1999 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

SE Wine Collective
Tasted Sunday, June 22, 2014 by David Paris (dbp) with 422 views

Introduction

A group of friends gathered at the SE Wine Collective for wonderful conversation, food, and 1999 Oregon Pinot Noir! I was very excited about this event as 1999 is one of my favorite Oregon vintages and they should be drinking quite well today. Everything was poured blind, revealed after every flight. The food was primary fish focused, and all quite amazing.

Flight 1 - A white to start (1 Note)

  • 1999 The Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay 91 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

    Very nutty and creamy aromas. Beautifully soft and floral. Smooth and beautiful palate; quite pretty, on an awesome texture with nearly tropical fruits. Awesome acid on the finish, with great length. Surprisingly yummy and smooth. Impressive.

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Flight 2 (3 Notes)

Paired with Smoked Dried Grilled Mackeral. Awesome! The Chehalem was amazing.

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  • 1999 Chehalem Pinot Noir Ridgecrest Vineyards 92 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge

    Very pretty and soft aromas. Mild and sweet and beautifully fruited, with a slight bit of meat noted as well. Lovely palate entry, but totally full of fruit. Pretty stuff, with acid coming in with more aeration. Awesome palate presence. Really lovely and smooth. Fantastic eruption of beautiful fruit and impressive balanced acidity lingering a long time. Quite a lot of spice. This was one of the top two wines of the night for most.

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  • 1999 Lemelson Vineyards Pinot Noir Jerome Reserve 89 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    Tons of lush fruits on the nose. Quite hefty and thick smelling, some oak as well. More large fruit on the palate, which is a little stewed and meaty. This is a big boy wine. Good tannin presence, though, with a slight hint of rose that I like. Puckering tannins on the finish, but it's quite heavy and dark fruited with some acid mixed in, but it does feel a little manufactured. Much better as the night went on and it got more air. Surprised to see that I had this bottle a year ago and loved that one.

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  • 1999 Torii Mor Pinot Noir Quail Hill 84 Points

    USA, Oregon, Washington County

    A surprise for me when this was revealed as I've enjoyed this vineyard before The aromas here smell like heavy, gritty coffee. Very nice, unique and interesting. Some meat on the palate coupled with forest floor. Quite gritty, offering powdered cacao notes and funk. Perhaps some brett. Spice and tar notes on the finish, with some tannins. Pretty funky. I really enjoy that unique nose, but the rest just doesn't come together as a complete wine.

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Flight 3 - Mid-Valley (2 Notes)

Copper River Sockeye Fermented in Sake Lees! Beautiful.

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  • 1999 Cristom Pinot Noir Jessie Vineyard 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills

    Wow, this is a beast of a wine. Rich fruited and decadent. Red apple skin and meat. Slightly green on the palate but very voluminous; huge and bozzy. Green finish, acidic, and chemical notes. Funky dark fruit.

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  • 1999 Bethel Heights Pinot Noir Southeast Block Reserve 82 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    Came in at 13% but I don't know how. This smells like Syrah. It's thick and heavy. Very thick, heavy palate. Voluminous, with some acidic tartness, but the size of the wine is totally off putting. No typicity at all, with just big thick fruit and large acid on the finish. Again, tastes like Syrah.

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Flight 4 - Not sure the pairing? (2 Notes)

The best pairing... Braised Pork Belly with Sous Vide Egg. The Sineann really shined through tonight.

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  • 1999 Sineann Pinot Noir Reed & Reynolds 92 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    Pretty hefty aromas. Strangely, this smells like Cheddar sunchips covered in sunscreen to me. With that though is cherries, cola, and beautiful blueberry. Sounds weird, but it was quite pleasing and diverse. Very nice palate entry, nearly elegant and smooth. Lovely acid and beautiful, real fruit. Really lovely acidic tartness balances this beautiful, meaty fruit. The finish is tons of acid balanced with that wonderful fruit. Soft, elegant finish with wonderful balance. This is a wonderful aged Oregon Pinot. Quite light on its feet compared to the more recent Pinots Peter makes. Wish he stuck with this style.

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  • 1999 Beaux Frères Pinot Noir Beaux Frères Vineyard 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Yamhill County

    Nasty wine compared to the Reed & Reynolds poured along side it in this flight. The aromas are soft and hugely herbal. Quite nice, actually. The palate on the other hand is incredibly chewy. It's like chewing on a cookie, in fact, and even tastes like one (with booze mixed in). Soft, stewed fruit finish.

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Flight 5 - The Eyrie flight (2 Notes)

Both of these wines were horrible... and supposedly they were recent acquisitions from the winery, and at least the South Block Reserve was recently examined and refilled/corked.

  • 1999 The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir Reserve 84 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

    Stewed, rotting cantaloupe melon notes. Really brutal, odd funky, almost yiesty notes. Smells like a microbial problem. Similar intensity on palate entry. It's vibrant and feels alive (literally). Intense palate, but still pretty gnargly. Something living in this wine. The finish tastes like rotting grapefruit. Tons of acid. Kind of nasty.

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  • 1999 The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir South Block Reserve 82 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    This smells like ripe rubber and burnt hair... or, maybe burning raccoons. Brutal. The palate entry is better, but then you get more fermenting stuff here. Really tart and funky. Bad finish with nasty acids. Ick. I wonder what happened to these wines? Glad this was poured blind.

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Flight 6 - Potentially bretty flight (2 Notes)

Closing

Overall the food beat the wines. A couple of the wines were nice, but most of them were stewed, nasty beasts. Not sure what went on here... and I'm shocked how the Eyrie wines showed. A fun time for sure, but the 1999s didn't quite live up to my expectations, with a few exceptions.

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