March 15, 2015 - Leather and peat on the nose. Raspberry, plum and boisonberry.
June 29, 2014 - Good pinot, but flabby. Soft fruit. Not much tannin. Maybe past its prime?
October 28, 2012 - So candy like that the earthy notes are lost in waves of super ripe cherries and strawberries. Later in the evening it fell apart succumbing to sugar and the brutal heat of the alcohol. Not my style at all.
March 29, 2010 - Novoino's 4th annual portfolio tasting (Park Hyatt Hotel, Chicago IL): nose: lighter nose with very good tones of dark red fruits, bits of herbs, red cherries and some berry tones. Nice depth with a very attractive style
taste: very pretty medium body with medium+ acidity and demure tones of dark red fruits, herbs, red cherries, berries and a touch of red florals. Well balanced with the acidity being more on the crisp side
overall: this is a pretty young pinot. Well balanced and aromatic. It is on the lighter side, but it holds it well
February 13, 2010 - An Offer of Awesome Burgundy Inspires A Day of Tasting In the Willamette Valley (Willamette Valley): Light cherries show up on the nose. Simple cherry flavors appear on the palate along with some nice acid. The wine is clean across the palate. 87+
February 13, 2010 - A day tasting in the Willamette Valley with the usual suspects (Oregon): Very soft nose on this one, raspberries, something oceanic. The palate has nice red fruit early turning slightly sour leading into the finish with some sharp acids. Really soft tannins. This has a great mid-palate, but is lacking balance everywhere else. A nice wine but pretty standard feeling.
February 13, 2010 - Lucien Le Moine at Scott Paul, and other WV because we're there (Carlton, OR): Some oak, and nice fruit on the palate... very nice, big fruit on the palate, but it's generic... this kind of fruit continues on the finish. An okay wine, but nothing sets it out from the masses.
January 17, 2010 - First tasted at the winery in Nov 09, and it was a mineral cocktail with a tiny bit of fruit. The vinyard is hard scrabble poor soil at the very end of the Chehelem ridge with a south slope exposure. So the vines work very hard. I liked it even better when I tasted in 1/16/10 also at the winery. It had become less dominated by the minerals with the fruit just beginnning to show through in the length. The winemaker commented that the late rains had not bothered the vines because of the nature of the location. A very interesting wine with a distinctive character.
February 16, 2009 - Hard to believe it's an '07 Oregon. Tastes like '06.
November 28, 2008 - Thanksgiving Wine Tasting (Carlton, OR): Seemed quite young and disjointed. Not very integrated yet...I liked the 2006 much better! Fruit was muted, earth was prominent. Tannins light, but present. Give this one another 6 months to a year in the bottle for it to shine.