Cellar report: 2002 Evesham Wood "Cuvée J" Pinot Noir

Timing is everything. Sometime you're a little late. Other times you are dead on perfect. Then there are times you wish you hadn't been in such a rush, because the realization smacks you between the eyes...or in this case the palate.. that if you had waited just a little longer, say four years or so, the rewards would have been so much sweeter. Such was the case of the bottle of 2002 Evesham Wood "Cuvée J" Pinot Noir I opened a few weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad by any stretch, in fact it was incredible, but I knew, as soon as I took that first sip, that true sublime satisfaction lay somewhere in the future.

Here's some quick facts: #1)- 2002 was a great vintage for Oregon pinot noir. Classic. Stellar. The best wines will easily last ten+ years; #2- Evesham Wood is one of the premier producers of Oregon pinot, and former Owner Russ Raney's pinots always need time to show their best, especially in a vintage like 2002; #3)- what the fuck was I thinking taking this to dinner when I knew it was still on the upswing?? I think it was ego that got the better of me this time (again).

What occasioned this was w and I were invited by my sister and bro-in-law to have dinner at Beaker & Flask with her and her friend and super forager-locavore Hank Shaw, who was in town on his book tour, and Hank's huntress girlfriend Holly Heyser (Hank is this dude who is really a great guy, and also someone who will never, ever, go hungry. He just did a tweet about wandering around his hotel block in whatever town he was staying in talking about all the edible plants he saw. Plus Holly was pretty bad ass, too, as she whipped out her freaking hunting knife at the restaurant table we were sharing to show how she could trim a piece of meat off the bone. Two...well, three...things immediately popped into my mind: I wish I was sitting across the table from her instead of six inches away, and please god don't let me say the wrong thing and piss this woman off, because I was pretty sure she could kill me in any number of ways with any number of implements that she probably had on here right now). Anyway, back at home before leaving for dinner I thought "I'll show him some locavoracious drinking" and went foraging in my basement for some Oregon grape based pleasure. I'd been holding this bottle of EW "J" for years, and even as I was carrying it up the stairs and out to the car I was thinking to myself, "are you sure you want to do this?" I had plenty of other choices, but as usual ignored my better judgement. The bottom line on this wonderful wine was that it was super pretty, with Raney's tell-tale cherries, plums and spice. There are "Cuvée J"'s earthy notes, and delicate floral scents in abundance on the nose and the palate. Russ was so, so freakishly good at his craft. Instead of oak and over-ripeness, he just let his pinot do what it lives to do, which is express it's pretty, feminine side. Really fabulous pinot noir here, as good as it gets in Oregon. But the tannins were still a little tight, and the acidity vibrantly fresh meaning it had years to go. Still, it was an awesome bottle. Fruit, texture, and especially this lingering finish that was just.....wow! Still (and here I insert a pathetic "poor me" moment after having this actually quite wonderful wine experience), I can't help but think what might have been........

Cellar report: 2002 St. Innocent "Shea Vineyard" Pinot Noir

Given my usual thirst, a half bottle of pinot noir shared would barely put a dent in my pleasure center. But when it's a half bottle from Oregon winemaker Mark Vlossak and it's from arguably the finest pinot noir vineyard in Oregon, then for once less is more. I've had these half bottles down in the basement for years, and every time I pull one out I am constantly amazed at how youthful they are. St. Innocent has a reputation for producing some of Oregon's most age-worthy pinots, a rep that I can wholeheartedly vouch for. With way too many Oregon producers making pinots that speak more to the availability of discretionary income on the winery owners part (i.e.- forests of new oak), Mark has always, to borrow some '70s vernacular, just kept on keeping on. Pure, perfectly ripe fruit, a very judicious layer of oak, acids and tannins that are always in balance. This St. Innocent '02 "Shea Vineyard" was right out of the bottle practically screaming "I'm from OREGON, dammit!" It has the classic strawberry, plum, and spice aromas and flavors. With the passing of eight years, this bottle is really starting to show some secondary development. The fruit is all there, but hits of earthiness and darker cherry notes are coming through, making something that started out in its youth so good, so much better. The mouthfeel is full and rich, the finish is long and lush, the smile on my face is wide and true. Even in the 375ml format, I suspect that this beauty will continue to provide pleasure for the next 5-8 years, maybe longer. I'm all about the wine LTR, so I'll let you know how we get along, okay?

