2006 Reverdito Barolo - Excellent Deal in Portland

Readers know I'm a sucker for a great deal, or at least the idea of a great deal. But really, what would you say if I told you I'd found a Barolo under $20? You'd dismiss me with a "stop buying your wine at Trader Joe's." Back away from some industrial shell of such a noble DOCG.

And you'd likely be right. Trader Joe's is full of low budget and low value Amarone and Barbaresco, appellations that typically command high prices and promise incredible wine experiences. So how is this possible? Barolo, the king of nebbiolo from Italy's Piedmont region, for less that $20? That's a normal price for regional nebbiolo these days. How could you possibly get Barolo for such a price, much less something that's not only better than those nebbioli but worthy of the Barolo name much less any of your money?

Enter the 2006 Reverdito Barolo, in the local Portland market from Zancanella Importing for around $19. Reverdito is a smaller producer of Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo from the town of La Morra. Usually their wines offer good value, with notable prices on their Codane and Moncucco Barolo in the $28 to $35 range, low for Barolo though perhaps because Zancanella imports the wines directly.

Then I was in Vinopolis recently and saw the latest Barolo for just $18.99. I had to ask shop owner Dan about the wine. He said he believed Reverdito blended all their Barolo for this vintage together in one bottling, and priced it to move. If it were as good as basic regional nebbiolo I would be happy. But tonight with homemade pizza this wine is absolutely delicious. It's rustic but powerful, not lacking stuffing for nebbiolo's classic tannin and acidity. It's dark ruby colored but translucent, still traditional with lovely dried flower, spicy cherry and tar aroma. Perhaps there's some barrique aging here, but I find nothing overtly modern here. You won't get the finesse and elegance of top producers. You will get true Barolo character and depth for a lower price than I've seen in many, many years for real Barolo.

The back label tells of the Reverdito vineyard holdings. Two acres of Dolcetto d'Alba, two of Barbera d'Alba, five of Lange Nebbiolo and eighteen acres of Barolo, all in the villages of La Morra and Serralunga d'Alba. This wouldn't matter if the wine was no good, but this is good wine, all from a very small area that I believe produces Italy's most exceptional wine. Wine like this won't make you forget the wines of Giacosa or Mascarello. However, this seems like an exceptional opportunity for authentic and delicious Barolo for the price of peanuts. For the record, Liner and Elsen also has this on the shelf and I imagine others in the area have it too. Anyone can order it from Zancanella, assuming it's still available. Barolo at this price won't last long.

2002 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie

In honor of Joe Dressner's big day, I thought it was fitting to open up one of his imports, the 2002 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie. That, and the potato leek soup Jennifer cooked up on a cool rainy Portland evening. What a dish (the soup, of course) and what a wine. Thanks Joe and company for bringing things like this to America. As I hope you can see, this eight year old bottle of cru Beaujolais came out of the cellar in perfect condition, appearing like it was bottled yesterday. The cork stained just on the end. The wine a dark translucent ruby color. The rest...well, in honor of Joe, I'll refrain from the typical tasting note. Suffice it to say this wine is aging wonderfully, with lovely perfume and zingy flavors that linger nicely. What some would call light and even thin, I call focused and energetic. Full of the woods and rain, not froot, with tang and grip that slaps you in the face ever so lovingly and commands your attention, then defers rightfully to a homemade meal. Perhaps like Joe himself. It's life giving stuff, fitting birthday wine. Here's to tomorrow.

ps - anyone know where I can find more of this stuff? I can't believe this is my last bottle. Fool.

Wow -- 2009 Evesham Wood Rose of Tempranillo Willamette Valley

I have so many things to write about lately (and now little time to focus on writing). Along comes this unexpected delight and I'm compelled to interrupt a backyard session of rose and Remington Norman and Charles Taylor's 3rd edition of The Great Domaines of Burgundy to write.

Unexpected, because as much as I love Evesham Wood, and I love Evesham Wood, their rose has never really hit the spot for me. Still, I keep trying and thankfully I do. Tonight I opened their latest and last (from the Raneys) release of rose and I'm left thinking this is the best Willamette Valley rose I've ever tasted.

Yes. The best.

Of course I just tried my trusty rose-loving neighbor and she's not as crazy about it as I am. Be warned, this is my best, not necessarily yours. (And why shouldn't it be any different?)

In case you're wondering, this Willamette Valley tempranillo comes from the Illahe vineyard near Dallas, right near the very well known Freedom Hill vineyard in the foothills of the coast range. Illahe has lots of different (for our area) grape varities planted, tempranillo among them.

