Oregon: Young vs. old vine tasting & the consumption of Hank, a Scottish Highland steer
Paul's house
Tasted Saturday, July 13, 2013 by David Paris with 1,520 views
Introduction
This event was spawned out of a Burgundy dinner we did over a year ago. A topic was raised for discussion as to the differences produced with young vines vs. old vines, particularly in Oregon. There were a few Oregon winemakers at the table, one holding the opinion that only old vines can produce profound wines, the other saying that it's possible with young vines. I don't think anyone in attendance disagreed that older vines were preferred, but a statement was made that they are in fact necessary to make top tier, ageworthy wines. While we all had our opinion, the plan behind this dinner was to source both old and young vine bottles of Oregon wine, pour it blind, and then guess whether we thought they were from old or young vines, and also rank them. Chad picked all the wines, so he was the only one who knew what was present. We all just showed up and drank them. The young vine vs. old vine guess, while a fun game to play, wasn't as interesting to me as the reveal, and whether I liked it or not, and thought it agable. Everyone was very eager to see the results. For the "old vine" definition, we targeted 30 years or older.
I guess at the time of this previous Burgundy dinner, my opinion was that old vines are certainly preferred, but not necessary to produce profound, age worthy wines. And it certainly doesn't guarantee it, as there's tons of horrible wine made from old vines. Thinking about it more, there were a couple interesting data points that I remembered... the 1904 Jean Bourdy Chardonnay Côtes du Jura that I had late last year was the first production off of vines grafted over after phylloxera. So, young Chardonnay vines that produced a wine that remained intact for, thus far, 108 years. Another is the 1978 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino, in the classic 1978 vintage, it was the first year that the Cascina Francia vineyard came online, and the first year that the Monfortino was entirely made up of fruit from that vineyard (as it's remained since). So, planted 4 years previous, it produced a wine that is arguably one of the finest examples of Barolo ever made (it is in fact the highest rated Barolo on cellartracker with more than 10 notes, with a 98.4 average). Frankly, I feel this list can go on and on...
In other news, a few years ago, Dag purchased some Scottish Highland cattle, and Dan raised them. One of them was Hank, who I visited a few times. Here's Hank from last year: 
Scottish Highland cattle are generally a leaner meat than most commercial cattle, and Hank was also completely grass fed, without any artificial diet or nasty medications. He was a healthy creature. Approaching this dinner, Hank was approaching slaughtering age. The events coincided and Hank was slaughtered two weeks in advance of this dinner, so our old vine vs. young vine dinner also became a Nose to Tail dinner and a toast to Hank. Here's the "after" photo:
Paul kindly volunteered to be our chef for the evening, and as always provided amazing results. We had an early dinner planned, and all arrived at 2pm, and folks helped Paul with some of the finishing touches.
Hank's Tongue, post 2 hour smoke and blanching: 
Hank's raw cubed heart, being turned into heart tare tare:
The sweetbread station; Steven cuts them up as Paul fries them and Andrew plates and sauces them. These weren't from Hank, but Steven was kind enough to bring 4 pounds of sweetbreads:
With everything plated, it was time to serve the food and begin diving into the white wines. The only dish not already mentioned on this plate is the Liver pate (notice the packaged meat above... Hank must have had like 4 livers):
Flight 1 - 2009 Chardonnay (4 Notes)
This wound up being the most consistent, best line up of Oregon Chardonnay I've had. Every single one of them was wonderful and I think all of them have good futures ahead of them, regardless of any vine age differences.
Flight 2 - 2011 Pinot Gris (2 Notes)
Unfortunately we realized once the tasting began that all of these wines should be considered young vines. It would have been fun to get an Eyrie in here, or something of that sort. Still, a fantastic set of Pinot Gris.
Flight 3 - 2007 Pinot Gris (2 Notes)
Nice to have these, with just a bit more age than most people leave their Oregon Pinot Gris for.
Flight 4 - 2006 Pinot Noir (4 Notes)
For the red wine flights, Paul prepared a Hank stew meat and oxtail burgundy, with oven roasted vegetables, that was truly fantastic: 
More than anything for me, the interesting thing on this flight was the fact that young vine vs old vine didn't make any difference in a reminder of my distaste for this hot vintage. I didn't like it on release and as these wines age I think they're falling apart. This is the kind of vintage that really makes you think that most areas in Oregon may be too hot for Pinot Noir... either that or people just need to stop trying to make Purple Drank. I either need to drink up the 2006s that I have or trade them for leaner stuff.
Anyway, I guess the two older vine wines were my favorite two, but with these kinds of enjoyment that's not saying much.
Flight 5 - 2007 Pinot Noir (5 Notes)
About this time we switched to consuming Florentine porterhouses, Prime Rib, mushrooms, fava beans and a thyme pesto. The prime rib had a fantastic candied outside that was amazing: 
The 2007s were very hard for me to guess young vine vs. old vine. Again, it's often guessing, but I found them all pretty decent, but didn't find any particular traits that would differentiate vine age for me. As it turns out, my top two wines were one old and one young vine. So again, nothing conclusive here. Nice to again see two wines from Maresh in the lineup, but made by different people. It seems to point to there's more at play in the winemaker's hands here than anything inherint in the old vine nature of the fruit, as I wouldn't expect the Et Fille to age nearly as well as the Arterberry Maresh with the same fruit source... nor would I expect the Et Fille to age nearly as long as the Johan.