Cellar Report: 1999 Produttori "Rabaja" Barbaresco; 2003 Patricia Green Pinot Noir

Two recent drinking excursions are all the proof I need (as if after all this time I needed ANY) that wine with time well spent in my basement is one of my life's great rewards.....
1999 PRODUTTORI DEL BARBARESCO Barbaresco "Rabaja" 1.5ltr
Drinking this was like being a homerun hitter and having the pitcher groove one right down the middle of the plate. Can you say "sweet spot"? My long held belief is that most great Barbaresco and Barolo, the two noble wines of Italy's Piedmont region and surely the reason the nebbiolo grape was "invented", start showing their stuff...really showing it...at about 10 years of age. Assuming a good vintage of course, and '99 was very, very good. Oh, and a good producer as well, of which the Produttori del Barbaresco is undoubtedly one of the world's great wine houses. I took this big bottle of deliciousness to dinner out with the VINO gang recently and from the first sniff to the last slurp it was glorious. The Rabaja is one of nine single vineyard "Riserva" bottlings the Produttori does in the very best vintages. Young, the 1999s really didn't show much of themselves, all closed up on the nose and tannic with that hard body that only softens up over time (an uncomfortable allusion to my own self, I realize...*sigh*). Anyway, back to this bottle. First off, there isn't anything much better, wine-wise, than popping the cork on the large format bottle. Just lugging it into the restaurant, you know good times are ahead! After pouring it around, the nose throughout dinner just kept opening and revealing more and more nuance. Sure, all the classic Piedmontese earth and cherry fruit was there, but also creeping in and out of the picture were rose petals, wisps of smoke, road tar (which in this case is a good thing), and ripe plums. On the palate the fruit was velvety smooth, melding with those hard tannins over time to become something pretty profound. The same aromas were echoed on the palate, with cherries and spice more in abundance. It had a pitch perfect acid balance, which is one of the reasons this was so good after ten years. It's acid that holds everything together in a wine, and a reason I fear for so many of the new world fruit bombs that are all blowsy alcohol and high extraction that sacrifices that acidity. This was simply an impeccable wine, drinking at its apogee, that enhanced each bite of food. Wow, if only it was like this every time!
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2003 PATRICIA GREEN CELLARS
Pinot Noir "Dollar Bills Only"
Patty Green, along with her winemaking partner Jim Anderson, are two of the nicest, and most talented people going in the Oregon wine business. They make incredible single vineyard pinot noir under their Patricia Green Cellars label, and a few years ago started selling this "Dollar Bills Only" bottling as a way to access a new, and more value conscious consuming public. I think this '03 on release was selling for $13-$15 a pop, which for better or worse in the Oregon wine world is a stellar price. 2003 was a searingly hot vintage, where whether you liked it or not as a winemaker you were going to be dealing with very ripe fruit and unheard of sugar levels (which translates into high alcohol) for pinot noir. There were a slew of out of balance wines released that were all fruit and not much else. Winemaking chops were of paramount importance and not many are better than Patty & Jim. The DBO was released as more of drink now pinot, but I managed to cache a few bottles away. This was my last bottle of the 2003, and I pulled it out the other night with not too many hopes for anything interesting. But man, did this surprise! There wasn't much if any tannin left, and just a hint of acidity, but the fruit was absolutely luscious. Darkly colored, with mouthcoating purple plums and ripe, sugary strawberries, with a bit of earth and light pepper sprinkled on top. A long, lush, almost decadent finish completed this very happy picture. This was wine that was just out for a good time. It only serves to remind that I don't need...or want...a Nobel prize laureate every time I pull a wine from the basement!

