Willamette Valley Oregon trip report (another one)

I know there have been a lot of these type threads lately, but we had such a great time that I have to share my thoughts/experiences. There are some really fantastic wines being made right now in Oregon (a lot of which are coming from members of this board). Obviously the Pinot Noir is great, but I was really excited about tasting the various Chardonnay on the trip. Oregon winemakers are crafting a style that I really like which leans very Burgundian in most cases. A huge thank you to this board and the winemakers here for helping me setup this trip (Vincent Fritzsche, Michael Sterling, Marcus Goodfellow, and Jim Anderson)…it couldn’t have been better.
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Here was our itinerary. I will post individually about each winery with details about the visit and tasting notes over the next couple days.

Day 1 - June 8

  • -Land in Portland mid-morning
    -Lunch at Zoiglhaus Brewing Company in Portland
    -Appointment at Patricia Green Cellars
    -Drop-in tasting at Eyrie Vineyards
    -Quick tasting at Heater Allen Brewery
    -Check-in at 3rd Street Flats
    -Dinner at Pura Vida

Day 2 - June 9

  • -Appointment tour & tasting at Evesham Wood
    -Drop-in tasting and picnic lunch at Cristom Vineyards
    -Appointment with Vincent Fritzsche - Vincent Wine Company
    -Dinner at Thistle

Day 3 - June 10

  • -morning at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
    -Lunch at Valley Commissary
    -Appointment with Marcus Goodfellow - Goodfellow Family Cellars
    -Appointment with Michael Sterling - Franny Beck
    -Dinner at The Blue Goat

Day 4 - June 11

  • -Appointment with Jim Maresh - Arterberry Maresh
    -Lunch at Red Hills Market
    -Drop-in tasting at Domaine Drouhin Oregon
    -Appointment with Patrick Benad - Crowley Wines
    -Back to Portland for flight home

Since the Willamette Valley is mostly focused on Pinot Noir, it was really cool getting to experience the differences that soil type, stem inclusion, vineyard location, oak usage, and fermentation method had on the wines. I also really appreciated how the wineries in Oregon pour you a real/substantial taste of wine in a nice stem. Much more details to follow, but here were my top wines of the trip (out of almost 80 wines tasted):

  • -2015 Patricia Green Weber Vineyard Pinot Noir
    -2017 Patricia Green Coury Clone Freedom Hill Pinot Noir (barrel sample)
    -2015 Evesham Wood Le Puits Sec Pinot Noir
    -2015 Goodfellow Richard’s Cuvee Whistling Ridge Chardonnay
    -2015 Goodfellow Whistling Ridge Heritage No. 4 Pinot Noir
    -2015 Franny Beck Armstrong Vineyard Pinot Noir
    -2016 Vincent Zenith Vineyard Pinot Noir
    -2016 Arterberry Maresh Maresh Vineyard Chardonnay
    -2016 Arterberry Maresh Old Vines Dundee Pinot Noir

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts and recap. That’s a great itinerary. We are headed to Oregon soon and we will be visiting with most of the same folks.

If you ever want to open a bottle(s) of Oregon wine, I live in Matthews and I would be more than happy to share.

Cheers!

James

Thanks James, that sounds great! I will shoot you a PM.

Patricia Green Cellars

Right as we arrived at Patricia Green, so did the rain. We unfortunately caught a somewhat rainy weekend in the midst of a period of no rain. Everyone kept commenting on how it has not rained in the last few weeks. Oh well, it didn’t stop our fun.
We walked up the hill to the office/tasting room at Patricia Green Cellars, and were greeted by Melissa. Despite us being very early to our scheduled time due to our flight arriving early, she welcomed us in and immediately devoted her attention to us. They have a nice room for their seated private tastings where we went through the wines and learned about the winery. PGC is very unique in the number of different bottlings they make. Jim Anderson loves to experiment with different clonal selections and different vineyard blocks and feels that having those differences show through in the final bottle (instead of blending them together) is most important. As a result, PGC is bottling 20-30 different wines in each vintage. Their total production is 12-15k cases, but their only larger production wine is the Willamette Valley Reserve at around 3k cases. The rest of the wines are very small production, the majority under 300 cases each. We discussed the sales/business model side of things with Melissa since marketing that many different products seem like it would be challenging. She said it is definitely a push/pull between the different variations that Jim wants to make and where they have the market to sell each. Most of the small production wines will go into the club shipments or be sold out of the tasting room. A few of the larger volume wines will be sold through a distributor to restaurants and small retailers.

