Grapes of Wrath

This article reports that California saw both (1) more plantings of Cab Sauv and Pinot Noir grapes, but also (2) lower sales of those grapes, which means a surprisingly large amount of Cab Sauv and Pinot Noir went unsold and rotted on the vines.

Lessons:
1. Just because a grape's wine is popular doesn't necessarily mean that it's smart to plant more of it.
2. There are, oh, at least 300 different vinifera winegrapes; why focus on just two? Too many grapegrowers do whatever other growers are doing. Not smart.
3. There are, oh, at least 300 different non-vinifera ("Modern") grape varieties, which ripen earlier, don't need antifungal spray, hang higher yields, have much more cold- and drought-tolerance, and make great-tasting wine, so why not plant those?

Check out modern winegrapes in my book (on Amazon) titled "Modern Grapes for the Pacific Northwest."

(photo credit Purdue University)

Alloro 2012 Pinot Noir

Enjoying this great Pinot with Andrew, who just helped crush 403 lbs of Malbec from Noble Wolf Vineyard in Dallesport.

This has wonderful boysenberry fruit nose, is super-smooth, ripe and ready.  What an atypical Oregon Pinot, in that the fruits are rich and forward, and there's no barnyard aroma at all. (The barnyard would be welcome if present; it's just not there, and that's fine, too.)

As it ages in-glass, the end-palate and the finish tend to tar and black fruits. Not my favorite part of the experience. But still a fascinating wine. Andrew says there is often a hint of eucalyptus in Alloro's wines, and we thought this one had a hint of that as well.

Phelps Creek 2013 Pinot Noir - Review

I usually write how much I like a wine, but lately there've been a string of bad wines. The latest disappointment is the Phelps Creek 2013 Pinot Noir. It's awful. My distributor gave me a bottle to taste, for which I was grateful.

Bouquet: There's no red fruit, no fruit of any kind. Just hot alcohol. Later, the nose picks up some adverse chemical smell. Yuck. I suspect, from the bouquet, that this vineyard was either too hot, or was overcropped (for which Pinot Noir suffers horribly--it loses all of its varietal character).

Palate: From bad to worse. No pleasure at all in this drink. There is not a single thing in the flavors to point to and be positive about.

Not sure what the price is on this one but please don't buy it. Pinot Noir is a great grape, but it is difficult to grow and difficult to make good wine from, and even then it can be frustratingly changeable in the bottle. So much so that we tend to eschew Pinot now. Why waste the money, when so many of them are so uninspiring?

It could be that it's difficult to make a good Pinot Noir in the Columbia Gorge. But I suspect this one was from the wrong vineyard and made in the wrong way. Stay away.

High-flying grapes?

Kendall-Jackson, a HUGE wine business in California, is buying the complex of buildings near McMinnville OR formerly owned by bankrupt Evergreen Aviation. Here is the story.

K-J has bought 1300 acres of wine land in that area in the past few years. That is quite a commitment to Willamette Valley wines. I think that with the expensive (some would say, vastly-overpriced) Pinots there, the gross margins in the wine business there, especially in the hands of a skilled large operator, would be quite high. Good luck to them!

Oregon lands five Pinots on Spectator's 2015 best 100 list, and guess what?

Here is Spectator's list. The five Oregon wines are:

#3 - Evening Land 2012 Seven Springs Pinot Noir

#11 - Big Table Farm 2012 Pinot Noir

#14 - Bergstrom 2013 Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir

#38 - Solena 2012 Grande Cuvee Pinot Noir

#45 - Colene Clemens 2012 Margo Pinot Noir

What we see, first, is that all the wines are Pinot Noirs. I think it's unfortunate that Oregon is best known for that grape, to the exclusion of some wonderful Chardonnays, Rieslings, Pinot Gris, and even (in the southern part of the state, and up near the Gorge and near Walla Walla) Syrahs, Merlots, etc.

The next point is that of that list, only one is what most folks would think of as a prominent, long-standing Pinot label, such as Beaux Freres or Domaine Drouhin, or Dom. Serene, or Ken Wright. Only Bergstrom is that. I barely know Evening Land and Solena, and I don't know Big Table Farm or Colene Clemens, even after 16 years of visiting wineries in the area. Congrats to the lesser-known wineries.

Next up for consideration is the vintage year: Of course some 2012 Oregon Pinots will prevail; it was a magnificent year. But look at Bergstrom's 2013 at #14 on the list! 2013 was a wet, disappointing year, and at Bergstrom they made the tough decision to harvest early, and ended up with this result. Kudos to Oregonian winemakers, who can create great results from mediocre weather. All Pinot enthusiasts need to applaud that kind of risk-taking and skill.