Flight 6 - 2008 Pinot Noir (4 Notes)
I think with these wines particularly, the whole old vine vs. young vine thing didn't come into play at all. This was a total toss up and I would propose that having these four wines it's virtually impossible to properly detect which is old vs. new vines in a statistically significant way. Regardless of whether that'd hold to be true, for this taster, it really didn't wind up mattering. The best, most age worthy wine was young vines. The second best was old vines. The worst wine was old vines. So what?
Closing
With the wine activities out of the way and all the wines revealed, what conclusions can be drawn? Was this an interesting tasting? I certainly had my opinion going into this event as I stated, and I'd say that if anything, this tasting only reiterated that opinion. Basically, there's a lot at play in making wine. We saw today that two wine makers making wine from the same vineyard can produce totally different wines. One perhaps being a long term ager, and the other acting like it's more for short term consumption. We saw a wine that I think will age the longest made from vines that are some of the youngest. A lot can be said for old vines... but to the question, does having young wines preclude you from the possibility of producing profound, age worthy wines? Well, Giacomo Conterno aside, I think that even here in Oregon the answer is a very firm no. In all cases, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir, there's a lot more at play... site, wine making style... I think these types of things have more to do with the resultant wine than the age of the vines. Consider the Eyrie wines from the 1970s. Those were produced from "young" vines.. they were under 20 years old at the time, and in recent South Block tastings, people have found them truly profound and perfectly in tact. For me, the most important things are site (weather), soil, and wine making... vine age is probably lower on my value system than any of those three.
The complete lineup:
To close things out, marrow bones, cooked in the wood oven:
For which a variety of bone luges ensued:
2009 St. Innocent Chardonnay Dijon Clone Freedom Hill Vineyard 91 Points
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
This had fairly quiet aromas, but on close inspection I appreciated an underlying soft exuberance, showing nice lemon notes. The palate texture was nice, and flavors are slightly buttery. Tart and lean palate expression, with nice acid building. Good wollop of clean acid on the finish, with lots of intensity. This is pretty lean, but has a wonderful lingering intensity that stays and evolves over 30 seconds. Very nice and pretty effort.
My guess was young vines, and my reasons were because it had a lighter aroma, with leaner profile than some of the others. Plated in 1982, this is kind of in between, but for our previous definition, that puts it in "young" vines territory (27 years) when it was produced. This was my 2nd favorite of the flight.
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2009 Johan Vineyards Chardonnay Reserve 91 Points
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
This wine just smells more mature than the wine poured along side it. Like an adult, in comparison. Aromas are much deeper, thicker, and more evolved. The palate texture is awesome. Soft, pretty mellow, but without some of the vibrant intensity of wine number 1. Good tartness on the palate, with a soft creamy mouthfeel. Wow, what an explosion of acidity on the finish, with fantastic volume and intensity. Really bright at the end, and those creamy flavors stay with me a while. Just love the intensity and loudness of the finish here, which also evolves over time. Great having this poured along side the first wine as they offer quite different approaches to a high acid attack, but similar enjoyment in the end.
My guess was old vines based upon the "grown up" flavors on the nose, whatever the hell that means. Again, we're guessing here. Upon reveal I was shocked I didn't get this one, because I know this wine well. I should have looked at the color closer, as this is a pretty cloudy wine. Anyway, obviously young vines, under 10 years old. I've always thought this to be one of the better Chardonnay's in the valley.
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2009 Arterberry Maresh Chardonnay Maresh Vineyard 91 Points
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills
Sweet aromas, but overall it's pretty mellow, showing some lemon aroma. Soft and creamy smelling. The palate is creamy in texture, very soft, and not too much intensity, but amazing texture and really fantastic balance. That was the most impressive piece of this wine... the texture and integration on the palate was fantastic, despite the more mellow approach. Huge eruption of acidity on the finish, with incredible length. Really lovely, and the acid on the finish gets quite punishing after some time (in the best possible way), yet it still offers a nice creaminess.
My guess was young vines, but that was a stupid guess. This is from own-rooted Chardonnay plantings from 1974 and 1983. Who knows if this is true, but I could see how that "maturity" and depth of texture and integration on the palate could be the result of the older vines. However, I found this wine most similar in the flight to the Johan wine. This is good stuff, and my (and pretty much everyone's) favorite of the flight. 91+
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2009 Crowley Chardonnay Maresh Vineyard 90 Points
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills
This was the oakiest of the bunch, and I didn't find that oak wholly integrated (though it wasn't bad). It also offered the most golden color of the bunch. Flavors on the palate are fairly mute; things are much softer and more mellow than any other wine in the line up, with only some mild acid coming in as its held on the tongue, but it does build strongly. Huge volume of scale on the finish that I really like. Overall, this was the most mellow wine of the flight.
My guess was old vines, and for once I was right. Very interesting to see the style of this vs the Arterberry Maresh... so fruit from the same vineyard, but here the wine shows itself quite differently. It was my least favorite of the flight. That said, this was an excellent flight of Chardonnay, and I still quite like this wine.
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