Northern Willamette Valley

Continuing Ken and my tradition of a day out tasting on the weekend eve of my birthday, we decided to keep it to the fairly close, known wineries, but did explore some new locals. A fun day as usual.

My first trip to their new tasting room, and what a beautiful spot it was. But $15 for three wines? A bit steep, I'd say...

• 2010 Ponzi Vineyards Chardonnay Aurora Vineyard 91 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

  Very nice and fresh aromas. Creamy & lush. Vibrant palate, with exuberance on entry and lots of vibrant fruit. Mellow texture, with tons of creamy lusciousness. Really lovely floral eruption on the finish; some sweet hibiscus flower. Creamy with some butter notes. Nice integration with mellow acidity. Delicious, and just slightly too buttery for the ideal, but this should integrate with a couple years.

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• 2011 Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Noir 86 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  In barrel for 11 months, 30% new. Smells a bit funky; like a bacterial problem. Smells like little bugs swimming in a dirty pond. The palate is pretty light and thin, though soft, offering mellow notes of some red gummy bear flavors, with a tinge of funk. Pretty light flavors. Nice acid on the finish, though again quite mellow. Nice soft fruit and light tartness, with some puckering leanness.

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• 2010 Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Noir Reserve 91 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  40th Anniversary Reserve. This is a barrel selection of the top 50 barrels. Unlike the early Anniversary Reserve's, this actually replaces the standard Reserve bottling this year. Aromas are rich and thick, with nicely integrated oak and spice. The palate is quite lush and creamy. Soft in texture. Elegant, too, though mellow in flavor. Pretty bold red fruits with some light pomegranate seed. Nice tartness and body. Impressive balance on the finish, with a lovely creaminess lingering. Good tartness, too. I could put a straw in this and guzzle it. Really yummy today, but I don't think it has the longevity of some previous Reserves (i.e. I have some 1990 Anniversary Reserves that are still drinking young, and I don't think will be able to achieve that at 20 years).

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I quite like this tasting room, and I love the little odorific pots they have of various smells to test your nose. While we were there they had a group of visiting distributors and restaurateurs from California, getting the tour. I can see why these Californians like these wines, as it seems that's the style they're striving for. Really not my style of wines here...

• 2009 Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Stony Mountain 83 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, McMinnville

  Very heavy and dark aromas. Thick prunes. Thick and crazy... smells like drank. Large bodied. Really really heavy body. I find zero Pinot Noir character on the palate and would fail miserably in a blind tasting of this wine. The wine is spicy and alcoholic on the finish, and burns a bit on the way down. Thick, chunky notions linger.

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• 2010 Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Flight Club Select 86 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

  Soft, mellow aromas, though still dark in complexion. Soft and creamy palate, with mellow fruit and really dark complexion. Still shows some Pinot character (which seems to be the bar here), with some bitterness. Pretty mild finish; dark, but not too much depth or interest.

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• 2011 Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Estate Adolfo's Block 84 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

  Quite mellow aromas. Soft and fairly nondescript. Mellow palate entry showing some tartness. Really, no character on this one. Pretty boring, but not offensive, either.

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• 2011 Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Reserve 86 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  This was 49% estate fruit. Soft and mellow aromas. Some actual intensity on the palate of this one, showing some acidity finally, but still pretty thick and dark fruited. More tartness on the finish, with decent fruit and good lingering acidity, with some grippy tannins.

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• 2011 Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard 86 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

  Smells like crushed runts. Heavy sensation on the aromas. Tarter palate than the other wines, but still very thickly fruited. Decent acid despite the warm vineyard. Tart and puckering acidity... in fact, it seems like the type of acid is out of balance with the character of the fruit... my bet is this was pretty severely acidified in the winery.

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• 2011 Raptor Ridge Tempranillo Folin Vineyard 87 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  I'll be honest, Oregon Tempranillo is often disastrous for me, so considering, this was actually quite good! Smells really deep and grapey; dark in complexion. Pretty soft and mild palate, though and this follow through to the finish that's creamy with decent acidity. Totally quaffable.

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Becoming one of my "go to" spots year after year, this vintage didn't show all that well for me. Though I do believe it needs a few years to come around, like 2007 did.

• 2012 Adelsheim Chardonnay Caitlin's Reserve 88 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  This is a traditional favorite of mine year after year, but this one didn't quite strike the balance with me. The aromas are very lean and soft, clean and crisp. Nice and tart palate, with a clean and lean vision. Huge acid as always, nice and fairly thin in texture though, but it still has the ability to coat the mouth with its creaminess. Nice and puckering acid, but leaner than previous vintages. Nice tart lemon flavors linger.

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• 2010 Adelsheim Pinot Noir Elizabeth's Reserve 88 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

  Tart and lean aromas. Pretty green, and smells of whole cluster (even though it isn't). Pretty exuberant, lean, and nice texture. Very lean though, and it never really builds much character as its held on the palate. The finish dials up the volume of acid a bit, and shows some nice tartness, but again, not the depth this usually exhibits.