The color of this 2009 Evesham Wood Rose of Tempranillo is very, very pale copper. No iridescent pink or light red. Not even salmon. This is light. The fragrance is of good rose sparkling wine, with complex scents of strawberry and yeast and rocks, even chalk (which has no business being in a Willamette Valley wine).

In the mouth, this wine is vibrant, even energetic with strawberry, lychee and mineral flavors, refreshingly dry and clean with nerve and a long lingering finish.

My neighbor says it's a little sour. Me, I see the dryness as simultaneously thirst quenching and thirst inducing. This wine is so satisfying and yet you must have more.

Pardon me as I resume my reading about some 140 top Burgundian estates, their vineyard sites and viticultural and winemaking techniques. One might think great Burgundy is required for such reading. Me, I'm drinking great Willamette Valley.

2007 La Gramiere rouge

Sometimes wine isn't a simple "like it" or "don't like it" proposition. Sometimes wines perplex, engage, delight, all at once, leaving you satisfied but uncertain how or why. For example, the 2007 La Gramiere rouge, one of the "natural" wines we're hearing so much about (in part thanks to Cory Cartwright's 32 Days of Natural Wine over at Saignee, now in Day 3).

This Vin de Table could be Cotes du Rhone Villages, a blend of 80% grenache, 15% syrah and 5% mourvedre from Americans Amy Lillard and David Kling, who moved to France years back and farm a vineyard in the southern Rhone valley. Their blog, La Gramiere, is a nice read with archives detailing the hard work they've endured to this point.

On the site, there's a tasting note for this wine that reads remarkably similar to my experience, mostly. Fruit driven, blackberry and boysenberry flavors, lush, with licorice and spice notes, and firm tannin that gives nice texture. This is delicious southern Rhone red, with so much energy it seems to glow an electric purple. Yet there are reductive notes, stinky vegetal aromas that come and go, never dominating but everpresent. These seem to vanish with a plate of broiled steak and steamed new potatoes, then reappear after the meal. For a while I smelled acetate (nail polish remover), then that seemed to melt into cinnamon notes, then occasionally a touch of acetate reappeared.

On balance, I really enjoyed this wine but am perplexed. This is a wine shape shifter, at once a lush crowd pleasing red, then difficult even wild, requiring patience, good food matches and intellect to seek out what the wine offers, not make snap judgements. If that sounds like a wine for you, and it most certainly does to me, have at it. Plus, I love the old world meets new wine label, especially the striking green that you see only rarely on wine bottles. Beautiful. (Note: image borrowed from La Gramiere)

1995 Ch. Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape

When we moved to Portland ten years ago next month, I brought with us several cases of wine. I'd been collecting bottles throughout the 1990s and just finished working for a Berkeley-based wine importer and retailer. In that position, I took advantage of the significant employee discount to stock the wine larder. "We won't get a chance like this again," I persuaded my wife. I bought a significant amount of wine, at least at the time. I wasn't making wine yet, you know.

Then came the great move north, with baby, cat and life's belongings. That meant engaging a moving company for all the big stuff and renting an air conditioned minivan to drive the family (baby) in cool comfort. And of course, the several boxes of wine. Meanwhile, Anthony the cat and I sweated it out driving our old VW in caravan with the rental. We thought we had A/C in that old heap, but it just turned out that San Francisco air was so naturally cool that we never noticed the A/C didn't really work.

Here in Portland, I still store my wine in the cellar in cardboard boxes, bottles upside down and close to the concrete floor to maximize cooling. There's no air conditioning in the house, but the cellar keeps pretty cool in all but the worst heat waves. I've worried about the wine collection, which I've continued adding to, evidence that we had, in fact, plenty of fine opportunities to buy wine. Then I try older bottles and they're great, and I don't worry so much. What do they say about cellar in Bordeaux rising slowly in the summer to the upper 60s farenheit (maybe higher)? Wine's fragile but not that fragile.

Of course, I've also had some cellar disappointments. Was that only because of my cellar conditions? Probably not. I know people with fancy, temperature controlled cellars who have off bottles. The one thing I've noticed is that I don't want to cellar half bottles all that long. Recently a half bottle of '96 Ch. d'Epire Savennieres was shot. That was nice wine in its youth and really shouldn't have had a problem making it to 14 years. Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was my cellar. Maybe it was the half bottle format.

