be up for debate. I think that at 20 years vine age you are starting to see the signs of true maturity. Don’t know if that makes them old vines per se but I think they have also left the realm of young vine for sure. While I’m a big advocate of older vine material I don’t know I see the point of an old vine versus young vine tasting. There’s got to be a more interesting and illuminating topic for a tasting.

46

Watching Dan Rinke and Jim Maresh go at it there certainly is similar energy ( for them at least ) to the 07 debate.

Steve

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Drama Queens? Oh, please. You’re the one thrashing the vintage and claiming that it’s as bad as 1997, which is a stretch at best.

Let me repeat. Is '07 (as a whole) as good as '08? No. Is it anywhere near as bad as you claim? Not close. If forced to choose, would I choose '06 '07 or '08? '08, followed by '07. YOU may like the '06s, but as a whole they’re clumsy and overripe – but those qualities appeal to those with clumsy palates. [snort.gif]

As for CdP and Bordeaux, we’re discussing Oregon pinot noir. Go troll in another thread. [stirthepothal.gif]

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[scratch.gif] [scratch.gif] [scratch.gif]

49

Someday you’ll need to join one of our offlines. :slight_smile:

Steve

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Drama queen? Wow, I’ve been promoted…[berserker.gif]

51

With my work schedule that’s unlikely, dammit.

52

Chris, I can’t see how this thread became the same old dance until you trolled in and tried to re-educate us, again…sweeping over-generalizations, name-calling and all. Even when I was buying CndP, I never owned any 02s. Can’t even recall tasting a '91 Bdx.

There’s a great big Golden State overflowing with ripe and mega-ripe Pinot. A number of those customers will some day look for more nuance and elegance, not that those characteristics are non-existent down there. Burg pricing is virtually doubling every few years (09 Chevillon 1ers anyone?). What PN styling do you think the new WA OR reviewer might prefer? The Beaver State should be ready and waiting.

RT

53

Rich, that’s because our palates are poor and we are so insecure about them that we all had to resort to trying to convince the others present (and ourselves) that we understand these wines, which fuflills our need to distinguish ourselves from the unwashed.

So yes, of course I’d do it again! By golly it’s no fun, but it is ego-sustaining.

54

The 07 tasting was delightful, I wished that I could have spent some more time with everybody. The one thing it reinforced for me was that only about half the vintage is interesting to me.

55

Yeah Todd got stuck by me. There were certainly a few duds, but I’d go higher than half even with such an eclectic mix of bottles (including a lot of producers I tend to ignore - some with good reason, some apparently not). One of Todd’s was a highlight btw.

56

I would go with about 20 percent being wines I wouldn’t drink, some of them expensive and predictable. [stirthepothal.gif]

57

Down at our end of the table, there were lots of comments about the unexpectedly large number of PNs that wouldn’t be turned down for a future encounter. Interesting enough to race out and purchase? That number was < 50%, not much different than my impressions for 05 or 08.

John, at this point we’ll just have to live with palate poverty/insecurity and lack of Pinot understanding. Somewhere out there is an unwashed ripe Oregon PN fan slurping an ego sustaining fruit bomb and savoring the shear fun that might forever escape us. A chacun son gout.

RT

58

Hold on. You accuse me of trolling while making condescending “will some day look for nuance and elegance” comments? If I had just ignored the silliness, the silliness would have still been in this thread once the drama queens got started. Again, the tiresome “oh we love these shitty wines” stuff is what launches one after another of these threads. And yes, I suppose I am just falling for the trolls.

But here is where I am happy to take the bait. Do you think I like mega-ripe Pinot noir?

Have you tasted much of what came out of 1996? I cite it as a great (my favorite) vintage - and certainly one that was not acclaimed. Do you think I like 1996 because it is overripe? Because I’ve never heard anyone describe 1996 as overripe.

Which is another of my problems with the 2007 drama queens. I don’t dislike the vintage because it’s not mega-ripe. I dislike it because it produced a lot of out-of-balance wines. Thin fruit is (generally) an aspect of that lack of balance in this vintage. It’s why 2007 can’t touch 1996 and why it is (IMHO) a lesser vintage than even 2001. My issue clearly isn’t with (as much as folks loathe the term - but you know what I mean when I use it) feminine wines, it is with unbalanced wines and just plain bad wines.

The 2007 drama queens do nothing more than fall back on cliches about what the masses like in wines. “Oh, they just like fruit bombs and don’t get these ‘shitty wines’ that all of us superior folk understand.” Yeah, right.

Honestly, I don’t give a shit what the new WA reviewer prefers. I’m surprised that you do. But I guess you and yours need to see the good reviews, so you know what to say people shouldn’t like, right? (Sorry you are the representative target of my wrath, as you do tend to make a lot more sensible comments on here than some other people.)

59

Enough with the drama queen bullshit, Chris. I’ve explained before and I’ll explain again (with the help of others, Rachel especially included). 2007 isn’t the vintage of the century but it’s nowhere near as bad as you paint it. Ask the 45 people - experienced palates all and including at least 8 winemakers - about the Shootout last year. The wines weren’t mind-blowing but some were close, and the ones that were disgusting and out of balance were the expensive, well-known and highly-publicized versions.

Tell you what. I have a bottle in mind to send you. If you hate it, we’ll agree to disagree. If you like it, you shut the fuck up about how '07 is a complete disaster.

Deal?

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