Although I made this trip down to Willamette Valley Vineyards about a month ago for a wine steward meeting, it's still worthy of sharing three weeks later. Here are some highlights from the trip:
1) Blending seminar
We had a pinot noir blending seminar which was really interesting. We had three different pinot clones (115, 667, 777 and pommard) set out in front of us. We went through each one separately, noting their different characteristics and then made out own blend, which we then compared to the winemakers blend. He won.
2) Cellar tour
Foris, the head winemaker at WVV, gave us a tour through the wine making facility himself, which was a nice treat. He was a real down to earth guy and readily answered any questions our group had. The cellar was jam-packed with barrels and barrels of wine. We got to barrel taste two different wines, the first being their estate pinot. I thought it was showing quite nicely. I'm sure it could and will develop further but it was pretty tasty right then and there. The other little treat we got was tasting their pinot noir port. Being a pretty big fan of port I was excited about this. It's not too often I experiment with non Portugese ports. However, I was pleased with this one. No spitting on that one.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Panther Creek Pinot Noir 2006
Just brought this home tonight. The new 2006 vintage hit the shelves just last week. I was interested for two reasons:
1) the 2005 was bottled kinda green (i.e. bottled/released a bit too young) and wanted to see if it was the same story
2) it was on a really good sale
First off you can tell it's an '06. The alcohol is up from 13.5 to 14.5 and it's drinking a little hot. 2006 is showing itself as a pretty ripe year. Look to see 2006 Oregon pinots to be more on the fruity/juicy side than perhaps elegant and restrained.
The nose is showing some good raspberry fruit with a little of that alcohol that I mentioned. Light to medium bodied with a decently juicy midpalate. A tiny hint of spice and a medium length finish round it out. I'll give it an 88 points. I've had better, I've had worse.
Also, I just had some of this with milk chocolate and fresh strawberries. Wow, delicious. Makes the wine all that much more enjoyable. One of those pairings that makes the wine and the food both better. Yummy
1) the 2005 was bottled kinda green (i.e. bottled/released a bit too young) and wanted to see if it was the same story
2) it was on a really good sale
First off you can tell it's an '06. The alcohol is up from 13.5 to 14.5 and it's drinking a little hot. 2006 is showing itself as a pretty ripe year. Look to see 2006 Oregon pinots to be more on the fruity/juicy side than perhaps elegant and restrained.
The nose is showing some good raspberry fruit with a little of that alcohol that I mentioned. Light to medium bodied with a decently juicy midpalate. A tiny hint of spice and a medium length finish round it out. I'll give it an 88 points. I've had better, I've had worse.
Also, I just had some of this with milk chocolate and fresh strawberries. Wow, delicious. Makes the wine all that much more enjoyable. One of those pairings that makes the wine and the food both better. Yummy
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