Vinous Oregon Report

I’m surprised there’s no thread on the current Oregon report. I’ve always enjoyed reading Josh Raynolds reviews and find my taste aligns very well with his. He’s got an awesome review of the 17 and early 18 wines that posted in July. I took a few years off buying wines so now I’m back buying 16 and 17’s. Jim Anderson gave a recent perspective on the 17 and 18 vintage and Josh’s take is the same. I’m excited to try 16-18 and doesn’t look like you can go wrong. 18 looks like the wines will be a little darker and slightly richer with more power. 17 a bit more classic style and geared to red fruit fans(me). These will be really fun to follow over the next 10-15 years.

I’ve got a bunch on order and most will rest for years but looking forward to Arterberry Maresh, Belle Pente, Patricia Green, Kelley Fox, Goodfellow and Cameron( not reviewed). All got great reviews. I had the 18 Arterberry Dundee last week. What a wine for $28. It’s a great time to be a fan of Oregon Pinot. Congrats to Jim, Marcus and many others on making some of the best wines around. Last nights 10 BP Murto was silly good and drinks well above its price point.

Btw, most of these wines are available either at the wineries or great Oregon shops like Avalon and Vinopolis( no affillation just a customer)

Cheers

Thank you Fred. I completely agree that 2016-2018 is a remarkable three years for the Willamette Valley. Lovely wines all around. Kelley Fox is another that Josh reviewed well and is very much worth seeking out.

Agreed Marcus. I can see some fun tastings 10 years from now. I’d encourage folks to check out the reviews and wines if your a pinot fan. These are world class wines and such a good value.

What are your feelings 2019, Marcus?

It’s a curious vintage. I don’t have a wide sampling beyond my own cellar, but the chatter I have heard is pretty positive. While we had quite a bit of wet weather, and certainly enough to be part of the vintage personality, most people who hung through the weather had their fruit harvested intact.

Our preference for wines, or house style, is lower alcohol and bright red fruited wines. So we picked about 80% of Pinot Noir prior to weather, the no-till farming has the advantage of moving the vines stopping green growth and shifting to ripening a bit before cultivated vines do(IMO). We also have less canopy, and fruit sees quite a bit of sun developing skin tannins and flavor a bit earlier. Brix were lower but flavors are very good and I am really happy with the results. We also had a cooler growing season with less wind than normal, so tannin development is modest. Making our 2019s seem a bit more approachable right now. Abvs are between 11.9-13.0, with most in the 12.2-12.4 range.

I think for Goodfellow, the wines will be delicious, with an earlier window for drinking than some vintages. Less structural than 2017, without the sappiness of 2018, but more in line with a very elegant version of 2016. Pretty, juicy, attractive aromatics, refreshing to drink. We made a LOT of different cuvees in 2018, and I think that for sanity’s sake, we’ll dial that back a bit in 2020. That said, the 2019s have great drinkability. They’ll probably be the opposite of Willamette Valley 2008s, less hype but 6 years after vintage everyone who bought them will be happy they did.

The 20% of Pinot Noir picked later still had little disease even though it sat through a number of rain events. The fruit is denser and darker. Excellent wines from the later pick at Temperance Hill.

The white wines are dynamite. We picked them about 10 days later, and with little or no disease pressure. Alcohols are very low to modest. We’ve bottles the Whistling Ridge field blend and Riesling, both are performing at their usual level. Although the Riesling is very bright still.

So do folks not look to Vinous for Oregon reviews ? If not do you use any ? I pretty much buy from the same producers and pick up new ones to try from trusted Oregon retailers but I do enjoy Josh’s perspective. My palate seems to be well aligned with his as well.

I rely almost solely on Vinous reviews. If i’m in doubt about certain wines, I’ll ask Eric at Sec Wines for his take–always reliable. From the '16, '17, '18 vintages, I’ve purchased Cameron, Evesham Wood, Brick House, Arterberry Maresh, and Kelley Fox.

I’m a follower of Josh’s reviews. I’m quite familiar with Willamette wineries, but new one are sprouting up constantly. When I find a couple of wines I’ve already tasted and I agree with his notes, I’ll give unfamiliar wines with similar descriptors a chance.

He’s also a good supplement to the vintage assessments provided by some of the winemakers who post here.

I hope people look to Josh’s reviews. He’s been covering Oregon for quite some time and has a good ability to review a range of styles.

Kelley Fox also spoke really highly of 2019 in her Vinous Live interview as well. so much so that I emailed Dustin the next day to ask about their bottling status for those wines. I think that interview is still available for playing on youtube.

2019 is a growers year. It was very surprising how many top houses had botrytis and had to pick weeks before the fruit was ready. There’s no doubt that quality will be all over the board. Caveat emptor.

