Willamette Valley, various wineries
Tasted Monday, April 17, 2006 - Friday, April 21, 2006 by Omar Khayyam with 741 views
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.
First stop out of Portland - very warm welcome with visit to the cellar and some barrel tasting. Quite interesting actually.
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.
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).
very peaceful and zen-like, just as one would imagine an Oregon winery tasting room...
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.
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.
a bit californian in style - and I am not only talking about the wines...
only tasted three wines and two were not great - but the third...
my favourite at the time
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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