We began with the only Sauvignon Blanc we would taste on the entire trip. In fact, they make the most SB of any producer in the Willamette Valley. Next was the 2016 Durant Vineyard Chardonnay. Made in neutral oak, this wine showed some creaminess and really pure fruit. I liked it a lot. First up for the pinot noirs was the 2016 Marine Sedimentary Pinot from the Chahalem Mountains. This is young…deep purple color, strawberries and cranberries with some tart acidity on the finish. Next we tasted the 2016 Lia’s Vineyard Pinot which is a mix of volcanic and marine sedimentary soils. This has a nice blend of crunchy red fruits with a dollop of sweet cherry and lively acidity. The 2015 Wadensvil Block Pinot (estate vineyard) had tons of aromatics with some sweet strawberry and raspberry on the mid-palate followed by a silky smooth finish. We finished up with the 2015 Weber Vineyard Pinot. This comes from old vine Dundee Hills fruit and has a light red color (definitely the lightest color in the lineup we tasted). There is a deep red fruit nose, and the palate has big and juicy red fruits, sweet florals, medium+ weight, and a very long finish. My favorite wine of the tasting.

After we finished our seated tasting, Melissa walked us to the cellar building to show us around. Jim and Hunter were down there working, so we got to meet and chat with them for a while. They were in the middle of tasting from barrel and comparing the 2017 Coury clone from both the Freedom Hill Vineyard and the Hyland Vineyard. They graciously let us taste the two with them, which was so cool to see the side by side difference that the site made on an otherwise identical wine. I also enjoyed talking with Jim about how Chardonnay is starting to gain some popularity in the valley. He used to make a chardonnay years ago, then stopped, and has since started again with the Durant Vineyard in the 2015 vintage. Jim was very excited talking about some changes they are making related to their chardonnay production, and thinks they are going to have some really positive improvements starting with the 2018 vintage. I’m excited to try these in the future. He said that his approach with Chardonnay has been to let others prove/create a market before he goes heavier into it. He said it has been challenging for Oregon producers to find a market for Chardonnay and compete with California. Most in Oregon are attempting to make a more Chablis-styled wine that would differ from what you typically get in CA.

This was a fantastic visit that exceeded expectations and was the perfect start to our trip.

Nice recap. How was your meal at Thistle?

I have done most of the same things on one trip or another. I’ll bet you had a blast.

I agree on chardonnay from Oregon. Living in Houston with some great seafood, I think that many Oregon chards are better pairings than what I see on lists. Look forward to the rest of your notes.

Thistle was really nice. Very small place (I think only 7 tables plus the bar), eclectic, fantastic food. We had a fancy sliced steak/potato/porcini/red wine sauce dish and a quail/turnip/bok choy dish. Both had really nice flavors.

Another favorite meal for me was at Pura Vida. Everything we ate there was great, but the standout for me was their crispy pork belly tacos. The whole menu was very reasonably priced.

The Eyrie Vineyards

Next, we headed into McMinnville and walked into The Eyrie Vineyards tasting room. We did the Exploration flight which ended up being nine different wines including 4 whites, a rose, 3 Pinots, and a Trousseau. We enjoyed their Pinot Gris and Rose quite a bit. The reds were good, but after coming from Patricia Green these didn’t seem near as exciting. My favorite was the 2014 Original Vines Pinot which was made in a light and earthy style with good depth and concentration. The 2016 Trousseau was unique, showing herbs, blackberry, nuts, and baking spices.

There is such an experiential difference between an appointment/private visit vs. a walk-in tasting. The young woman pouring for us at Eyrie was very knowledgeable and engaging, but the overall experience was good, not great. I was mostly disappointed that they were not pouring any library selections like they advertised they normally do. Trying something older was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit here.