Finally, it must be said that:

a. All wines change, over time, in the bottle. I just finished my last 2009 Tamarack Syrah, which got 94 points Spectator, and it was spent, with no nose, hardly any fruit noticeable, and just not a pleasure to drink. And yet, just four short years ago it was a thing of magic. If Spectator re-sampled its Top 100 list today, I bet more than half of the honored wines would be replaced by something else.

b. Rest assured there are plenty of GREAT Oregon wines in the market, which didn't make this list. Any Top 100 list is going to create catastrophic sins of omission.  But we all love lists, so there you go.

One of the ULTIMATE QUESTIONS: CAN OREGON PINOT NOIR AGE?

Friends, as you know, this is an important question. I've been a wine retailer for eight years now, and approximately 400 of you over that time have bought far more SE Washington wines from me, and other wines (many from Spain and Italy, which easily win the QPR (quality-to-price ratio) contest), compared to our Oregon Pinots. I think for most of you, it's either about the taste, the flavor profile, or the cost, of that wine, and/or you have been frustrated with what you perceive as these traits of Oregon Pinots:

1. They can be inconsistent from bottle to bottle;
2. They mutate, over time, more than any other grape I've known, whipsawing the poor wine lover into fear and indecision;
3. The French like to say (as they have told me, in Burgundy), that Oregon Pinots are good while young but "do they age?"; and
4. They are pretty darn expensive.

Despite all that, you have to admit, as I freely do, that, at their best, they are some of the best wines in the world. And Oregon Pinot is "Portland's Wine," and deserves our attention for that reason also.

I have had an aged Echezeaux (grown next to DRC), sold from under the table to me at a great restaurant in Dijon, and held for a few years, and, when finally opened, it was very good but not as good as the best Oregon Pinots I've had, from the likes of J.K. Carierre, Anderson Family Vineyards, Beaux Freres, Adelsheim, and Domaines Drouhin and Serene (and others; not trying to make an exclusive list here).

Fast forward to J. K. Carriere. Jim Prosser built his winery a few years ago, uphill from Harry's Chehalem landmark; before that, Jim was in the barn at a B&B with a hazelnut orchard near Newberg (with a really cool representation of a viking longboat in the attic). I first learned about Jim when Cliff Anderson, my first (and best) mentor in Willamette Valley grapegrowing and winemaking, sold fruit to him, so I went to taste Jim's wines, and like Cliff, Jim was a real artist. He had some older bottles open for special customers. I wheedled a taste of his 1999 Pinot, and I'm sure glad I did--it was unbelievably great--truly outstanding in about 2004, and it cemented in me an opinion that Jim knew how to make ageworthy Pinots (because that '99 seemed built to last).

Fast forward to 2015. We're selling our city house (having moved to a farm near Woodland WA), and I'm selling some wines at auction, because our new home's cellar (and house) are smaller and we have too much wine. I have been holding a 2002 J.K. Carriere Pinot Noir with a note on the neck saying simply, "Purchased Sept 2004: Keep til 2010; drink by 2020."

If you're paying attention, and if you understand the discussions about Oregon Pinots, you will be wondering, "Can a good Oregon Pinot really last 13 years?" If you really understand Oregon Pinots, you'll know that 2002 was a special year: very good conditions for the fruit, and likely to age well. So, this bottle presented a fair test.

Life with Oregon Pinot Noirs is all about data points, like taking snapshots of a running cheetah. You can talk about the snapshots, but you cannot make too many sweeping conclusions about the "movie," because the data is too varied. Unlike Christophe Baron's marvelous, inexplicably-high pH Syrahs from The Rocks vineyard, which establish their nature early on, and then hold it, only refining and tweaking their upscale flavor profile, the best Oregon Pinots have this mystique in which we don't really know how they will evolve, or whether they will be so subtle that we miss the point, and we don't often know what we'll get when we pull the bottle out. Sometimes, the wines go dumb and just shut down for a while. Enjoying Oregon Pinots takes WORK and a willingness to take risks. It's also an expensive habit, especially when not every bottle is what you hoped for. A good Oregon Pinot is a will-o-the-wisp. You pull the cork and you ask, "what have we here?" and even if you drank its sister yesterday, today its sister may be different. Warmer summers are not necessarily a friend of Pinot Noir, either, though Gamay and Syrah may be creeping northwards. Pinot in Bellingham, anyone? So, even how Pinot grows here is changing.

