Oregon wine excursion April 2006

Willamette Valley, various wineries
Tasted Monday, April 17, 2006 - Friday, April 21, 2006 by Omar Khayyam with 741 views

Introduction

These were tastings from the regular tasting rooms late spring of 2006, I have just collected them here for as I discovered my old notes and decided to post in more organized fashion. Important to note; at this time I was using a more primitive scale of rating wine and have not tried to change into more nuance out of memory, since memory can be deceptive. Thus, ratings go from 75-80-85-90.

Flight 1 - Chehalem tasting room and winery (9 Notes)

First stop out of Portland - very warm welcome with visit to the cellar and some barrel tasting. Quite interesting actually.

  • 2004 Chehalem Dry Riesling Reserve Willamette Valley 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/17/2006)

    Less residual sugar than the 2005 and still more floral notes - this was more open at the time of tasting. very well made and one of the best rieslings and certainly in terms of qpr I had during this trip.

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  • 2004 Chehalem Pinot Gris Willamette Valley 80 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/17/2006)

    gooseberry, citrus and some peach - could not really feel as enthusiastic about the Pinot Gris as I did for the rieslings I tried.

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  • 2005 Chehalem Dry Riesling Reserve Willamette Valley 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/17/2006)

    dry not fully opened at the moment of tasting but still good. Traditional Alsace style not much of the wine has seen any oak and then only french oak

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  • 2005 Chehalem Pinot Gris Willamette Valley 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/17/2006)

    more discipline and structure than the 2004, this one had some more complex fruit going on.

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  • 2002 Chehalem Chardonnay Ian's Reserve Stoller Vineyard 90 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

    (4/17/2006)

    Broad and toasty without being buttery or soaked in vanilla flavor. This has a lot of fruit and still character and balance. I liked it although the guys at the tasting were all leaning towards the INOX which was the new trend at the time I guess.

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  • 2002 Chehalem Cerise 80 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/17/2006)

    The cerise has (had?) 80 % gamay and 20 % pinot noir which makes it something between a cote challonnaise and a beaujolais village I guess. light and ok but no complexity and not my favourite summer sipper at this price either.

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  • 2004 Chehalem Pinot Noir Corral Creek 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

    (4/17/2006)

    Light elegant with good acidity and lots of cherries and red currant

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  • 2003 Chehalem Pinot Noir Stoller Vineyard 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

    (4/17/2006)

    Full bodied lush dark fruit and quite a bit of heat which did not feel as bad as it sounds - it's just a very big Pinot Noir. Completely different from the corral creek 2004 which I tasted same day.

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  • 2005 Chehalem Chardonnay INOX 90 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/17/2006)

    This probably rated somewhere between 85 and 90 but I a sticking with more original higher scoring to be true to my notes. Stainless steel chardonnay with lots of minerality and floral if not fruity appeal. I ended up buying this instead of the more oaked Ian's reserve, which I to some extent regretted. Would have been nice to keep tasting these wines side by side over a few years.

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Flight 2 - Anne Amie tasting room (6 Notes)

beautyfully set up on a hill, where the bell curve hillside road leading up to the winery makes you feel like you're going some place special.

Flight 3 - Bergström tasting room (5 Notes)

then newly built tasting room if I remember correctly - here I focused on the other wines (i.e. not the high end PN for which J Bergström is mostly known).

Flight 4 - Torii Mor tasting room (6 Notes)

very peaceful and zen-like, just as one would imagine an Oregon winery tasting room...

  • 2005 Torii Mor Pinot Gris 80 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/18/2006)

    a lot of acidity which is a nice counterpoint to the peach and pineapple fruit.

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  • 2004 Torii Mor Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

    (4/18/2006)

    black fruit and toasty coffee chocolate - a little bit of heat detracts (15% or more according to my notes) 57% new oak. the finish is nice and syrah-like, fading into some spicy notes.

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  • 2005 Torii Mor Gewürztraminer Late Harvest 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Southern Oregon, Rogue Valley

    (4/18/2006)

    Rogue valley gewurztraminer - quite sweet - with a lot of residual sugar. I prefer my desert wine gwtrmnr a bit on the lighter side, but in this style, it's quite allright

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  • 2004 Torii Mor Pinot Noir Anden Vineyard 95 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills

    (4/18/2006)

    Fantastic wine! All other wines from Torii mor tasting were average and overpriced. This was a shining light. what a wine! Earth and copper and the most fabulously ethereal aromas and bouquet with forest floor and tobacco and at the same time red berries and smoke. Eola Hills jory soil, 14.5 % alcohol which you can't feel - it's that well made - 25 % new oak only.