Right next door to Eyrie is the Heater Allen Brewery. We stopped in and did a quick tasting of their range of brews. They were all delicious, but my favorite was the Lenzbock which is a seasonal transition from the heavier beers of winter to the lighter beers of summer. It was rich and nutty without being overly heavy. Delicious!

Evesham Wood/Haden Fig
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We started day 2 at Evesham Wood in Eola-Amity Hills. This was a beautiful estate situated up on a hill with gorgeous views out over the valley. The estate vineyards were on the slopes below and leading up to the winery, house, and newly built tasting cottage. This definitely had the feel of a smaller, family-owned operation. Our host was Chris, and he started out by walking us down into the vineyards where he had a table setup beneath a big tree overlooking the vineyards. There we tasted through the lineup of Evesham Wood wines. We tasted the 2016 Hill Cuvee Pinot, a blend of four vineyards, which had flavors on the tart red fruit size, a light body and soft texture. Next we tasted the main two estate vineyard bottles, Le Puits Sec and La Grive Bleue. The 2015 Le Puits Sec (Pommard clone) has a lively spicy nose; the palate is a nice mix of ripe and less ripe flavors, earthiness, and great depth & complexity. The 2015 La Grive Bleue (Dijon clone) is softer and a bit lighter with a cooler red fruit profile. All three pinots were fantastic/distinct wines, with my favorite being the Le Puits Sec. Next was the 2016 Le Puits Sec Chardonnay, a very flavorful yet restrained and crisp wine which had a nice balance of citrus and tropical notes. We finished up the vineyard portion of the tasting with their “table white” (called 2016 Blanc de Puits Sec), a blend of 85% Pinot Gris/15% Gewurztraminer. It was aromatic, very light bodied and easy drinking. All the Evesham Wood wines see no new oak and no stem inclusion. They are producing around 10k cases, of which 30-50% is the base Willamette Valley Pinot that gets distributed.
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After finishing up in the vineyard, Chris took us back up the hill to do a tour of the new and old winery facility, and the small caves. He talked us through their wine making process including how they inoculate the Evesham Wood wines with yeast they have used since the beginning (which was originally stored in a locked closet on sight, but now has been moved to a lab for safe keeping). They have recently built a new winery facility which they have used for one vintage so far. The previous winery was in the lower level beneath the estate house, and was much more cramped then their new space. They are very happy to have the bigger space.
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Also relatively new is their tasting cabin, which is where Chris took us next to taste some of the Haden Fig wines. Erin Nuccio came on board in 2007 to start making the wines as Russ Raney wanted to start moving towards retirement. Erin eventually purchased the winery from Russ Raney in 2010. The Haden Fig label was Erin’s original label, and one he planned to take out on his own before he knew he would be purchasing Evesham Wood. So today, he is still making both labels at the same time. He continues producing the Evesham Wood wines using the same technique/philosophy that Russ utilized, and he uses the Haden Fig label to try different techniques and methods. We tasted through some of the Haden Fig Pinots and Chardonnays and had the ability to try some side by side comparisons with the Evesham Wood wines. My favorite of the Haden Fig wines was the 2016 Julliette Chardonnay, which has a really nice nutty component behind the pure fruit that I really loved.

I can’t say enough good things about our experience here, and how great of a host Chris was for us. The experience was so well thought out, and the wines were delicious (and some of the best values we came across on our trip). Highly recommended!
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Great notes Tim. Thanks for sharing.

