2015 Colene Clemens Pinot Noir Dopp Creek

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Prized Pinot, 12/21/2018

  (Colene Clemens Pinot Noir Dopp Creek) Hello friends. Today we have the penultimate offer in our year-ending Instant Gratification series (tomorrow is the finale, then we’ll give your inboxes a rest until Jan 5). These all contain wines that are in the warehouse and ready for immediate pickup post-allocation (allocations will take place tomorrow at 10am). We have just two more pickup days in 2018 (today and tomorrow), then our usual two-week holiday closure. Our first open pickup weekend in 2019 will be Jan 10-12. When Wine Spectator revealed its Top 100 list a few weeks ago, many observers were surprised to see Colene Clemens 2015 Dopp Creek Pinot awarded the highest spot of any northwest wine in 2018: #7. Were we surprised? Come on. Long time list members know that I have a finely-tuned crystal ball for predicting Spectator’s Top 100, and I placed a big bet when the original review for Dopp was released a few months ago. We snagged as large a parcel as Clemens’ Washington reps would allow for, squirreled it away, and waited patiently. And now that bet has paid off, in the form of a terrific holiday opportunity for our list members: to access an otherwise sold out, highly sought-after wine, for personal consumption or gift purposes.Wine Spectator: Copyrighted material withheld. I always love when a Spectator tasting note ends with “tasted twice, with consistent notes.” Which translates into: “holy [expletive], I cannot believe a wine that costs this much tastes this good.” More context: Tim Fish reviewed 520 Oregon Pinot Noirs for Spectator in 2018. Only six earned higher marks than 95pts (all 96s and 97s); four were not-for-sale library wines from the 2008 vintage and the other two cost $110 and $150. So yeah. Add that all up, and a high placement on the Top 100 list was not entirely surprising. I’d encourage you to check out the video on Spectator’s award page for this wine, which features Tim Fish telling some of the story behind the winery and getting fairly effusive (or at least as effusive as a Spectator reviewer gets) about the quality-for-price on offer here. I’d also encourage you to check out the previous Colene Clemens offers in our archive, which delve into a little more detail about the winery’s history and its connection with Beaux Freres. And I think I’ll stop there. The hour is late; the parcel is modest; and the list members are thirsty.