That d'Epire was the last "original" bottle I'd opened, before tonight. I'm down to about 2 cases of originals, those bottles hauled up here 10 years ago. What's left is a mix of 1980s and 1990s Bordeaux, Port, and Rhones, for the most part. That's what I was mostly into back then. Since then, I've gotten more into German, Italian (especially) and Oregon wine. I have old bottles of all those, but they were all procured since the move.

What did I drink tonight? A lone half of the 1995 Ch. Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. I'd waited on this wine for so long because reports suggested it was highly tannic and needing time. Now at the 10 year mark in Portland, I'm thinking about those older bottles I still have and wondering if they really ought to be opened sooner than later. One, because I don't have a pristine cellar. But two, what the hell, it's been ten freaking years. What am I waiting for at this point?

The Beaucastel only reinforces this thought. The wine is mature, at least out of half bottle. Slightly oxidized upon pouring, it got more youthful in the glass, revealing a lovely mix of peppery cherry fruit and mushroomy, bottle sweet, earthy aromas. No brett here that I could find, no barnyardy or band aid notes. The wine is indeed tannic, and I'm sure this bottle would have dried out before the tannin resolved. Perhaps larger, slower aging bottles in colder cellars will live a lot longer. This bottle was delicious, with a great burst of flavor in the middle palate and a long finish. There's something difficult to describe but clearly obvious in a really good wine. This one had that quality. Enough words. Go try it for yourself, even if you have to wait a decade for it.

1998 Prieuré St. Jean de Bebian Coteaux du Languedoc

I've mentioned on Twitter how I've opened a few bottles from the cellar this weekend that were over the hill. One I'd bought years ago, a half bottle of '96 Chateau d'Epire Savennieres, so long ago it came from the original Berkeley Bowl before the move from the (in fact) converted bowling alley to its now decade-plus conventional home. Others included Winebid purchases that will go unmentioned. Let's just say that I've had some amazing successes buying at online auction. These weren't those.

However, I'm confident in my passive wine cellar. Here's the 1998 Prieuré St. Jean de Bebian Coteaux du Languedoc, gorgeous after nearly a decade in my unheated, uncooled Portland basement. This wine has a story for me however.

Bebian was the wine I mentioned so innocently online about a decade ago, while I worked for the importer. We'd discounted the $30 price to $10 in the shop with the 1997 vintage. We were up front that the quality wasn't as good as usual. That's the nature of vintage wine. It's not always the same in profile or quality. Surely a $10 price suggested as much. Yet I was unwise enough to mention that price cut on the internets, bringing down the wrath of the owner who said they didn't want the price published. Ah, the days before the internet was understood. This was public information, but not that public. I was kind of pissed off then, and confused. Now I understand, but the whole thing still seems futile. It wasn't like the internet wasn't around in 2000. Word got out about things, even then. But I digress.

Prieuré St. Jean de Bebian Coteaux du Languedoc is a southern France property planted to the thirteen varieties of Chateauneuf du Pape, the grenache, syrah and mourvedre most of us know along with so many other varieites for red and white wine. The grenache cuttings apparently come from Rayas, the syrah from Chave, the mourvedre from Tempier in Bandol, recent syrah plantings from Beaucastel. This is a serious property, for sure.

I was introduced to the property by my friend Paul P. who brought an older bottling to a dinner in San Francisco many years ago. That wine, vintage forgotten, seemed red fruited and Chateauneuf-like. Since then, my experiences with the producer have been about darker fruits and a profile as if Chateauneuf were from the northern Rhone. More focused, pure and defined than that behemoth southern Rhone wine often is.

This 1998 follows that pattern. I wouldn't guess this to be either southern Rhone (typically grenache-based) or northern Rhone (typically syrah). Rather, it's southern France, the Languedoc or Midi. Just highly nuanced and unusual for this region that still produces mostly common wines along with the occasional glossy, too big for its britches beverage. No, this is deep, dark, rich but restrained, focused and intense like few Languedoc reds ever are. It's clean too. No need for rogue yeast to provide earthy qualities here. And the iodine, near to the sea quality of the Languedoc isn't overdone, where you think you're drinking olive brine with the smoke of burning rosemary branches.

This '08 Bebian is all about an aromatic balance of ripe fruit, warm stones, olives, brushy herbs like rosemary and sage, and sea air. Upon first opening, there was a distinct ash note that I find in many Oregon pinot noirs. People sometimes refer to "Oregon garrigue" when noting local wines, and that must be what they're finding. Here we're talking about the real thing, southern French herb and soil scents that provide such a nice savory quality to the sweet ripeness of the wine. In the mouth, this wine is still finely tannic though more approachable than it was younger. I like way the drying tannin balances the sweet fruit of the wine, especially with grilled lamb at dinner where the meat brought out the wine's fruitiness.