Cellar report: 2002 Chateau de Chorey...aka "Real pinot noir"

Today's first economics lesson: Good Product + Good Price = Happy Customers

I'm thinking about this because last night I was swilling down this awesome 2002 Chateau de Chorey les Beaune. A French pinot noir, this is everything domestic pinots wish they could be at a lower price than way too many of them. The economics lesson comes to mind because I have a wine shop in the heart of Oregon wine country, where over-inflated pinot noir pricing is seemingly a rite of passage. Now there are some guys, actually a lot of producers, who seem to keep their egos in check and offer their customers good value for every dollar spent...Cameron, St. Innocent, Westrey, J. Christopher, Patricia Green and many others. Then there are those who seem to have insatiable egos that are only fed by emptying their victims...er, customers wallets as fast as they can with their one dimensional, over-ripe, over-oaked wines....Archery Summit, Beaux Freres, Domaine Serene, Bergstrom come to mind. There are a couple of Oregon wineries who actually charge $100+ a bottle for their wine. To which I can only reply "Are you fucking kidding me??!"

Today's second economics lesson: If you pay more than $50 a bottle for Oregon pinot noir you are a sucker. If you do it more than once you're an idiot.

I always think of this when I drink yet another satisfying bottle of French Burgundy like the Chateau de Chorey. Now this is a around a $38 retail bottle, not cheap, but it delivers more pleasure than ANY comparably priced domestic noir. 2002 was an underappreciated red burgundy vintage, and the wines are just now creeping out from under their youthful shells. This is a classic case in point. Still tight when the cork gets popped, as it opened up blueberries, spice, fresh flowers and that Burgundian earth came cascading out of the glass. On the palate the longer it sat open, the more "weight" it put on, filling out in the mouth with each passing minute. Beautifully rich, pure fruit. Smooth, elegant, perfect acid balance, with tons of complexity and years of life ahead of it. Plus it was so freakishly good with my grilled lamb chops. The other sad fact of American winemaking is that domestic grape juice will never have the exquisite food affinity the Euros seem to do as a matter of course. Don't think I don't like Oregon pinot. I do...a lot. I also don't expect Oregon pinot to be like Burgundy and get the differences, but when I have something like this I realize how good life can really be.............
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one year ago today @ E.D.T.: do you know what white people really like?

Cellar report: 2003 Cameron Pinot Noir; 1998 San Vincenti Chianti

Sometimes when I pull a bottle of wine up from the basement I find it amazing I got to here from where I started. I mean there was time, back when I drank more for effect than for pleasure (not that old habits don't occasionally creep back!) that I would buy Taylor's California Cellars Chablis in the 1.5 liter bottle because I thought that since it had "fancy" script writing on the label and it was a "chablis" that I was pretty sophisticated way to get loaded or impress whatever random date I had back then...or both at the same time. I think the last time I partook of the TCC was with a friend when we were going to the drag races here in PDX back in the early '80s (and believe me, the picture of me at a drag race is pretty incongruous since that is not exactly my normal milieu. Although using a words like "milieu" and "drag race" in the same sentence is pretty incongruous, too.) and since we forgot glasses we were drinking it right out of the bottle. Not exactly connoisseurs, but it had the desired effect!

Those memories are still with me, and I think it is part of the reason that while I love good wine and have amore than healthy quantity laying in wait downstairs, I try to keep it all in perspective. And two of bottles I've had recently certainly improved my perspective. As a starting point, let me say that I love Tuscan sangiovese. There is nothing like (in its good versions) its dusty cherry fruit, earthiness, and how it just screams of where it comes from. What they call terroir. I don't carry any domestic sangiovese at the wine shack. What's the point? They will NEVER be as good, have nowhere near the food affinity, and oh-by-the-way cost two to three times as much. This 1998 from San Vincenti was Tuscan loveliness. In my experience regular Chianti Classicos (as opposed to Reservas) from good vintages/producers really hit their stride at about ten years of age. This one was surprisingly young, really taking time to open up, even after decanting. But it had all the requisite cherry, blackberry, and dust that I like with perfect acidity. It would easily last another five years, but the other night it was exactly right with Marcella's spaghetti alla carbonara!