So, the '02 J.K. Carriere. It was a fascinating bottle to open tonight (with a gorgeous Steelhead, roasted simply with just lemon, salt, and pepper). The first thing I noticed, AT THIRTEEN YEARS OF AGE, was the vibrancy of youthfulness--deep purple color and pleasant purple fruits in the nose.  Game over. A wine past its prime cannot, will not, look young. Without any delay or decant, this wine was energetic and ready to go--first sip was delightful. It didn't change much in the glass, but stayed faithful for a good hour or so: Wonderfully balanced, smooth, just subdued enough to support the food without clamoring for attention, and yet so elegant that through some sense of feigned shyness it drew attention to its excellence. Wow! This bottle, a snapshot in time, was pretty high up on the Pinot Noir quality scale. Vibrant purple fruits! Smoothness! A good finish! It referred not to other wines; it made its own statement. In its way, in its time tonight, it was perfect.

And chalk up one data point for Oregon's excellence in ageworthiness. Say that Oregon Pinots are too spendy (correct). Say that Pinot Noir can be unpredictable or inconsistent (correct). Say that too many wine lovers don't understand or appreciate good Pinot (correct).  Say that California Pinots are quite different (correct, and many prefer them to Oregon Pinots). But tonight, this Pinot was perfect. I just wish I had more of them. If more of them would be like this ;)

Pinot Noir: Two styles

(The following piece pulls extensively from a good article by Craig LaBan, Philadelphia Inquirer Restaurant Critic; his complete article is found here.

Pinot Noir is on just about everyone's "very short list" of the greatest grapes (along with, most likely, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Sangiovese, Riesling, and Chardonnay). But Pinot is infamous for being ephemeral and inconsistent: It varies from one bottle to the next, and it can even vary from month to month. It is more difficult to grow and to vinify. It can disappoint, or exalt, and you never know which until you pull out the cork. Personally, I do not appreciate the "what will I get?" aspect of Pinot Noir (or, stated another way, I prefer a baseball batter who hits lots of singles and doubles, compared to one who strikes out a lot but also hits a few home runs). However, I agree that, at its best, it is the greatest grape on Earth. However, it's a shame that we don't get to see it at its best very often. It's also a shame that Pinot is so expensive, but that is mostly because the variety loses its varietal character if it's overcropped--and thus, much of the fruit must be cut off and discarded while still green. This drives up the cost of the wine, obviously, because the yields are lower.

There are two fundamental styles of Pinot Noir:

1. The classic French style: thin, watery, often with weak color, with subtle flavors and suppressed fruit. For reasons I do not fully comprehend (other than Gallic tradition and dominance), this is the most popular PN style, and it is growing in prominance.

2. The "New World" style: more fruit-forward; a darker wine; richer/more body (thickness in the mouth).

LaBan's article contrasts Kosta Browne (a cult CA Pinot producer) with Littorai (which makes classic Pinots). The two wineries share the same zip code in Sebastopol, CA, yet cannot be more different.

Kosta doesn't grow any grapes. They make Pinot from other people's grapes, in a warehouse. Their expertise lies in skillful blending. Their wines sell for $52-$72 and are typically big and fruit-forward, though not too hot (alcoholic). There are over 10,000 people who are waiting to get on their mailing list.

Littorai (Latin for "coasts") loses points with me because it adheres to one of the greatest hoaxes of all time: Biodynamic farming. The only science behind it is that which can be easily gained by studying organic farming practices, which predate the Biodynamic farce and which are well-supported by science and proved in the field; all the rest of Biodynamic farming is hocus pocus dreamed up by a snake oil salesman who knew nothing about botany. Wineries, and their consumers, should be embarrassed to fall for it. Littorai's wines are lighter-styled but reknowned for rich berry and earth elements.

In Oregon, we are heavily influenced by the great Domaine Drouhin winery, which of course was begun pretty long ago now, in an epic move here by the historic Drouhin family of Burgundy fame. I think our wetter climate probably lends itself to the classic style, as well.

I am sick of all the mediocre Pinot being made in Oregon. The great bottles are fantastic and the skill of their makers is remarkable. But there is just too much Pinot Plonk here, too many pretenders. The variety's seen a  quadrupling of acres planted in the past decade, and a lot of that is being made into poor quality wine.  We shall see what the market thinks, over the long term. Meanwhile, YOU should see which style you prefer.

Roco

Rollin Soles, a very friendly and talented winemaker from Texas, has been making wine at Argyle for many years. A few years ago he started Roco, his own place.

Now they're opening a new tasting room, and Spectator gave one of his wines 95 points! Pretty high score for an Oregon Pinot; not many have scored so high.

You can read about all that here.