Library Magnum Party

Willamette Valley Vineyards Winery
Tasted Sunday, November 16, 2008 by RPerro with 642 views

Introduction

A special Oregon Wine Guild (the WVV wine club) event, offering magnum-sized bottles from the library for special prices. Over 130 magnums of various wines were available for sale, from vintages back into the late 1990's through 2005. Willamette Valley Vineyards also owns Tualatin Estate Vineyards an Griffin Creek in Southern Oregon, and they were represented here as well.

Flight 1 - Willamette Valley Vineyards, Tualatin Estate Vineyards and Griffin Creek Whites (1 Note)

I missed out on the 750ml WVV regular riesling, and magnums of TEV chardonnay and GC viognier.

  • 2007 Willamette Valley Vineyards Dry Riesling 84 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    Quite a bit drier than the regular bottling, this had just a touch of sweetness, reminding me more of a Viognier than a Riesling. It was good, but I prefer just a touch more sweetness. Floral, with pineapple and honeydew melon flavors, but they seemed muted somehow, without the sweetness to accompany them.

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Flight 2 - Willamette Valley Vineyards New Release Pinot Noirs (4 Notes)

A variety of 750ml clonal pinots from the estate vineyards.

Flight 3 - Griffin Creek Reds (2 Notes)

Magnums! Wish there had been more to taste...

  • 2000 Griffin Creek Merlot 90 Points

    USA, Oregon, Southern Oregon, Rogue Valley

    Tasted from Magnum. I actually had two tastes of this, and I'm basing my review on the second taste, as my first one was nothing but sediment. I swear, the next time I see someone turn a bottle of 8 year-old red wine completely upside down to pour every last drop into someone's glass, I'm going to smack them. Learn to pour properly! Sorry for the rant...The wine was pleasant, and easy to quaff. Smooth, and decently integrated. Starting to show some of its age, however, with the tasty blackberry fruit dropping off into a very short finish, and the acidity tending to show through a bit too much.

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  • 2001 Griffin Creek Griffin 93 Points

    USA, Oregon, Southern Oregon, Rogue Valley

    Tasted from magnum. Cool looking bottle/label. Very low-key. Extremely nice nose, with berries, violets, and some earth/minerality that all comes together on the palate. This was a joy to drink, and attempts at securing another pour were deflected. Major bummer. I guess at $65 per 750ml bottle (the magnums were "on sale" for $112.50), the winery wanted to control how much they poured pretty closely. A great wine, though a very poor QPR. If this was down in the $40-$50 range (where it should be), I would have jumped on several bottles. When leaving the tasting, I did notice that most of the 131 original magnum bottles available for sale had been sold. The remaining bottles? The Griffin Creek "Griffin" and Viognier. Surprised I was not.

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Closing

The event was a touch underwhelming. We expected more tastings of the vintage wine (I'm not buying a magnum of a library wine unless I've tasted it first), and more/better food. As it was, the cheese & cracker trays were okay, but we all left there wanting lunch. I guess for $10, what do you expect?

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