Then to move as far across the wine dial from Chianti as possible you have the profoundly pleasurable pinot noir from Oregon's Cameron Winery. Idiosyncratic winemaker John Paul is the Willamette Valley's version of a reclusive Burgundian squirreled away in his cellar, doing things his way, making political pronouncements as powerful as his wine. In other words, I am a huge fan! John's pinots are elegant, and he eschews the new oak/overripe-fruit school that way too many pinot producers have signed up for, letting his incredibly pure fruit speak volumes. And he never submits his wines fro ratings by the various wine publications. He knows they're good, and everyone else should too. Along with the amazingly Burgundian pinots from Thomas, I think his are one of the two best Oregon pinots out there. They are nothing if not true. His 2003 "Arley's Leap" bottling we had a couple of weeks ago was delicious. Still very young, but showing his characteristic strawberry-cherry tinged fruit, with earth, spice, and violet notes peeking out, then making their presence known as the wine opened. Brilliantly balanced tannins and acidity. Great stuff, and I'm feeling better about my future happiness knowing I have a two more bottles stashed away.

Sorry for the photo quality. I'd blame it on jet lag from our trip, but that was, uh, four days ago it is actually just a crappy picture!

Cellar report: 2002 Thomas Pinot Noir "Willamette Valley"

One of the best things about combining a healthy food obsession with a well chosen career in the wine business is that there are no shortage of interesting drinking options when it comes to doing the food and wine pairing thing. Especially with a well-stocked basement of delicious bottles waiting for the corkscrew. On the night I made the fabulous mushroom pasta, I wasn't sure what to pull out of the archives. I was thinking either an Oregon pinot noir or a barbera from Italy's Piedmont would be perfect. Then I got a call from w, bemoaning the fact that she was still at work, she was tired, some projects weren't going very smoothly. All in all kind a shitty day.

That's all I had to hear. Knowing her love of good pinot, I went right to the top of heap and grabbed one of my precious bottles of Thomas Pinot Noir, in this case the amazing 2002. A quick word about this: It is one of the two or three best pinot noirs made in America. Period! Winemaker John Thomas farms a tiny, meticulously maintained and organically farmed four acre vineyard south of Portland. His hallmark is perfectly ripe fruit, very low yields, very little new oak, and a fucking incredible talent for putting out perhaps the most Burgundian pinot in America. He only makes about 400 cases a year of this elixir, and demand always exceeds supply. Luckily I've known John since his first vintage, so I always manage to get my greedy mitts on a few bottles here at the wine shack.

This 2002, from a fabulous vintage for Oregon noir, was stunning. I decanted it, and we were able to taste it over about two hours time. The development was phenomenal. At first it gave off this faint strawberry and earth aroma. Then as it opened up, it just got better...and better...and better. Head spinning stuff was coming out of the glass....cherries, smoke, intense earthiness, strawberries. Then suddenly plums, a hint of mint, a whiff of white pepper. It just kept coming and coming. As with a lot of still young wines the last drink was the best....which is a cruel irony. This freakishly good juice could easily take another 5-8 years of aging. Needless to say with the mushroom pasta it was nails! Oh, and I think the mushroom pasta/Thomas pinot combo made my wife happy too, after her hard day, so that was the best part of all!

Down John! HEEL!!

Of all the Oregon wine personalities to be a national food mag wine-celeb, the last guy I would expect to be a publicity hound is laid back Jackson from Cameron Winery, but there he is on page 10 of the July 2008 issue of Saveur, while his "owner", winemaker John Paul is shamelessly mugging in a desperate attempt to draw attention to himself. On the other hand, of all the wineries in Oregon to get pimped hard, Cameron is at the top of my list because if you ever want to drink Oregon wines with integrity, elegance, style, and just plain deliciousness, these are them.

Saveur has a feature in the mag about touring Oregon wine country, where Doug Tunnell's Brick House Wines, producer of equally worthy, equally well-made pinot noir is also mini-profiled. If you don't grab the hard copy of Saveur, click here to see it online (with more pics).

Cellar Report: '99 Coste-Caumartin Pommard

God, I remember the days back in college when I was satisfied with a quart of Schlitz Malt Liquor and some weed. How it came to this I'm still not sure, but all I can say is thank god it did! I mean, if I'm going to get a buzz on it feels a helluva lot better doing it with premier cru Burgundy rather than rat poison beer.

Last night to celebrate the grilling of the first t-bone of the season, I decided that w and I should mark the occasion with some pinot noir in the French tradition. I came across a few bottles of this juice languishing on one of my local distributors price lists. They only had four bottles left, which was hardly enough to share with my people at the wine shack, so they ended up in my personal stash. I opened the first one a couple of weeks ago with my pal DOR and his lovely bride....corked! Damn!! So it was with more than a little trepidation that I popped the cork on last night's beverage. Oh yeah, not too worry because this turned out to be an awesome red wine.

