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: 2003 Owen Roe "Walla Walla- Isadore Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon...drinker beware!

Once again I was reminded of the frailty of the new style American red wine. You know the wine I'm talking about. Those super-ripe, rich, and high octane behemoths that seemingly are de rigueur in the Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate if you have any hope of attaining the 90+ point score that is the holy grail for American winemakers. I get it. A high score leads to two tangible benefits: the wine is so much easier to sell, plus you can jack your prices up because there is a certain sad, needy segment of the wine buying public who just have to have those bottles. And from experience I can tell you that in blind tastings, which is how the Spectator and Advocate supposedly do much of their scoring, these big bruisers will always stand out as impressive over the more nuanced, better balanced, and more age worthy reds.

The downside, as I was reminded last night, is that wines that should easily age for 10+ years are already toppling over the Cliffs of Drinkability at just 6 years of age. I took a bottle of 2003 Owen Roe "Walla Walla- Isadore Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon to an otherwise stellar dinner at Bar Avignon (their bavette steak, exquisitely tender and perfectly cooked, may be the current top piece of beef in PDX) last night with my good friend Jake. Now there is practically no one in our local wine biz who has my respect more than Owen Roe's absurdly talented leader David O'Reilly. Which is why it was somewhat shocking that this $40+ cab (back in 2003) was already edging over the freshness line. It was still deeply colored, rich, and quite delicious. But the vibrancy of the fruit was already starting to slip away, and in a wine still to young to develop those treasured secondary aromas and flavors that are the reward for wine dorks like who cellar these bottles for several years. This in a wine that The Wine Spectator rated at 90 points and said "Best from 2007 through 2014." I wish I had popped the cork about 2 years ago and enjoyed it while it was still bursting with youthful exuberance. It was like a 40 year old guy who suddenly starts to develop senility. He's just too damn young, isn't he?

It just proves what I've been discovering more and more, which is that this new style of American red wine, which demands a 14% or 15%+ alcohol level from letting the grapes get so ripe, while undeniably delicious and hedonistic drinking experiences while young, just don't have the acid and tannin balance to ensure longevity. As I tweeted about this one "Great 5 yr. wines, after that, drinker beware!" Which really is a fucking shame considering the prices being asked, which start at $40 and rapidly escalate. No wonder my cellar is filled with southern French and Italian wines. Half the price, incredible food affinity (thank you acidity and tannin and moderate alcohol levels), and possessed of so much more potential.

Cellar Report: 2001 Owen Roe "DuBrul Vineyard" Syrah

There's almost no one I hold in higher regard in our local wine scene than David O'Reilly, partner/winemaker for Owen Roe wines here in Oregon. His are almost always impeccably made bottles of grape juice. I think in the nine years I've been selling his wine the wines that have only been average or less could be counted on one hand. That takes in scores of wines. His wines are also fairly polarizing. Big fruit extraction, higher alcohol contents and the accompanying richness tend to turn off old world wine purists. But like them or not, there is no denying his passion, his integrity, and his commitment to excellence, both in the vineyard and the winery.

So with that as a background, I was extremely anxious to try the bottle of a wine I took to share with my pals at our dinner at Laurelhurst Market the other night, a 2001 Owen Roe "DuBrul Vineyard" Syrah. The bottle had been lurking in my basement for several years, coming so close to being opened several times. Last Wednesday its time had come. DuBrul Vineyard is one of Washington's finest vineyard sites, and David has made some stellar reds from those grapes. The question with some of these bigger styled "new world" wines is how will they age? Will the fruit stand up to the higher alcohol contents? Is there enough acidity to hold it together? Last year I had a similarly styled 2000 Sineann Merlot that was absolute garbage...totally fallen apart. Which is really fucking frustrating after holding on to it for so long. So when I took the first sniff of the '01 OR Syrah, I knew immediately I should have opened it a year or two earlier. It still had some great aromatics...blackberry, pepper, hints of meatiness....but the vibrancy, the richness, the bounce the fruit had when it was first bottled had almost disappeared. I was hoping the aroma and flavor would fill out as it sat open, but it didn't. It reminded me of someone just entering dementia. They're still aware and show signs of life, but the lights are starting to dim. It was nice, but it should have been so much more. If you're holding some of these wines, then it seems after five years or so it's kind of a crap shoot. In other words: start drinking! All I know is my corkscrew is coming out. No slam at all on David. His wines are still to me among the best made American wines. So I guess in this instance I would have to side with the old world purists on this one (full disclosure: I am definitely a Euro wine lover), as there's a lot to be said for balance, acidity, and restraint. And maybe there is also a lesson for all of you who are shelling out your ego-driven dollars for all those high scoring, high alcohol domestic reds. Just sayin'..........

