Vertical Tasting 2007
Summary
We poured our 2003, 2004, 2005 , 2005 144 and 2006 Pinot Noirs on Sunday November 25 at ADEA as part of the Thanksgiving Weekend event. It was fun tasting through all the wines. We listed some notes below.
2003 Pinot Noir - the wild thing - our first vintage
2003 was one of the hottest summers on record and this wine reflected it. It was also our first crop from our young vines and yields in those blocks were really low: between 0.5 and 1 ton per acre. The wine was dark and huge and tannic when bottled, and we hadn't had one in a while. The 2003 has softened - we could actually distinctly taste the fruit :-) But there is still a tannin backbone in there that was noticable on the finish. The next day we tasted a bottle that had been left open overnight and noticed quite an improvement. This wine has always benefitted from some aeration. Still needs time.
2004 Pinot Noir - the elegant vintage
We had a horrible set in 2004 that resulted in a yield only slightly better than 2003. The weather was better and we picked right when we wanted to. This wine was selected for the 2007 International Pinot Noir Celebration (a great and fun event by the way: www.ipnc.org). This wine was tasting great - very well balanced. You can drink this one right now or hold on for a couple of years. We finished the bottle, so didn't get to taste this one the next day.
2005 Pinot Noir - typical Oregon style
Another poor set (we were starting to believe it rains every year during bloom) resulted in our lowest yields ever. The year was a little cooler than 2004 and we picked right at our target sugar levels. The wine has higher acidity and slightly less alcohol which was very characteristic of the vintage. This sold out so fast that we never had the chance to observe its progress during the year. Was tasting better than we remembered - some of the angular edges had smoothed over. Another year of bottle age couldn't hurt, but I'm not sure anyone has any. We only made 400 cases and most of it went to restaurants.
2005 Pinot Noir 144 - built to age well
This wine is a blend of our favorite five barrels from the 2005 vintage year. Here's how it was described by the premier Burgundy/Pinot Noir reviewer in the world, Allen Meadows, better known as the Burghound: "A deeply pitched nose of briar, plus, raspberry and earth that offers real depth leads to rich, full and serious middle weight flavors that possess a dusty and moderately structured mouth feel on the admirably long finish. This is not an elegant wine but it is robust, intense and built to age and it will need a few years to tame the youthful finishing asperity. Good juice here and worth a look, just be aware that this is definitely not a card carrying member of the lush and opulent club. 90/2011+" We've heard that 90 points from him is real good. Since we picked this wine out as something special, we're a bit biased, but we liked this wine a lot when we tasted it. Great balance and mouthfeel and we agree with Allen that the wine could use some time. Tasted even better the next day.
2006 Pinot Noir - this is going to be real good
First ever full crop from the vineyard - now we know what a normal set looks like. It was a great growing season. Very fruit forward plus a lush, rich texture have already made this wine a hit with our distributors. Which is amazing considering that the wine was just bottled in September. Everyone liked this wine a lot. This is going to be wonderful with some more bottle age.