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  • 2004 Torii Mor Chardonnay 80 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/18/2006)

    toasty and with some straw color and fragrance hazelnuts and vanilla. not my style and not enough acidity nor fruit to balance the oak.

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  • 2003 Torii Mor Pinot Noir Reserve Deux Verres 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/18/2006)

    A bit on the hot side - in general it seems this winery was not very good at controlling alcohol levels - maybe it's different now. This wine is sourced from five different vineyards. A more california style pinot noir with some oak and blueberries and soft sweet taste.

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Flight 5 - Penner-Ash's grand tasting room (4 Notes)

On my own for the afternoon. Stayed a while to contemplate life and wine. Remember that they did not want to open the new viognier since it was only me there.

  • 2005 Penner-Ash Pinot Noir Roséo 80 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/19/2006)

    Dry but still very fruity - this was the first vintage if this wine and it was a decent attempt, although one has to concede that for USD 20, the south of France has a lot to offer that is in a higher league.

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  • 2004 Penner-Ash Rubeo 80 Points

    USA, Oregon

    (4/19/2006)

    A mix of young vine Pinot Noir grapes (65%) and Syrah from Del Rio - soft deep colored and spicy. Not exactly what one would have thought of it and perhaps not so complex, but I guess this is what the table wine burgundy would feel like in a rainy year where they smuggled a bit of rhone syrah into the blend back in the days.

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  • 2004 Penner-Ash Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 90 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/19/2006)

    this was bottled in August, still leaving the wine with quite a bit of alcohol as result of ripeness - 1500 cases made. I have to say that I like this wine very much and that I respect the fact that there is no superclass above it. It is in the class of Hamacher, Thomas, Scott Paul, Patricia Green etc although I remeber the PG estate as more priceworthy and the Thomas and Hamacher as more elegant.

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  • 2003 Penner-Ash Syrah

    USA, Oregon

    (4/19/2006)

    Honestly can't remember what this wine did for me - the notes talk about spice and pepper. 90 % Del Rio syrah and the rest... can't interpret my own notes here fully so I refrain from rating it.

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Flight 6 - Adelsheim tasting room (7 Notes)

Surprisingly the tasting room for this leading Oregon winery looked and felt more like a barn and the two college kids who were pouring tastes knew little if anything about wine. Which is a pity of course. Still a good flight for only USD 5 fee.

Flight 7 - Domaine Serene tasting room (6 Notes)

a bit californian in style - and I am not only talking about the wines...

Flight 8 - Domaine Drouhin winery and tasting room (3 Notes)

only tasted three wines and two were not great - but the third...

  • 2004 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Chardonnay Arthur 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

    (4/17/2006)

    Well made but without the complexity one would hope for - I preferred the two chardonnays at Chehalem on this excursion. Remember I felt this was a bit overpriced compared to what kind of Burgundy one could get for USD 30 in 2006.

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  • 2003 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    (4/17/2006)

    long finish and much more well balanced than many other 2003s. but still not the top performer. If the neighbouring Domaine Serene - which does not compare on the same level as Drouhin - puts most of their efforts into making their mid range Evenstad reserve into a super wine, to the detriment of the higher end single vineyard releases that have little on the ER, Drouhin seems to be truer to the french origins - the Laurene is spectacular while the Pinot Noir is just a very decent and well made mid range Pinot noir.

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  • 2002 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Laurène 95 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

    (4/17/2006)

    Fantastic! Words have nothing to bring to the table when the memory of this wine and the Proustian reverberations that it created still feels as fresh as the memory of the last glass of water I drank today. In my notes, I have only a quote from Wine Spectator: "Burgundian Outpost". Even for the USD 60 they charged then at the winery - if I remember correctly - this was the best qpr of the entire trip. True notes (I was still using multiples of five for private ratings) would probably be closer to a 93-94 but this was so much better than anything else (admittedly mostly 2003s hot as they were) this trip.

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Flight 9 - Lange tasting room (6 Notes)

my favourite at the time

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