Some Oregon Pinots and 2005 Barolo

Random gathering at my house tasting some recent acquisitions and random cellar rats followed by a killer taste test of young old-world style barolo...........

2004 Left Coast Cellars Pinot Noir Suzanne's Estate Reserve: bottle is waxed closed. Cork is pristine. Pinot was macerated, slightly maderized, acetone. bright fruit. a disappointment 79 pts

2004 Williamette Valley Vineyards Barrel Select Pinot Noir: Tired, dusty nose. Mild cran-raspberry gelatin. Midpalate is hollow, hot, and thin bright red fruits without significant acidity, moderately tannic and what aciditiy is disjointed in balance The finish is stewed dark red fruit. 82 pts

2005 Domaine Drouhin Laurene: beautiful barnyard funk. Forest floor, nice acidity," Oregon funk ". Bright, light-weight nimble fruit. Awesome. Did not evolve with time tonight ( > 5 hrs) - weird. A 1995 was amazing and one could write paragraphs on it. This wine was very linear, but beautiful. My palate fatigued with this over time tonight. This will last awhile > 5-10 yrs. WOTN. 92+ pts.

2006 Domaine Drouhin Louise: Decanted for 2 hours. in a dumb, disjointed phase. Searing, racy acidity all over the place with brittle and at times sharp tannin not in balance. Nose was at times zero, versus mild dusty muted cherry. Coating tannin. Alcohol was dominant (14.1%). Not a typical extracted 06 Oregon pinot (a hot year), but this wine needs serious time...I think. Not a great QPR considering this is DDO's top end. 88pts

2006 Domaine Serene Winery Hill: showing some age in the flavor profile, however no bricking or browning of meniscus. Dusty milk chocolate, alcohol, meaty, smokey, rich red fruit on the nose. The mid palate is soft, candied, silky (classic serene tannin structure) + dusty chocolate tannin, and a 30 second finish that leaves, sugared red fruit (I dont know which), dusty caramel + chocolate + red fruit on finish. 91pts

2005 Cavallotto Barolo Bricco Boschis. Decanted 4.5 hours. Outstanding. Classic barolo nose of cooked cherry, saddle leather, iodine; mouth-coating tannin; sour cherry, limeade, leather, subtle cigar box, and more tannin. Surprisingly approachable now, but I am going to hide my case in the back of cellar for 5 years. This was the true WOTN. 93+.

2005 Virna Preda Sarmassa Barolo (FLAWED): opened initially to plastic, urethane nose with muted fruit. 5 days later and urethane is less but bottle still flawed.

A good random tasting.

The bottom line is the DDO Louise needs a long time and is not a typical 2006 Oregon Pinot. The 2005 DDO Laurene is really nice now bursting with funk and will only mature beautifully like a dry-aging process. The 2006 Serene winery hill has the tannin characteristics that typify Serene pinot: silky appropriate, subtle, caressing, milk chocolate. This is a nice wine that is not representative of the typical extracted, hot, fruit forward 2006 Oregon pinot vintage. I don't think this will benefit with age.

Buy the 2005 Cavallotto Barolo Bricco Boschis. hide 6 and drink the other 6 over the next 6 years. This wine is outstanding and a great value.