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• 2011 Adelsheim Pinot Noir Ribbon Springs 86 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge

  Smells like bug repellent. Soft aromas otherwise. The palate is also quite soft and tart, and pretty lean. Really wish there was more body here. Puckering and lean finish... really not much to this wine this vintage. Likely will open up a bit years down the road.

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• 2011 Adelsheim Pinot Noir Calkins Lane Vineyard 88 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

  Again, one of my historical favorites just not showing all that well today. Pretty lean and light aromas that follow through to the palate. It's nice and very clean and soft in texture, with puckering notes, but there's not much depth. Pretty puckering, lean and tart on the finish.

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• 2011 Adelsheim Pinot Noir Boulder Bluff 90 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

  Better here. This offers soft, pretty aromas. Really nice exuberance on the palate, showing bright red fruits and a lovely textural body. Nice fruit and acid balance on the finish, leaving the mouth puckering. Good structure, and a nice puckering, rocky feeling lingers. Some minerality and tartness.

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• 2011 Adelsheim Pinot Noir Quarter Mile Lane 88 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Chehalem Mountains

  This one's quite a bit more fruit forward and exuberant than the other 2011s in the cellar. The palate is thick, lush, and creamy. Thick and pretty non descriptor finish. A very odd experience... the 2011's at Adelsheim were all quite lean wines, yet this felt like an extraction monster. I suppose it could be site related, but it seems interesting that one of the most expensive wines in the collection is a completely different style than the others in thee vintage.

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An absolutely beautiful tasting room. Wines made from their fruit have been garnering quite high scores by the likes of Wine Spectator, so they've decided to make their own, which should slowly be coming on line in the coming years. Right now they're pouring mostly those others producing wine from their fruit. Honestly nothing here was compelling. The location was absolutely beautiful though, so I'll definitely continue to come back if for nothing else, a nice day on the patio. But I am certainly interested in following the evolution over time.

• 2012 Saffron Fields Vineyard Riesling 83 Points

  USA, Oregon

  Nice and lush aromas, but not much depth. Soft, pretty, and clean palate. Clean finish again, but very lean and boring. One of the most straight forward generic Rieslings. There's nothing off putting about it, but there's really nothing interesting about it either.

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• 2011 Tendril Wine Cellars Pinot Noir 85 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Nice fruit on the nose, which is soft. It smells like Vick's Cough drops, with heavy cherry notes. Pretty, though. More Vick's, and pretty modern in its presentation... tastes like Americana. Soft candied cherry notes. Some tartness on thee finish, which is slightly bitter. Decent acidity, but not really complete, and feels out of balance. Really leaves me feeling unsatisfied. Seems there isn't a complete vision for this wine.

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• 2011 EIEIO Pinot Noir Saffron Fields 83 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Soft aromas, but pretty muted. Still reveals a sense of modernity. Pretty palate initially, but then it just becomes too large and modern. Mellow, with a thick texture and lean on actual flavors despite that massive size. Mellow finish, with acid and tartness, but again the sense of scale is just too large. A very odd wine.

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• 2011 Roots Wine Co. Pinot Noir Saffron Fields 86 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

  Softer than the previous wines, this finally smells more like Pinot. Pretty nice and mellow. Tart palate, which is nice and soft with pleasing fruit. Mellow finish and still fairly non-descript and lean.

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• 2011 Saffron Fields Vineyard Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton 89 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

  Quite modern aromas; thick and heavy. Luckily the palate is a bit nicer, though certainly showing a creamy lushness. Overall, flavors are mellow, with nice integration of fruit and briar, but not too much depth. Cutting acidity on the finish, showing nice tannins lingering. The most complete of the Pinots in the lineup.

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Boredom with note taking kicked in about this point, so I just stopped taking notes. We made another stop at Penner Ash, but that was more for the view than anything else.

• 2011 Lenné Estate Pinot Noir Le Nez 88 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Lovely aromas, showing pretty exuberant red fruits. Cherry, and heavy strawberry. Smells delicious. Nice fruit on the palate too, which is soft and mellow. Good balance. Nice lingering flavors, but not too complex or diverse in its approach. Still, a good drink.

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• 2011 Lenné Estate Pinot Noir Kill Hill 86 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

  Just a quick impression on this one, which showed fairly large fruit on the nose. Thicker fruit on the palate, with some nice lushness and tartness.

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Unfortunately our primary plan for dinner at The Joel Palmer house fell through since we didn't know when we'd be finished, we didn't have a reservation and they were booked up. The Painted Lady should be a good consolation prize, but everything about it was underwhelming. We brought some pretty interesting wines, even if they didn't show their best. We sent very large pours back to the kitchen, and the Somm even came over to thank us, but they still charged us the $35/bottle corkage fee... one of the highest I've ever seen around here. The food was also all quite underwhelming, with fairly bland flavors. Very disappointed, overall.

• 1978 Giacomo Fenocchio Barolo Riserva Bussia

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  No formal notes taken as this was consumed at a restaurant after a long day of tasting. The cork was in amazing shape and extracted perfectly cleanly. While slightly muted, this offered plenty of exuberant structure throughout and actually tasted fairly young. I look forward to exploring a future bottle in more detail, perhaps with some decant.

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