As a whole, this is beautiful wine. Aging wonderfully. Full of promise with a few more years of cellar time, as the tannins continue to soften and the sweetness of age emerges. This is why we cellar wine, no matter the occasional disappointments. And let's just say, this isn't the 1997. This is really, really good.

Vincent garage tasting, a pictorial

Four incredibly busy days later, I'm still reflecting the glow of last Sunday's Vincent garage tasting. It marked the end of home winemaking. I'm happy to announce that just today I received final approval for the Vincent Wine Company winery license. It seems fitting to finish the garage project in pictures like memories.

The 2008 Vincent Pinot Noir, Zenith Vineyard.

 Me pouring for wine conspirator and friend, Anne Hubatch.

 

Translucent Vincent Pinot noir.

Garage scene.

Home cured pork from Portland Charcuterie Project.

Lonzino from PCP. Oh my god.

PCP pickles on our Bauer plate.

 A wine garage, but still a garage.

Jennifer prettied the place up with Gerber daisies.

 Last of the homemade wine.

 

Credits:

Thanks to everyone who came.

Big thanks to Todd Merkel of Portland Charcuterie Project for the delicious home cured meats and pickles. Todd's doing incredible work for the love of food.

And thanks especially to Joshua Chang of PDXploration for the gorgeous photography and permission to use his work here on élevage .

2004 Edmunds St. John Roussanne Tablas Creek

I heard from Steve Edmunds on Facebook that January 1, 2010 was the 25th anniversary of his winery, the California Rhone variety legend Edmunds St. John. What a perfect excuse to drink the 2004 ESJ Roussanne Tablas Creek Vineyard with my seafood bowlfest of Dungeness crab and langostino.

What a gorgeous wine! At first, it smelled of petrol like a nicely maturing riesling. Then with time more lemon and honey notes emerged, along with that petrolly minerality. This perfume makes me think of nectar oozing from fractured rock, if that makes any sense to you.There's incredible balance of richness and finesse here. I could smell this a long time, and happily I saved some and even two days later it's lost nothing.

In the mouth, the wine is appropriately oily in texture, coating the tongue with lemon and petrol flavors with subtle toast nuance that all linger for a minute. There's excellent balance of flavors and citrusy acid, at once satisfying you and making you salivate for more. Some roussanne from the golden state can be a bit rustic and unrefined, interesting but not necessarily delicious. This is incredibly detailed without undo polish or sculpting, and simply excellent now and surely for years to come.

Old Bordeaux

I got into Bordeaux back when I first really got into wine in 1991. Maybe that stemmed from a visit I took to St. Emilion in October 1989 with my then girlfriend while we were both studying abroad. Here I was in California but all I could think about was that day trip to St. Emilion two years earlier, walking from the train station up the road to the hilltop town, past what I now know was the famed Ch. Ausone. We toured at least one cellar in town and otherwise spent an idyllic day wandering the streets and shops, eating and enjoying the view. I remember buying a three-pack of bottles to bring back to London. Who knows what they were, aside from not being anything expensive.

Over the years I've fallen out of love with Bordeaux. The wines can be excellent, of course. There's no question about that. It's the whole aristocratic noblesse of Bordeaux that just isn't me. (Modern Bordeaux often leaves me cold, but that's another story.) Where Bordeaux is all about big business and big production, I'm more into the smaller scale wine scene in so many other regions in Europe. Here in the U.S., it's no surprise I'm more into the small scale of Oregon vs. the largesse of Napa Valley. Prices play a factor to, but it's more than that. Exceptions abound. Generall, I just find I typically enjoy wines more from smaller producers.

That said, I still enjoy good Bordeaux on occasion. I even enjoy lesser Bordeaux that won't wow anybody but make me reflect on what originally got me interested in the region so long ago. Take the 1983 Ch. Fourcas Hosten from Listrac that we opened the other night. This is non-classified stuff, nothing fancy, just old school cabernet-dominated wine from the under the radar 1983 vintage. Back when 1982 was all the rage stateside, making Robert Parker's reputation and sending prices soaring, 1983 came in successfully but without such ebullient praise.

