Oregon Trip-Day 2 (Here and there, Willamette Valley): Ruby color most of the way out. Leafy, green tea nose. Medium weight. Plenty of remaining mixed dark red and black fruit that is impressive and still has some sweetness. Excellent soil and acidity, but rustic tannins that impart some bitterness to a shorter finish. Very good overall and so interesting to drink this after having the 2001 Drouhin Musigny earlier this evening.
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Double decanted off its sediment and served a couple of hours later. Cherry and spice notes with just a subtle earthy undertone. There's a good bit of spice on the palate but I think the fruit is lacking.
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Dark garnet color with no bricking at all. Cherries and raspberries in the nose. On the palate, concentrated black cherry, raspberries, blackberries, mushrooms, and a little iron. Superb mouth-feel, great balance, and wonderful finish. Still one of my top 5 Oregon Pinots ever.
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My last tasting was more than two years ago, Gary came into town for dinner and so we figured we might try another bottle of the 93. My previous tasting was good, but one surpassed the previous bottle by some margin. Although clearly an old DDO, it somehow worked and proved entirely enjoyable. After an hour, a green, twig, edgy component started to predominate, so the first hour was clearly better. Still, we’re now at 15 years for this wine, where most of the 94 Oregon Pinots fell apart ten years ago. I’ve long stopped buying OR pinots for price and quality reasons, but DDO is still one winery that I’ll pick up a bottle on occasion.
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Gary Roshak came over for dinner on a trip from Seattle. We were combing through the cellar looking for wines to open when I commented how I had too many bottle of DDO and pulled out a 93 Laurene. Gary thought the 93 was one of the best bottles DDO produced. Okay, lets see if that’s true. I’ve had some mediocre experiences with older DDO’s, they age as well as I would have hoped. The 93, however, is a live! Expressive nose of old cherry fruit, zesty green pepper and a clear green vegetal hint. I could have done with the vegetal component, but this DDO drank well. Full in the mouth with a medium length finish. We opened it thirty minutes before serving and it was going strong four hours later when I still cleaning up after dinner. There is still fruit, but the green pepper element predominated the nose. Still, after 13 years, this is clearly not all that bad!!
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We drank two bottles with dinner. The first bottle had some heat exposure issues, wine pushed along the cork, but revealed dried berries, some mild tannins, and licorice. Altogether a pleasant bottle. The second bottle was awesome! Gorgeous bouquet of cherries, raspberries, no tannins, a hint of mint and pepper but a terrific wine but one probably at its prime. The rating above is for the second bottle.
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I wondered if this bottle had past its prime, what a wonderful treat it was, deep rich flavors, the best and last bottle such a pitty, Shared it with Sat and Andrea, too bad Helen was not drinking yet 2 more weeks :-)
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Much better than the last bottle. Big cross-section of cherry flavors. Spicy and floral Pinot on nose. Long finish showing some secondary charm starting to nicely evolve. Sorry to see my last bottle go.
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1/20/2024 - drwine2001 wrote:
Oregon Trip-Day 2 (Here and there, Willamette Valley): Ruby color most of the way out. Leafy, green tea nose. Medium weight. Plenty of remaining mixed dark red and black fruit that is impressive and still has some sweetness. Excellent soil and acidity, but rustic tannins that impart some bitterness to a shorter finish. Very good overall and so interesting to drink this after having the 2001 Drouhin Musigny earlier this evening.
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5/11/2019 - DaneM Likes this wine:
WOW WOW WOW. How is this still so good?? Rich earth, dried fruit, wonderful!
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7/16/2016 - AllRed wrote: 87 Points
Double decanted off its sediment and served a couple of hours later. Cherry and spice notes with just a subtle earthy undertone. There's a good bit of spice on the palate but I think the fruit is lacking.
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9/26/2010 - Rick Allen wrote:
Dark garnet color with no bricking at all. Cherries and raspberries in the nose. On the palate, concentrated black cherry, raspberries, blackberries, mushrooms, and a little iron. Superb mouth-feel, great balance, and wonderful finish. Still one of my top 5 Oregon Pinots ever.
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9/25/2008 - Mark wrote: 91 Points
My last tasting was more than two years ago, Gary came into town for dinner and so we figured we might try another bottle of the 93. My previous tasting was good, but one surpassed the previous bottle by some margin. Although clearly an old DDO, it somehow worked and proved entirely enjoyable. After an hour, a green, twig, edgy component started to predominate, so the first hour was clearly better. Still, we’re now at 15 years for this wine, where most of the 94 Oregon Pinots fell apart ten years ago. I’ve long stopped buying OR pinots for price and quality reasons, but DDO is still one winery that I’ll pick up a bottle on occasion.
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1/30/2006 - Mark wrote: 88 Points
Gary Roshak came over for dinner on a trip from Seattle. We were combing through the cellar looking for wines to open when I commented how I had too many bottle of DDO and pulled out a 93 Laurene. Gary thought the 93 was one of the best bottles DDO produced. Okay, lets see if that’s true. I’ve had some mediocre experiences with older DDO’s, they age as well as I would have hoped. The 93, however, is a live! Expressive nose of old cherry fruit, zesty green pepper and a clear green vegetal hint. I could have done with the vegetal component, but this DDO drank well. Full in the mouth with a medium length finish. We opened it thirty minutes before serving and it was going strong four hours later when I still cleaning up after dinner. There is still fruit, but the green pepper element predominated the nose. Still, after 13 years, this is clearly not all that bad!!
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5/28/2005 - vinolovers wrote: 90 Points
We drank two bottles with dinner. The first bottle had some heat exposure issues, wine pushed along the cork, but revealed dried berries, some mild tannins, and licorice. Altogether a pleasant bottle. The second bottle was awesome! Gorgeous bouquet of cherries, raspberries, no tannins, a hint of mint and pepper but a terrific wine but one probably at its prime. The rating above is for the second bottle.
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3/14/2004 - DhirenF wrote:
I wondered if this bottle had past its prime, what a wonderful treat it was, deep rich flavors, the best and last bottle such a pitty, Shared it with Sat and Andrea, too bad Helen was not drinking yet 2 more weeks :-)
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3/19/2002 - Burgundy Al wrote: 91 Points
Much better than the last bottle. Big cross-section of cherry flavors. Spicy and floral Pinot on nose. Long finish showing some secondary charm starting to nicely evolve. Sorry to see my last bottle go.
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3/4/2002 - Burgundy Al wrote:
Still holding onto fruit but not very nuanced. flavors of red cherry, black cherry and blackberry with just a trace of spice. Moderate length.
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