Cristom Vineyards
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Next we headed off to Cristom to do a quick drop in tasting and have a picnic lunch on their deck overlooking the vineyards. Cristom is 2nd generation family owned winery that has seen some good success and is now making 15-17k cases per year, of which 2/3 is their distributed Mt. Jefferson Cuvee Pinot Noir, which I found to be a really nice wine and a great value for what you can typically buy this at retail. We also tasted their Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Estate Pinot Noir, all three of which were made in a heavier style that leaned more Californian than Burgundy. The highlight of the tasting for me was a side by side the Eileen and Jessie single vineyard Pinots. Both very had great depth and substantial structure behind the earthy and red fruit flavors. I gave the slight preference nod to the Jessie vineyard for its slightly more feminine style, and I enjoyed a glass of this during our picnic lunch. We finished up with the 2015 Syrah, which is obviously pretty unique in the Willamette Valley. It had great depth and color, whole cluster fermentation, not fruit forward at all (northern Rhone style), and was very good. Even though this was just a drop-in tasting without an appointment, the staff at Cristom did a fabulous job of taking care of us. We sat at a high top table and received focused attention throughout our tasting.
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Vincent Wine Company
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We met up with Vincent Fritzsche at his winemaking facilities which is currently at Grochau Cellers in the Eola-Amity Hills. Vincent is a really fun, super nice guy who is living out his passion. He was just a wine enthusiast who started learning under other wine makers in California and Oregon, making some wine as a hobby, which grew and turned into a small business he launched in 2009. Today, Vincent is making about 1700 cases of mostly single vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Our tasting with Vincent was in the back part of the winery over a wine barrel where he generously poured us his wines. We started with his 2016 Chardonnay Tardive from the Wetzel Vineyard. Of all the Chardonnays on the trip, this was the most like Chablis, showing crisp lemon, racy acidity and lots of minerality. I really enjoyed it. Next we tried the only Gamay of our trip, Vincent’s 2016 Gamay Noir coming from the Bjornson Vineyard. It was a very pretty dark purple color, had a tart red and black fruit profile with high acidity and a tart finish.

Then we got into the 2016 Pinots. The 2016 Eola-Amity Hills Pinot (a blend of 4 vineyards) showed translucent purple, a nice balance for red and black fruits, and medium weight. The 2016 Silvershot Vineyard Pinot was from marine sedimentary soil and showed red/purple color, had soft darker fruits and balanced acidity. The 2016 Bjornson Vineyard Pinot comes from volcanic soil displaying slightly higher acidity and high tension black fruit. Finally, the 2016 Zenith Vineyard Pinot was the darkest and most full bodied in the lineup. Bolder profile, round and delicious. Vincent said this is because this marine sedimentary vineyard gets a lot less wind than the others. It was cool seeing the influences of the soil type (marine sedimentary vs volcanic) and amounts of wind that hit the vineyard sites on the final profile of the wines. In general, marine sedimentary soil sites produce slightly softer wines that take on a darker fruit profile while volcanic soil sites tend to have higher acidity/tension and lean more towards the red fruit spectrum. I felt that was true across all the producers, not just Vincent’s wines. The Zenith Vineyard was my favorite here for its depth and bolder profile that was still very polished. Vincent is an awesome guy making some really awesome wines.

The first time I had some Vincent Chard, I almost gave up drinking Pinot. [wow.gif]

Great report so far… Enjoying it myself. My thoughts on Vincent were similar. Need to write up more of my trip.

Sean
(Formerly of NCSU and Raleigh, NC)

Tim, great to meet you, cool to see your impressions. I find the volcanic sites in the Eola Hills tend to have good acidity because they’re typically higher up and more wind exposed than the sedimentary sites, at least on the east side. The west side, where Silvershot is, is windy but lower elevation and marine sedimentary. Back on the east side, lower down where Zenith is, it’s less windy and I find the sedimentary soils give a tannin structure or muscle that you picked up on, with good acidity but a bit more brawn, at lest in my cellar.

Looking forward to your notes Sean!

Goodfellow Family Cellars

Upon arrival to Goodfellow, we were greeted by Megan, the assistant winemaker. Marcus was in the back dealing with a bottling issue, so we went ahead and started our tasting. Megan explained to us that they have decided to retired the Matello Wines brand and are now just bottling under Goodfellow Family Cellars, mostly to reduce brand confusion. Total production is around 4k cases per year. We got started with the 2016 Wistling Ridge Blanc, a field blend from the Ribbon Ridge AVA which was an aromatic and crisp white that would be great on a hot day. Next was a 2017 Rose of Pinot Gris (Romato), which was a very interesting light orange color. It was very light with some white peach notes. Next we moved into the more serious chardonnays, starting with the 2015 Durant Vineyard Chardonnay from Dundee Hills. This had a big, nutty nose, a lean and balanced palate, and was definitely in the Burgundian style. Following the Durant was the 2015 Richard’s Cuvee Chardonnay from Whistling Ridge, a ridgetop vineyard with marine sedimentary soil. A little deeper color, same lean style, with a bit more depth and complexity compared to the Durant. Marcus is making some really great chardonnay!