With the number of new wineries out there, 2019s conditions may be a challenge for those that haven’t been through this before. But I doubt the range of quality will be as wide as say 2007 or 2013. There was nothing close to the late season disease pressure of 2013. From my perspective, the point where growers segregated themselves was dealing with mid-season mildew pressure. The fruit lost to mildew in June/July didn’t make it to wineries.

IMO, canopy restriction really advances flavor development as well as acid maturity. In 2017, I had 80% of fruit picked when Jason Lett had 4%. In 2018 we were in by October 1st, except for a small bit of Temperance Hill.

Third party affirmation of the wines we made from those vintages is in Josh’s reviews. 2019 really isn’t different, IMO, except that abvs and tannins will be lower. We had a cloudy and humid mid-season growing period, with more still air than usual.

For those looking for ripe and rich wines, our 2019s won’t float your boat. But neither would many of our other wines. We had a bottle of 2019 Riesling open from a tasting yesterday. If anyone wants a peek at possible quality in 2019, it makes a very good statement. It smells like beautiful stone fruit and ripe citrus with kitchen herbs sprinkled in. The palate is wound tight…but it’s stylistically similar to a GG wine from Germany, so it should be tightly wound. Vinopolis knows how to get it, and we are happy to send it to anyone interested.

Now you’re just being diplomatic. I’ll stick with my assessment.

Bottling 13 of our top Pinots this weekend including one we have not bottled the last 3 years because we didn’t have the, I don’t know, right stuff despite the quality of those 3 vintages. Wines are pretty supple with alcohols in the low 13s mostly. I think they could be a little bottle shocky out of the gate compared to the denser and heartier wines of 14-18. I have zero problems with our span of Pinots.

Well, during normal times, we would have visited with our favorite folks in Oregon at the end of June and I could have provided my thoughts on the 2019 vintage from barrel tastings with PGC, Crowley, Walter Scott, Thomas, etc. Sadly, our annual trip was postponed and it appears to be cancelled this year with hopes of returning next year. I’m hesitant to go crazy with 2019’s until tasting, but I went ahead and bought two (2) cases as futures from PGC. I’ve been purchasing futures from PGC since 2012, so that provides some normalcy to me in a crazy 2020.

James

It is great to see the broad level of quality. Personally I enjoy supporting these wineries, as all the winemakers and their growers I have encountered are lovely people pursuing a passion. They are also incredibly collaborative as a community. I second the point of recognizing the great Oregon shops like Avalon and Vinopolis and others.

A nice side is the recognition and data that Oregon wines can age if well made and stored properly. I bought at auction a bunch of older Oregon wines last summer that had been well stored, and the 20+ year old Evesham Woods and Drouhin Oregon, have been delicious. The 2005 Arterberry Maresh, is still improving, as it gets better day two. I am biased because I like wines with age, however the few Cellartracker notes on these wines have diverged from my experience. Many are negative. I think a lot has to do with storage/storage issues and hanging on store shelves.

So I went big in 2017 (and 18) with an A- W range of Artisinal Oregon winemakers Pinot Noirs (and Chardonnays). Arterberry Maresh, Antika Terra, Beaux Frères, Bethel Heights, Big Table Farm, Cameron, Championship Bottle, Cristom, Crowley, Evesham Wood , Goodfellow Family Cellars, Hope Well, Hundred Suns, Kelley Fox, Lingua Franca, Martin Woods, Patricia Green Cellars, Sequitur, Shiba Wichern, Thomas, Trathen Hall, Violin, Walter Scott are all interesting in their own ways. The diversity gives me a range of choices based on mood, meal and season. Not all are reviewed by Vinous. I try to concentrate on lower alcohol wines.

I look forward to starting to open most of the 2017’s in a decade (I have some 16,15,14, 13, 12 and earlier vintages to enjoy first). I am hopefull the 2017 wines will be interesting to drink over 30 years. This is a collection to consume.

I am optimistic with Josh at Vinous and John Gilman giving good reviews, more people will properly store the wines, enjoy and discuss them over time. The better makers and growers will be successful, and I selfishly will have useful notes in Wineberserkers and Cellartracker as these wines develop over time! It will help a lot to understand when the wines from various makers, vintages and vineyards are in closed periods, and how their secondary flavours develop and integrate over time.

My children should drink well!

Nice follow up on Oregon in Vinous today with all the non-Pinot Noir wines.

Awesome post and welcome to the board. I need to expand beyond Pinot for sure. Jim made a sauv blanc at PG back in the day that my family still raves about.

The latest Vinous reviews of non Pinot Noir Oregon wines is a good motivator to try other grapes. With so much collaboration and friendly competition setting the bar higher every year, lots to look forward to.

It’s still rave-worthy and a fantastic QPR!!!