2012 Oregon Chardonnay Tasting

A number of us got together last Sunday to taste through 17 Oregon chardonnays. I’m not the best at taking detailed tasting notes, but I’ve listed the wines below and made note where I either really liked a wine or, in a few cases, didn’t like it at all.

Belle Pente Estate - great nose of lemon and some oak, but it falls off a bit on the palate. ***
Kramer Estate
Tendril
Matello Durant - Gunflint and lemon dominated the nose, though the reduction subsided some with time. Good mouthfeel and finish. **

Ken Wright Celilo
Brittan - Big citrus nose, concentrated flavor, great mid-palate. My second favorite wine. ****
Longplay Lia’s
Walter Scott Vojtilla - Corked. I had this wine earlier in the week, and I believe that bottle would have been in the top three for me.

Arterberry Maresh WV - Leesy, intense, somewhat disjointed.
Goodfellow Whistling Ridge - Off bottle. Disjointed, uncharacteristic flavors. I had this the night before the tasting (thank you Marcus & Megan!), and that bottle was outstanding.
Johan Visdom - Like smelling a big bowl of lemons, good acid, nice finish. ***

Johan Konkret - Lemons, nutty, concentrated, good mid-palate, great finish. ****
Big Table Farms - Tasted somewhat muted next to the Johan, but nice and well balanced. **

Eyrie Reserve - The real deal, complexity, concentration, balance, finish. This had it all. My #1 wine. *****
Cameron Abbey Ridge - Sour lemons and green apple nose, rich on the palate, with some VA. Tasted more Californian than anything else in the tasting. ***
Cameron Clos Electrique - Oaky/stemmy, a little advanced (rare in a Cameron wine), nice balance. **
Stony Hill - Off bottle. Not a pleasant drinking experience.

Conclusions

• While 2012 was supposed to be an easy year to make wine, there seemed to be some real challenges in making great chardonnay.
• As has been the case in past years, the old California clones made most of the best wines. The Dijon varietals showed better, but the Eyrie (Draper selection), Brittan (mostly 108 clone), Cameron Abbey (Draper selection), and Johan (108 and Mt Eden) all showed very well.
• Even with only four or five years or bottle age, great bottles become as important as great wines.
• I need to explore Johan Vineyards more. Their location facing the teeth of the Van Duzer winds give them a cooler climate than other part of the Willamette Valley.
• Perhaps I should send a bottle of the Eyrie Reserve down to Don Cornwell so that they would have a real ringer in the White Burgundy tastings.

Very cool tasting, Rich - thank you for posting. That’s a big bummer about off bottles of Walter Scott and Goodfellow. Darn!

I’m always confused about the Eyrie labels. Looking at CT, the pure “Reserve” hasn’t been produced for a few years. There is an entry for, “Original Vines” through current vintages. Wine-searcher calls it, “Original Vines Reserve.” Can you help with what wine you tasted above, or where I’m getting confused?

TIA

Reserve is now called Original vines…

really sad about the Walter Scott. I agree I think that would have competed really well against just about any domestic chard.

Also not big on detailed notes, but my favorite wines mostly overlapped with Rick’s with Eyrie and Brittan 1st and 2nd. Thanks to Rick for hosting and Paul for orchestrating!

Definitely bummed about the Walter Scott being corked as last year the 2011 Cuveé Anne was my WOTN against a stellar lineup, including Matello, Cameron, Eyrie, Crowley & Arterberry Maresh Maresh. Also think the ‘12 Cameron Clos Eleqtrique was an off bottle.

Takeaways:

• Need to buy more Eyrie
• Need to buy Brittan
• Need to buy more Johan. Have some ‘13s, but this tasting has me very interested in their Chards
• For me, the top wines did not reach the same heights as the top wines from 2010 and 2011 tastings. As Rick noted, what was deemed an easy vintage after the two prior was apparently not so easy for some.

I’m excited for next year and the 2013s. Really liked the vast majority of 2013s out of the gate, but have not had many since release

I still have a few bottles of Walter Scott Vojtilla. Stunning from barrel and bottle. Puligny like.

ditto on this one!

This was a fun tasting. Rick summarized well.

My top wines (With The Eyrie being 1st) were as follows:

Cameron - Abby Ridge
Johan - Visdom
Johan - Konkret
Eyrie - Reserve
Brittan
Goodfellow - Durant

Overall, it was a great tasting. Frankly, I was a little surprised at how well balanced most of the wines were. I was anticipating we would encounter some disjointed wines with opulent fruit, too much oak and not enough acid to balance them out but there were several wines that had racing acidity (especially considering vintage). I can’t recall a wine that was flabby.

There were several bigger wines that I found to have a unique purpose for my palate. Both the Brittan and the Johan Konkret had more oak than I would typically like in a chard but it was so well integrated it was refreshing to taste. When done well, oak certainly has it’s place and adds a level of complexity you just can’t get otherwise. This “bigger vintage” tasting has once again restored my faith in Oregon chardonnay producers.

THANK YOU Rick and Paul for hosting and organizing!

+1 I’ve got one on deck for this Saturday. Looking forward to it.

I had that 2012 Longplay this week and my wife and I really liked it. Big tropical fruit and noticeable but integrated oak. Definitely ripe but nothing out of place and certainly not over the top imo.

Opened a 2012 Cameron Dundee Hills yesterday. Tasted a little tired, not a lot of acid or energy. No flaws, just not memorable. That being said, I think I paid $15.50 (case price).

I love the Brittan chardonnay. Great value for the quality too.

I don’t think that Cameron’s lower level cuvees of Chardonnay age nearly as well as his Pinots. I usually try to drink them up in the first couple of years, even with the Reserve.

I opened up a 2013 Walter Scott X-Novo on March 17th that was corked as well. I’ve had a significant amount of Ken’s 2014-2016 bottles over the years and this was the first time I’ve experienced any issues with the cork and now another instance with the 2013 Vojtilla.

I’m not looking for any WS team member to reimburse me or to make me whole, just want to make them aware of a potential 2013 vintage cork issue?

Would love to have seen how a Morgen Long would’ve showed in this lineup, BTW.

I need to explore Johan more too. Even their just above basic Pinot bottling is stunning. Really pure stuff.

The corked bottle in the OP was a 2012 Vojtilla – not 2013.