The '83 Fourcas Hosten is now a bit long in the tooth. Still, I found its old book aroma and silky texture surprisingly pleasing, pairing nicely with a simple broiled steak and cornbread. It didn't have much varietal character, just satisfying if frail old wine Reading professional notes on this wine, you'd think it was long dead. Not at all. Neither I suppose is my interest in Bordeaux. Good, because I have more than a few bottles from there downstairs. They probably should make their way to our table this coming year.

Dinner with old friends

Last night we had the pleasure of hosting two couples, and their young children, who we hadn't seen for years since our San Francisco days. These couples themselves are old friends and back in the later 1990s Jennifer and I connected with them through our mutual love of wine and food. We scattered across the country and lost touch, but lately we've reconnected and it just happened that we were all here in the San Diego area at the same time. So, a reunion of sorts.

While the food was take out pizza, not the extravagant meals we used to share, the wines were top notch just like the old days. For starters, the NV Pierre Bouchard Champagne Inflorescence, a blanc de noirs that was crisp, refined and less red fruited than expected, but no less delicious than its reputation. Then a wine I picked up last week in Woodland Hills, the 2008 J.P. Brun Morgon. What a tremendous Beaujolais, full of lovely spicy raspberry and mineral gamay flavors, juicy and fairly rich. I'd love to age this a few years and see it gain even more breadth. Already it's really good.

Then onto bigger reds. First, the 1985 Ch. Pradeaux Bandol brought in by Premier Cru about a decade ago and stored well since. This was simply excellent, with great mourvedre raspberry fruit and tree bark aromas, and perfect aged sweetness on the palate. As you should expect from good Bandol, this had great freshness at almost 25 years old. A good bottle like this was great now but could easily last another decade or more. Thanks Paul for bringing this among all these great wines.

Then some new world mourvdre dominated blends for comparison. First, the 2006 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel "Panoplie," a 68% mourvedre blend with grenache and syrah that's apparently a domestic hommage to the Beaucastel "Hommage a Jacques Perrin" bottling. This bottle seemed fruit dominated and soft, certainly tasty and dense wine but lacking complexity and maybe the structure to allow age to bring out that complexity. Not as exciting as other Tablas Creek wines I've tried over the years.

Then the 2007 Carlisle Two Acres bottling from nearly 100 year old vines in the Russian River Valley, off Olivet Lane. Paul and I helped out here back in 1999 so we feel a particular connection to this bottling. This year's example has all the usual Carlisle ripeness but at a moderate 13.7% alcohol. The aroma showed a little more youthful sweetness than I was expecting, but the flavors had a nice savory, peppery spiciness and good acidity. This should age nicely.

And if that wasn't enough, we opened a wine totally foreign to me, the 2007 Passopisciaro from Mt. Etna in Sicily. Paul mentioned this area can produce the most Burgundian in style of southern Italian reds that he knows of. I would agree based on this taste. Pretty ruby color with a perfumed aroma, maybe more Rhone like with a whiff of volatility that lifts the aroma. Nice tannic structure and sweet savory red fruit, this was quite good.

In sum, a great night of reconnecting with old friends and all of our children, watching the sun set into the Pacific and taking a liesurely time sampling all these excellent wines. Hope we do it again, this time without waiting another decade.

2006 A.P. Vin Pinot Noir Keefer Ranch

I don't drink a lot of California wine anymore. I started on French wine back in the early '90s, then got into California wines in the mid to later '90s as I explored my native state. Then I moved from California to Oregon in 2000 and I settled into a diet of mostly European and Oregon selections. I simply prefer the racy freshness of even the richer wines from these areas, compared to the stereotype of hulking fruit and oak monsters of the golden state.

Readers of this blog will know that there are plenty of exceptions. I love the wines of Edmunds St. John. I've also written favorably about wines from several California producers like Tablas Creek, Mt. Eden, Ridge, older Ravenswood, and recently Windy Oaks. Most of these wines fit a more scaled down version of the California excesses, full of what California can offer but usually not over full. Then there are more mainline California producers that I enjoy, including Carlisle and Siduri, mainline not in the sense of general quality but definitely in terms of ripeness and opulence. These wines don't tend to be shy, and yet I find delight and even nuance in the best example. They show to me that generalizations are only so useful, and sometimes overblown to the point of being ridiculous.

Case in point, A.P. Vin. Andrew Vignello is famous for being an internet wine geek full of passion for California wine (and beyond) who threw his day job aside some years back and got into the wine producing business feet first. I've never met Andrew but he's an inspiration to me, that someone full of passion for winemaking can dive in and produce quality wine that finds an audience. I also love that he makes wine in an urban facility in San Francisco. Urban wines are the new wave.

