My notes on the Single Block:
Very light Pinot. Red berry notes (strawberry/raspberry), a little smokey and light earthiness. Good acidity, low alcohol. Ok finish. Good solid Oregon Pinot.
Not over the top fruity and heavy like many CA Pinots, but not quite as light and earthy-forest floor-barnyard as Burgundy.
Ok, here we go. I may need to get this even though I swore to not buy any wine for a while. I’d be up for a split on this one also.
Had the chance to taste this one last month as well, and here are my notes:
At first smell it screamed Oregon Pinot to me. Earthy, mushroomy, and not a lot of fruit on the nose. This is one of those few wines that I’ve wanted to characterize as having a bit of dirty diaper aroma going on, but in a good way. The taste was zippy with great acid. Bright raspberries and sour cherry. Mushroom reappeared here and I found it almost meaty. I even wrote “delicious”.
I had the remaining bit of the bottle a few days later. I’d just recorked it and kept it in a moderate temperature zone (not the fridge). I thought it retained almost all the elements of its first night performance, strangely enough. I’d expected more evolution than that. One thing is for sure, though, this is on the heavier side of Pinot Noir.
Note: I didn’t jot down whether this was the Single Block or regular, but I suspect it’s the latter. Hopefully somebody else who was there that night can clarify that part.
Note^2: We had another Pinot to compare this with that night, from the Santa Cruz Mtns. The SC had way more fruit, but to me had less structure and acidity. Both were delicious, but I preferred the OR while most others present preferred the SC.
This is interesting, I was one that felt that this one was way to fruity and jammy almost like it had syrah blended in so I liked the SC pinot better. But now that I think about it I had this wine right after drinking a glass or two of fairly dry champagne. Maybe I did not give this one a fair taste. I would do a split if anyone wants.
I am pretty finicky when it comes to my Pinot . . . to a myopic fault. I tend to stick with Napa/Sonoma as the climate is assuringly temperate. Oregon’s climate is much much more labile in temperature and wetness, thus, securing an optimal Pinot can be tricky. Might someone more experienced give me a nutshell opinion on Oregon Pinot (circa 2007)? Thank you! The price seems quite tempting on these . . .
Mmmmmmmm… It’s between this or the Plush on the wp offering, as I do need to restock some Pinot. Decisions, decisions. What kind of MONSTER would give us so many PN choices at once WD?!?
I can’t speak to this Pinot specifically, but I personally have loved most of the 07 willamette valley pinots I’ve had, to the point that it will be either a sell out or pure economics (spent wayyyy too much on wine in 2012) that stops me from buying this.
As for the plush vs this question, that’s a toughie. The plush is excellent, and I haven’t had this, so I’d probably get this solely based on that, but I would comfortably say that either is a good buy, especially at the price point.
EDIT TO ADD: I will say that we drink a lot of this stuff up here, so the fact that there are no oregon sales at this time, while not THAT telling since it’s night of, makes me lean towards the plush in that argument. That said, tomorrow will be a better judge. If oregon goes dark maroon, buy it in a heartbeat.
I can tell you that the “conventional wisdom” is that 2007 is not a particularly strong year for Oregon PN. Now, there are boatloads of exception to that thinking, and I have had some truly exceptional bottles. But if you were forced to blindly choose between 2007 and say 2008 or 2010, you’d want the latter two every time.
I know nothing about this bottle, but if other people are vouching for it you should consider trying it. I actually far prefer the mushroom+raspberry+earth thing that you see in so much Oregon wine than the extracted FRUIT FRUIT FRUIT thing that you see in so much Sonoma wine. (Which I also like a great deal.)
But yea, Oregon is where it’s at, as far as I’m concerned.
This is one where i’d love some pH and TA information. Klezman, how was the acidity in your tasting? I see the alcohol is a very respectable 13.5% which bodes well for a balanced rather than big style!
Well said dah7m! Horses for courses. If you like big, opulent Pinots, then stay with California ones, but if you want some zing and Burgundy, you’ll do a lot better with Oregon. Of course, there are some great CA exceptions, but that’s for other parts of this message board!
Even though it’s “not a great year”. That’s pretty relative, but Oregon is more likely for Old-world PN lovers! Not had this, but the Expression in the woot plus are good 2007s, as was Torii Mor. I’d say 07 was a more austere year, rather than bad, as both Oregon PNs I’ve ever had were (wooted) 2007s, and both pretty damn good, when allowed to open up! though maybe this varies a lot around the state, as I’m not an Oregon authority at ALL!
Great acid, not a ton of fruit. Given your Burgundy preferences I think this is in your wheelhouse.
Ron or tyger, I’m in. I should be the purchaser at this point, though, but if tyger can’t and there’s still splitting happening then I can suck it up. Or perhaps Ron gets 2 sets and we split 4 ways: Ron, tyger, Richard, me?