Coste-Caumartin is a tiny burgundy producer in the village of Pommard, and this freakishly beautiful bottle of adult refreshment from the "le Clos des Boucherottes" vineyard in the Pommard appellation is what they call a monopole bottling, meaning that Coste-Caumartin owns and produces 100% of the grapes from this site. 1999 was an excellent vintage in Burgundy, and the wines are by reputation just now starting to drink well. Right out of the bottle I would never have guessed this one at eight years old. It was so fresh and bright with vibrant cherry, spice, and smoke flavors that kept developing and amplifying, backed with young tannins and perfect acidity. After about an hour it blossomed, giving up this intense, complex earthiness that was so incredible, a luscious ripeness rolling out from underneath. Absolutely beautiful pinot noir that makes me understand why there are so many Burgundy dorks out there in wine land. Those malt liquor days never seemed so far away!

A big bottle birthday: 1999 Thomas Pinot Noir!

To carry on the last thought from yesterday's post about the glory that was the Pernil, I might have mentioned something about some wine that was worth sharing with you all. Before I get to that, I have to ask the question: What is better than throwing a birthday dinner, and having the guest of honor bringing a kickass cult bottle of Oregon pinot noir for everyone to enjoy. And not just a bottle of this impossible to find noir-ish delight, but a magnum of said grape-based beverage. I can hear you now, "Oregon pinot...big deal". Well, when the bottle in question is a magnum of 1999 Thomas Pinot Noir then it is a huge fucking deal.

A little background....I've been selling John Thomas' legendary pinots for over ten years. This cat makes pinots that have all the other winemakers in Oregon shaking their heads in awe. He has a tiny four acre vineyard that he tends himself. He makes a measly 350-400 cases of the most Burgundian-styled American pinot noir you can find. John himself is one of the nicest, most self-effacing people you could ever hope to meet. And oh yeah, mags are pretty much impossible to find. I always hook my sis and I up with a big bottle or two, just for the feelings of security and goodwill the engender, and that is why we were able to share this staggeringly great pinot noir at dinner. Six people plus one magnum is my kind of equation. This '99 Thomas was phenomenal. It kept changing again and again the longer it was open. Easily among the best Oregon pinots I've ever had, it took on about six different personalities throughout the meal. The kind of earthy complexity you virtually never see in American wine of any kind. Really incredible, and if any of you find yourselves fortunate to ever share some Thomas Pinot, you'll know what I'm saying. Thanks for the sharing moment KAB....Happy birthday to us, I guess!!

Roughing it!

There's nothing like a getaway to the great outdoors to instill that sense of awe at the wonders of nature. Even if that getaway includes sleeping in the comfort of my beloved '71 Silver Streak "Sabre" trailer at a crowded Detroit Lake State Park last Sat-Tues. We did have all the requisite elements in place: great hikes, campfires, water view, and of course loads of refreshing adult beverages and some killer camp grub.

Lakeside living in the Streak!










Our first dinner at DLSP was a much anticipated, perfectly red/pink piece of wild chinook salmon w bought and I was dying to cook over an open fire. Nothing better. Simply drizzled with olive oil, a sprinkling of salt and pepper, a side of salad and rice, washed down with a perfect bottle of 2002 Westrey Wine Co. "Willamette Valley" Pinot Noir. I did say roughing it, right?

Salmon-ey goodness, hot off the fire!











Day two brought on some outdoor activity involving a 3-mile hike up to Dome Rock for some awesome views of the surrounding central Cascades.

w soaking in the view at the top of Dome Rock while Chops rests for the trek back down.