Today I found a bottle of his 2006 A.P. Vin Pinot Noir Keefer Ranch from the Russian River Valley at a local LA wine shop. I'd never tried his wine and bought it with curiosity of what this producer might have done with grapes from this acclaimed site. The results were surprisingly nice. I actually expected a dark colored, highly extracted show piece of a pinot noir. Instead, there was a pretty ruby color with a pleasing herbal cherry and earth aroma. Had I smelled this blind, I would have quessed high quality New Zealand pinot, which seems to give more herbal expressions of pinot than the pure fruit Cali style I commonly find. Was there whole cluster here? No, apparently, but the spicy peppery notes gave that kind of complexity.

The flavors were more fruit centered with some oak toast, but the acids were bright and the tannins provided a lovely texture and grip. This isn't too tannic, rather it's not sweet and cloying. I loved the balance in this wine and the relative restraint. There's some alcohol on the finish. This isn't lightweight pinot. Sitll, this wine had terrific grace and interest. And where so many people criticize "big" wines for lacking perfume, this wine had terrific perfume. Nice job Andrew.

Marcarini barbera

We're visitng my mom in LA and went out to dinner at Dante here in Pacific Palisades. They make really nice Italian food. I always have a good meal here. Nothing super fancy, but very solid and pretty consistent.

From the basic list I picked a Castello di Verduno Barbera. Of course they were out of that, but for the same price we had the 2007 Marcarini Barbera d'Alba Ciabot Camerano. It was too warm (obviously stored in the kitchen, which is too bad), but they brought an ice bucket and it cooled off quickly.

This is a delicious barbera, as usual. Fresh and berry scented, then lightly floral and spicy. I didn't pick up any new oak but there may be some barrique aging here. The flavors were simple and pure with tangy fruit and a nice tannic texture, and a great savory note on the finish.

Barbera is so often the best way to go with Italian food. Reasonably priced, easy to drink young, delicious with so many different dished and with mouthcleansing acidity that slakes your thirst and still brings you back for more. I still have a bottle of this wine from the 2003 vintage back home in the cellar. Time to get that out to see how a few years have changed it.

Nice basic Evesham Wood Pinot Noir with a little age

My friend John recently found a bottle of 2002 Evesham Wood Pinot Noir Willamette Valley for $20 at a local shop, Great Wine Buys, in NE Portland. Apparently the good folks at Great Wine Buys will occasionally put something like this away for a while and then bring it out to the shelves. That there's a good wine shop, if you ask me. Not sure if there's any still there, but it's worth a call or visit.

John opened the bottle this afternoon and offered me a glass when I stopped by to hang out before the holiday break. I don't recall this wine specifically from its youth, but remember this bottling being pretty crunchy, fresh and pretty at release. Now it's a touch oxidized, mature and a bit meaty for its age along with nice cherry fruit. It's still fresh and bright on the palate, with juicy acid and woodsy cherry fruit, then fine tannin on the pretty decent finish. Consider this good Bourgogne rouge, Oregon style.

I was lucky enough to bring the rest of the bottle home and it seems a touch more fresh with the extra air time. I find that to be true of wines at this point, where air can bring out a more youthful character when you might think the opposite, that air would cause the wine to show more age. Am I alone in noticing this?

Really nice Cali pinot noir from Windy Oaks

Last year around this time, I was sort of gifted a bottle of 2005 Windy Oaks Pinot Noir Estate from the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Gifted in that a generous guy from the wine boards brought this and another wine to dinner, thinking we'd open this one and I could have the other for another time. Before I knew that, I'd opened the other wine and this never got opened. It was one of those faux pas that wine geeks loathe. You bring a nice bottle, it doesn't get opened. Dang. Worse yet when you're the host. So apologies to Stu. Thanks for your generosity.

I was so intrigued by this wine, I wasn't sure when to open it. Tonight, with a nice fire roaring and the family for an early Christmas at home before we travel...this seemed like the time. Wow, is this an impressive, delicious California pinot noir.

Here in Oregon, Cali wine gets little respect. None less than Cali pinot. THIS is pinot country. California pinot? Isn't that zinfandel? Well, of course not. Sure, lots of pinot noir from the golden state is big fruited and lush. That's not true of everything, though. Case in point here.

The Windy Oaks is from California's Oregon, the Santa Cruz mountains. Rugged, fir covered, full of hippies and other greenery, you could drop me in Soquel and I might think I were in Oregon's coast range somewhere near Manzanita. So it's natural to find a kindred Oregon spirit in this wine.

