Community Tasting Note

Jack Cranley Likes this wine:

Thursday, July 1, 2021 - Consumed in July of 2021
What a surprising and interesting pour! It comes out transparent and tomato colored. Visually, I would tag this as either a Burgundy or a very cool vintage. Definitely not a new world wine from one of the hottest vintages on record! I'm sitting here wondering, how did they even achieve this color!?

On the nose you start to suspect a little more ripeness, but it is still surprisingly restrained and savory. Strawberry and raspberry fruit dominate, but there's a little something richer brooding underneath. It's sort of expresses itself as vanilla and barrel spice, even though I would not call this an oaky wine by any stretch. As it breathes, it starts to develop a cherry liqueur note and a little bit of milk chocolate, reminding me of chocolate covered cherries!

Further development begins to expose a very enticing earthy undertone. A little steminess and a little dusty, chalky minerality.

First sip and again, I just can't understand how this wine was crafted in an intensely hot vintage. It's lively, fresh, and rather medium-bodied with a mouth-watering acidity on the finish. I might even say I wish there was a little more flavor intensity in the middle, but I'm not complaining because many other wines from the Willamette Valley in the 2014 vintage became a little overdone, and that is certainly not a problem here.

This wine is right where it needs to be, But could also easily go another five to eight years. I'm kind of dreaming of grilled chicken with this wine. It's restrained enough to not overpower the chicken, but it has enough oomph to interplay with the blackened part of a dish like that.

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