That of course was a prelude to an oh-so-refreshing Negroni back at camp, which was itself a prelude to a fantastic dinner to follow. While we were prepping our palates with some cheese and a couple of glasses of Provençal rosé, I prepped a couple of grass finished New York strips we'd picked up from a vendor at our local farmer's market. w meanwhile got busy with what I thought was the highlight of our meal, and is my new camp fave food, a foil pack filled with chopped potatoes, garlic, carrots, a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, a quick drizz of olive oil, s&p, thrown into the coals of the campfire to steam together for about 25 minutes. Wow! I know it's kind of standard camp fare that you cab adapt almost any root veggie to, but it was new to me and it's got me thinking of all kinds of possibilities for a simple steamed dinner or side. The steaks were perfect, and washed down with my new favorite wine in the world, a 2000 Mastroberardino "Radici-Taurasi", which is a 100% aglianico from Italy's Campania region. This is some seriously stunning juice. I would love to throw this bad boy into a tasting of top flight Bordeaux and watch people be amazed.

Dinner is served!















I've heard that great effort gives great reward. Well, you can bet after day three's 11-fucking-mile hike, I was ready to be rewarded back at camp. Although I have to say that at the top of this in-and-out hike was the almost out-of-this-world scenic beauty that is Jefferson Park. The hike starts at about 4000' feet and climbs to almost 6000' elevation in about 5.2 miles. Not a difficult hike, but long and dusty. Once at the top though, with 10,500 foot Mount Jefferson looming right above you, beautiful flower filled meadows stretching for acres all around, and hidden lakes peeking though the trees, it is absolutely breathtaking.










Meadows and lakes at Jefferson Park....crazy beautiful!

Of course, then there's the walk back down, which we were so done with after about two miles. Unfortunately, we still had three more to go. We kept the complaining to a minimum...sort of...and I kept the motivating vision of ice cold beers back at the trailer foremost in my head. Plus, I had Marcella's perfect spaghetti alla carbonara all prepped and ready for cooking. After getting my equilibrium back with a couple of coldies, we wolfed down some quick, grilled roasted peppers, devoured the carbonara, and absolutely tumbled into bed.












Peppers coming out and carbonara coming up!

A great trip was had by all, Chopper admirably, if futilely, let the squirrels in camp know he was on patrol, and the trailer was, as always, the perfect cozy cabin!

Cellar Report

I know the focus is on food here, but what do we have with food more often other than a bottle of wine? Let me answer that for you who need to have the obvious overstated...NOTHING! Just reading about food without knowing what to drink with it is like test driving that new Benzo without checking out the stereo or A/C. Remember knowledge is power gang.

Here at the wine shack I get asked all the time, "How long will this wine last?", and the answer I give is "At least as long as it takes for your credit card to clear." Okay, maybe that isn't my answer, but knowing how long you can cellar a wine is kind of an esoteric subject, so every now and then when I pull something out of the archives, I'll give a little report on how it's showing.

Last night was a beautiful, warm spring evening here in Portland, so w and I fired up the grill for some grass-fed beef cheeseburgers off the Weber. We had just been talking about different kinds of wines we liked, and w had mentioned her preference for good Oregon pinot noir. I had just rearranged the collection, and had a few things that were ready to go, and because I only want for the happiness of others I grabbed a bottle of 1998 Evesham Wood "Seven Springs Vineyard" Pinot Noir for the table. The last time I had this particular wine was about two+ years ago at a restaurant in NYC, and then it was okay, but still very acidic and a bit lean, so I didn't know what to expect. All I can say is what a difference 795 days can make. This has developed into a classic bottle of Oregon noir. EW's pinots are always delicate, more feminine wines, and owner Russ Raney never loads on, thankfully, a lot of new wood. He lets the fruit do the talking, which too many wine makers, in search of high scores, forget to do. When first in the glass, it was a bit smoky and cherryish, and that tart acidity I didn't like last time had integrated into the fruit perfectly. As it sat open it just opened up more and more, and after an hour or so, it was showing loads of sweet, strawberry and slightly peppery, minerally fruit, hints of earthiness just peeking out, with a velvety, long finish. If Russ had been one of those guys who loads on the new wood on top of overripe fruit, which like I said is all the rage, this wouldn't have been near so good going on ten years old. Really great wine, and I'm glad I have one more bottle, which I'll probably let rest comfortably for another couple of years. I love it when it works out like that!

By the way, if you have some bottles in your basements that you're wondering how they might be drinking, feel free to send them to me and I'll let you know! No? Well, then feel free to leave a comment with your question(s) and I'll answer back here and give you my semi-educated opinion. I'm all about love and information at Eat.Drink.Think., so take advantage!