The color is a nice ruddy ruby, befitting delicate, beginning to age pinot noir. The aroma is perfumed, showing lots of herbaceous whole cluster fermentation notes, integrated wood spice and bright raspberries. At first it seemed a little too herbaceous, even green peppery with a candied note. With time that morphed into peppery stem and finely woven fruit and spice notes. This is nice.

The flavors are nicely focused with raspberry, cured meat and lovely wood spice notes. Everything's well knit, bright with fine tannic texture and good length, finishing with nice savor that leaves you thirsting for more rather than full of "flavor" and a dulled sensibility.

This is simply one of the nicest new world pinot noirs I've had in a while and certainly the best from California I've tried in a long time. Not that I try too many these days, but this is clearly special. I've heard good things from this producer and this bottle alone suggests those reports are right on. Windy Oaks is something I want more of. Thanks Stu, I owe you.

Wow - 2007 Clemens Busch Riesling Marienberg Rothenpfad Grosses Gewachs

I had a chance to taste this incredible, dry German Mosel riesling the other night. Talk about blind tastings. I had never heard of the producer, had no idea what region in Germany it was from and no sense of the what the wine would or should be. I did know it was a Grosses Gewachs bottling, essentially Germany's recent Grand Cru designation for dry white wines. I'll admit this is my first taste of a "GG." It won't be my last.

2007 Clemens Busch Riesling Marienberg Rothenpfad Grosses Gewachs
The color was a brilliant greenish gold, making me think of an Austrian riesling. Then the aroma. Green peas? Is there gruner veltliner in here? It's hugely complex aromatically,with honey, mineral, apple and intense tropical aromas. In the mouth it's leaner than the rich smell, not some complex at this stage but with great finesse, purity and length. This is verrrry interesting wine.

I googled the producer and found Lyle Fass' terrific write up on Rockss and Fruit from his visit to the Clemens Busch estate last year. Check out the pictures of the Marienberg vineyard. It must have been an old quarry. I was pleasantly surprised to find Lyle's references to the tropicality of this wine and the "Austria meets the Mosel" aspect of the producer. I can see that in this one wine.

2005 Montaribaldi Barbaresco Palazzina

Winter means it's Barba-
resco season here in Portland. I think back to last Decem-
ber's heavy snows and wines like the 2003 Produttori di Barbaresco normale bottling that I enjoyed so much.

 Tonight it's cold and now icy rainy, but there's homemade pizza of three varitiies and the 2005 Montaribaldi Barbaresco Palazzina. Life is good.

The wine is young as you'd expect, dark ruby with a hint of rusty orange when held up to the light. The smell is pure tradition, with seasoned oak and chestnuts, dried flowers, almonds and pie cherries, but some volatility that adds a rustic edge.

The flavors are classic nebbiolo with firm tannin and fresh acidity, perhaps a bit blocky and country, not refined but so honest and authentic, and delicious with the meal, that refinement is beside the point. This is authoritative, flavorful Barbaresco that should age a while but will always favor the bold over elegance. And that's fine.

We're spoiled in Portland, with Barbaresco like this available for the mid-$20s before discounts or special purchase. These days, that's pricing for good Nebbiolo d'Alba, but there's more intensity here, if not the refinement of the best examples of Nd'A. I'm glad to have another bottle to try in a few years to see how it develops.

Great Biggio Hamina tasting

Friday night at Storyteller Wine Company in Portland, Todd Hamina from Biggio Hamina poured a mess of  wines from 2007 and 2008. First were a trio of 2007 Pinot Noir. The Momtazi was the leanest, fresh and bright but perhaps a ltitle tight still. The Deux Vert was notably more fruity aromatically. Then the Ana the deepest and richest of the three, more fruit with a lovely soil note. I thought this was Pommard clone, but apparently it's all 777. I've written elsewhere that the best 2007s are pretty and fragrant, and have come a long way in the past year. Most I wouldn't think need more than a few years aging, though they should last longer. These wines might be exceptions, where they'll reveal even more with time. Very interesting, cerebral wines these. Delicious too.

Then a pair of 2008 Pinot Noir. First the Willamette Valley, lighter in color than 2008s I've tried from other producers and delicious. That's typical here. Todd uses a lot of stems and ferments cool, and the wines stress perfume and finesse rather than color and fruit extraction. Then the Zenith, the darkest and richest of all the pinot here (still not that dark and rich). Lovely black cherry fruit here and great texture.