After the whites, we moved into the single vineyard Pinots from the 2015 vintage. We tasted the Durant, Fir Crest, and Whistling Ridge vineyards. I found the 2015 Durant Pinot had nice cool red fruit, the 2015 Fir Crest Pinot was a darker fruit profile which presented riper, and the 2015 Whistling Ridge Pinot had lively cherry/cranberry with a soft mid palate and earthy finish. I liked the Whistling Ridge the best in this group. At this point, we were nearly done with what we expected to taste and we still hadn’t seen Marcus. A fellow enthusiast who was tasting along with us and knew Marcus went into the back to see if he could come up front before we finished. Marcus finally emerged looking like he’d been working really hard, wine splattered all over his t-shirt. He was fun and engaging, talking to us about various aspects of his business. Then he started pulling some more corks which we weren’t expecting. He first opened his 2015 Whistling Ridge Heritage No. 4, which was a softer, prettier version of the regular Whistling Ridge. Very excellent. Then he opened a just bottled (10 days ago) 2016 Whistling Ridge Heritage No. 7. This was showing a little bit leaner with some spicy fruit notes on the nose. We finished up with the 2016 Durant Vineyard Heritage No. 8. This had a deep reddish purple color, exuberant and deeply layered fruit.

What a fun visit. Thanks to Marcus and Megan for their wonderful hospitality! I apologize for a lack of pictures here; it was a rainy day and I didn’t bring my camera along.

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Very enjoyable/informative write up—thank you. Have been to some but not all of these places and am finding his instructive for future visits.
Out of curiosity, did you buy wine at every place you visited?

Yes, we bought from all the visits. Only 2-3 bottles at each of the non-appointment visits, but at the appointments we bought more (usually 1/2 to a full case between my wife and I and her parents).

Franny Beck

Our last stop for the day was in Amity at Franny Beck’s new tasting room. I’ve bought Michael’s wines the past two vintages, so I was really excited to meet him and taste the full range of wines at once. We walked into a beautifully appointed space decorated with some local artwork on the walls. We were warmly greeted by Michael and Allyson (Al) Sterling, husband and wife team behind the Franny Beck wines. Originally from the east coast, they relocated to Oregon in 2014 to follow their passion in wine. Al also has a day job as a surgeon at a local hospital (obviously she stays busy). We enjoyed two hours of great conversion and great wine. I had such a great time diving into the details and steps Michael has taken to realize his dream as a winemaker.

Of all the Pinot Noir we tasted on this trip, the Franny Beck wines were the most different from the rest. Michael set out to craft wines that are pretty, delicate, and on the lighter end of the spectrum, and in that he has definitely succeeded. His wines have a purity and balance that I absolutely love.

We started with the 2017 Rose of Pinot Noir. A light, refreshing Rose with notes of strawberry and white peach. On to the 2015 pinot noirs. The 2015 Armstrong Vineyard in Ribbon Ridge had a beautiful light ruby color and was tons of velvet textured, soft red fruit on the nose and palate. The most delicate wine I tasted on this trip. Next came the 2015 Johan Vineyard from the Van Duzer corridor. Due to the heavy winds of this site, the end result here is a bit darker color with some slight bricking on the edges and fruit that falls in the middle of the red/black spectrum. Still an overall soft wine consistent with the house style. They were sold out of the ’15 La Chenaie, so we then tasted the 2015 Willamette Valley, which is 60% Johan, 22% La Chenaie, and 18% Armstrong fruit. This has broader shoulders, darker cherry flavors, and definitely the boldest of the lineup.

