My Website

"Ithaca" Pinot

“Boston wine”… “dorm wine”… “high school wine”… this is how I categorize old vintages for wine. I ask myself “where was I when this wine’s grapes were being harvested?” It’s fun to look back and compare your life now with your life that was happening when the stuff you are drinking right now was being made…. let’s just hope not too many people reading this blog are thinking “recess wine” when they see 1997!

What does an eleven year old Oregon Pinot Noir taste like anyway? Well, this one tastes like…

Bloody, smokey beef… the charcoal drawing stick I lost my first day of art class in 6th grade (sorry, mom)… and a bit of blackberry seeds are the initial aromas from this wine. After some significant (three hours and 1/4 of a bottle poured out) breathing, there’s a sour mulberry acidity, still some woody tannin (the graphite and the yellow paint of some #2 pencils of course), and some Robitussin on a snow day/Gevrey Chambertin qualities to it. With some hard swirling, I get a whole, dried star anise, a bunch of baked blueberries, and the green tops of unripe strawberries (imagine accidentally biting on the wrong end of a strawberry but being so hungry you didn’t notice!)… and a hint of pomegranate, which is in my friend’s terms, “the least fruity fruit.”

This wine answers the question of whether or not Oregon Pinot Noirs can age. The answer is of course, yes, BUT ONLY IF they tone down the new world fruit milkshake  qualities they’ve been working with lately. Yes, fruit is essential to aging, BUT you also need structure… all the $1,000-a-day interior designers in the world won’t do you any good if you forgot to buy bricks and cement and land… in wine, if you want to age,  what you need are tannins and flavors that aren’t just ripe fruits. Yes, sometimes you need more than just “yumminess.” Of course, if you wanted to try this wine even after reading about charcoal and Robitussin flavors, then you probably already knew that!

New World, Old World, Oregon, Pinot Noir, Uncategorized, Wine Reviews | No Comments

The label of this wine says that this 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot should contain notes of “chocolate, leather, and mocha.” It makes me wonder 1) does redundancy in description make people buy wine and 2) did they taste the ‘07 before punching in ctrl-c + ctrl-v from the previous vintage’s label?

I sold this wine to one of my favorite people tonight with the caveat that “I haven’t tasted this vintage yet, but the previous vintages did taste very much like the description on the label.” I bought a bottle for myself as soon as the wine shop closed, and now after enjoying it for nearly two hours now, I can confirm that the customer is probably not tasting chocolate, leather or mocha. 

Instead, she will find a nose of Robitussin, butterscotch, and maraschino cherries. The palate lacks almost any tannin at all, and the finish leaves a flavor of just a bit of wet twig bark. 

I paired the Pinot with a mildly flavored Israeli cous cous dish (basil, chives, dill, garlic, and almonds) with which the wine paired with neither fusses nor fireworks, and my dinner guest quaffed it with neither protest nor praise. 

A harsh review of what is really one of the best Pinots I’ve had under $20, but alas, price cannot affect the score: 

$19.99 at T.B. Ackerson 

7.5/10

Oregon, Pinot Noir, Wine Reviews | No Comments

Music by The Everybodyfields.

Oregon, Pinot Noir, Wine Reviews, Wine Videos | No Comments

I hated the ‘06 of this wine, but I can’t get enough of the ‘07. It smells like purple flowers with yellow stamens and a fuzzy, freshly sliced peach. It tastes like cranberries and cherries with a hint of strawberry seed. It’s colorful yet translucent like all good Pinot, and it feels electric in the mid-palate. The end lacks a blockbuster, 10 minute finish, but this is the very very low end of Pinot Noir.

For those of you that don’t know: PINOT NOIR IS EXPENSIVE… Why? The grapes and grape clusters are tiny so the winemaker gets very little juice to work with per acre so he/she has to charge a premium since their accountants are all yelling at them, “Why aren’t you going Merlot?!?!? We’re trying to make money here while you are trying to make art!” $15 for a pinot is *really* cheap. $15 for a cab can get you some pretty good stuff. In fact $20 for a Cab can create fantastic results. $20 for a Pinot only ensures that you *might* not fail.
Luckily, this Pinot lands everything but the knockout punch, and it tastes like a $23 bottle.

$15.99 at T.B. Ackerson 8.4/10

Biodynamic, Oregon, Pinot Noir, Wine Reviews | No Comments