Next came two 2007 Syrah from the Deux Vert vineyard, a warmer climat in the Yamhill-Carlton District here in the Willamette Valley. The first was the Willamette Valley Syrah, and I've written it up favorably here. Tonight it tasted like peppered bacon. There's 7% viognier co-fermented in this one. Then the 2007 Syrah XX, with 20% viognier. I hadn't tried this one previously, and I found out that not only does it have so much viognier, it's all from one new Oregon oak barrel. There's serious smoke here, maybe too much right now but this is wine to age I think. Not black and highly extracted wine, rather this is medium bodied, structured and fragrant. If good Oregon pinot has Burgunian qualities, these Biggio Hamina syrah definitely take a local spin on classic northern Rhone syrah. What a treat to try so many different ones in one line up.

Unusual Oregon white wine: auxerrois

There's not a lot of the auxerrois grape grown in Oregon. At a holiday party this evening, I had a taste of the newly released 2008 Adelsheim Auxerrois from the Ribbon Springs Vineyard on Ribbon Ridge. What a delicious and interesting wine. I think Oregon whites are underrated, and this is another great example of that.

What the heck is auxerrois? It's pronounced ohk-sair-wah and it's common to the Alsace region of France. I looked it up in Jancis Robinson's classic text Vines Grapes & Wines without much success. Wikipedia suggests it's a cross of gouais blanc and pinot noir, the same parentage of chardonnay. Adelsheim's site suggests this cross is from medival times and responsible for aligote, gamay and 10 other varieities. I don't understand how that works, but I find it fascinating.

How did the wine taste? As the Adelsheim link suggests, there were lots of pear and honey aromas and flavors, with softer acid than I expected. One taster suggested it was a little sweet. I found it to be dry, with a fruity impression, so I can understand that. What was remarkable here was the finesse and length. It's not the moxt complex wine, just so delicious and enticing. Thanks to our hosts for taking the wine steward's recommendation at a local shop and picking this up.

1999 Texier Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes

Tonight, an older wine to pair with some steak and the big college football game between Oregon and Oregon State. The winner goes to the Rose Bowl, and wouldn't this be a fitting wine. The color of the 1999 Eric Texier Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes is rusting a bit but still fresh. Then there's an almost rose-like floral perfume on top of deep, intense game, raspberry and old wood aromas. Did this see some barrique? Any fresh wood notes have integrated nicely. Those more sensitive to brett will notice some mild leather and band aid notes in there. Overall, this is unusual Chateauneuf, more northern Rhone in character than the stony, grenache-dominated cherry and herb infused wines we see most often.

In the mouth this wine is less impressive. It has nice raspberry and spice notes with some drying tannin but good length. There is more brett on the finish in the form of cheese rind and horse blanket flavors. They stand out a bit when you taste without food, but with a steak, potatoes and broccoli meal this is nice if not spectacular wine. The brett averse might hate it, and I'm less and less tolerant of brett. Still, I like this, especially aromatically and with a nice, warm meal on a cold December night.

2007 Arterberry Maresh Pinot Noir Dundee Hills

I wrote months ago about seeing this wine on sale in Portland, [perhaps a victim of the economy and some mixed reviews on the 2007 vintage locally for pinot noir. Everybody seems to have lowered their prices on 2007s. There are some great buys still out there, even this one if you look carefully.

Did I ever write a tasting note for the 2007 Arterberry Maresh Dundee Hills pinot from Jim Arterberry Maresh. (For the record, it's pronounced Marsh.). I don't think I did, so here goes.

First you see the translucent ruby color. Then there's the senuous perfume of dried flowers, cherries, strawberries, clay and spice. I don't pick up any intrusive oakiness, just subtle wood spice that marries beautifully with the grape. This wine is pure silk in the mouth, with tangy cherry and light raspberry flavors, complex spice and a lovely, soft tannic texture. There's good length and this matches nicely with homemade turkey and roast vegetable sandwiches. I really like this, and around $20 locally, it's a bargain.

I read a decent review of this wine in a commercial publication that suggests it's almost rose in hue and probably best served lightly chilled, like a pink wine. That seems like faint praise and simply off base to my experiences with it. I love rose, but this is red wine. This is what good Oregon pinot noir is all about. This will cellar for a few years. I wouldn't lose it in the basement for too long. So many of the good 2007s are already fragrant and silky, I'm not sure how much they'll gain even if they last a while. But this wine isn't some afterthought, to be lost among black hued, excessively oaky local wines. As Jimmy Maresh would put it, this is the shit. Don't miss it.