Once finished with the wines currently available for sale, things got more interesting. Michael had pulled a couple barrel samples of some new whites he’s working on. First was the 2017 “White” Pinot Noir. This was made from pinot noir grapes pressed off before fermentation, leaving it looking like any other typical white wine. This had tons of pear among other things on the very aromatic nose, and the palate was light and delicious. I wrote that this tasted exactly like a white version of the Franny Beck pinots. I believe Michael said he plans this to come to market around the price point of the Rose. This would be a nice summertime sipper. Next up, another barrel sample, was the 2017 Bieze Vineyard Chardonnay, Franny Beck’s first Chardonnay project. This wine is still fermenting in barrel, so what we tasted was very primary fruit, apple juice flavors, and cloudy color in the glass. I did love how it smelled like Champagne though. I will look forward to seeing how this progresses and what the final product is like.

I then asked Michael how his 2016 pinots were looking. He smiled and said, “Well, you want to try them?” He had just opened the full set of them to check in on before he sent them out at request to be reviewed. It was my lucky day! It got to taste all three of the 2016 single vineyards which were just bottled a couple weeks ago. The 2016 Johan Vineyard showed juicy fruit, lots of structure, a bit tightly wound right now, but I think this is going to be really good with some bottle age. The 2016 Armstrong Vineyard is more ready to go, with loads of really pretty soft red fruits. The 2016 La Chenaie showed a darker violet color (the darkest Franny Beck I’ve had), deeper flavors and darker fruit. Like I’ve seen throughout this trip, the 2016 are shaping up to be a really strong vintage (in fact most winemakers I talked to put 2016 as the best of the last four vintages).

If you have not yet tried the Franny Beck wines, I strongly recommend you do so. They are different, delicate, pure, juicy, and velvety, with a beautiful lighter color. And if you are going to be in Oregon, I highly recommend you set up some time to go see Michael.

Our last day of the trip, and finally we got some really pretty weather. The rains have moved out and the temperatures are back up in the 70s (instead of the low 50s like the previous day). This was a good day for it too, since we were headed up into the Dundee Hills.

Arterberry Maresh
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Driving up the Dundee Hills is so beautiful, definitely the most scenic views we had all trip. We had a mid-morning appointment with Jim Maresh at their red barn estate tasting room. Jim lives with his wife and young son on the estate. Jim is actually a 3rd generation Oregon winemaker. His grandfather purchased the farm in 1959 (originally planted to other crops), and eventually started growing grapes. Today, about 45 of the 100 total acres is planted to grapes. Jim believes the presence of the other crops helps keep a balanced ecosystem that naturally keeps bugs and disease off of his vines. Jim’s father produced the Arterberry label in the 1980s until his untimely death when Jim was young. Now at only 35 years old, Jim has been making wine since the 2005 vintage. Total production is He comes across as a laid back person, except when it comes to the quality of the wine that he is producing, which he cares about very much.
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We started out with the whites, first tasting the 2016 Martha’s White, a field blend that his mom makes with is slightly off dry and easy drinking. Then onto the serious stuff. 2016 Dux Vineyard Chardonnay from the Draper Selection clone. This is crisp, bone dry, lean and acidic. Definitely needs some time. Next up is the 2016 Maresh Vineyard Chardonnay from a Wente Selection clone. This had great depth and a bit warmer fruit profile. It bone dry like the last one, and comes across like a high quality Chablis. This might have been my favorite Chardonnay of the trip, but unfortunately is priced too high for me. Representing much better value was the 2016 Dundee Hills Chardonnay made from Dijon clones. It was less complex, with a bit more tropical fruits mixed in, but overall a nice wine. Not near to the quality level of the previous two though.

On to the reds. Jim poured us the 2015 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir which is the largest production wine at 2200 cases. This has pure, juicy fruit, super smooth on the mid palate and finish. This saw less than 5% new oak and come across really clean. We moved on to the 2016 Old Vines Pinot, which is an equal blend of Maresh and Weber vineyard old vines, the Maresh vines planted by Jim’s grandfather. This has a nice translucent red/purple color and some awesome complexity on the nose. Deep red fruit flavors with a smooth, long finish. I really liked this one. Next came the 2015 Maresh Vineyard Pinot. You could taste the effects of the hotter vintage here with some riper fruit and softer texture, but this still has really good stuffing. For the finale Jim poured the 2016 Maresh Vineyard Pinot. This was very similar to the Old Vines, perhaps a bit more depth. A very complete wine.
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