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!

A few small bites....

This just in from the New York Times "Diner's Journal" blog: writer Zahra Sethna reports that the world's first testicle recipe collection is being released. Included are preparations for testicle pizza, barbecued testicles with giblets, and, um, battered testicles. To which I can only say, Ouch!
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Locally w and I stopped in industrial northwest PDX for the opening peek at the new shared home Oregon wine producers Grochau Cellars and Boedecker Cellars. I love both those wineries, as much for the people behind them as for the stellar reds and whites they produce. They're calling their joint venture the Portland Wine Project (2621 NW 30th Avenue), and it is the only commercial wine production facility within the city limits. Look for their public opening over the Thanksgiving weekend. John Grochau of GC (far right in pic at right) and Stewart Boedecker and Athena Pappas of Boedecker will begin getting in grapes next week, and as Stewart said "we'll throw the switch and hope everything works!"
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Add Stewart and Athena: Check out this article by Athena in the latest Mix Magazine, our local fishwrap The Oregonian's attempt to be foodie hip and cool (with, may I say, very "mix"-ed results), for some of her families Greek recipes. Can't wait to try her Tzatziki, which in Pappas family tradition is eaten with ridged potato chips, because as Athena told me yesterday "then you can eat even more!". Also looking forward to whipping up a batch of Mama's Meatballs!
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Also had brunch yesterday at that fabulous addition to our upper-Hawthorne neighborhood Por Que No taqueria. The perfect way to start my Sunday? A plate of chilaquillas (pic at left) and a carnitas taco!
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Perhaps the peripatetic Mario Batali should spend more time at his restaurants and less time palling around Europe with Gwyneth. The NYT has just reported that his flagship restaurant Babbo has lost its one Michelin star.

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

It has been mentioned to me more than a few times by friends and customers at the wine shack that I should use this self-indulgent forum as a platform for commenting on a few of the wines I drink with semi-alarming regularity that might be of greater interest to the ever thirsty public. So occasionally when I have something that catches my attention, in either a good or bad way, I'll make mention in case you have a few of these bottles lurking in your collections.

w and I recently went over to my sister and bro-in-law's house for a pre-holiday weekend dinner of a quite delicious pre-holiday ham. Since I had been at work at the wine shack enabling others drinking needs and didn't have any culinary treats to contribute (and since my sis is thankfully an outstanding cook herself), I assigned myself the task of bringing a couple of bottles out of the basement archives. The good thing about ham is it is ever flexible and appreciative of almost any kind of wine you pour with it. My favorite hammy accompaniment beverage is probably an ice cold bottle of dry rosé from France or Italy. But then again this was almost the end of December and it was freaking cold outside, so something a little warmer seemed in order. I grabbed what is poroabbly about as yin-yang in the red wine world as you can get: a 2002 Shotfire Ridge Shiraz from Australia, and then a forgotten treat I recently came across while organizing the bottles that were in disarray in the basement, a 2001 Brick House Wines Gamay Noir from here in Oregon; Brick House making what is perhaps the best gamay in America.

2002 in Australia was by reputation one of the best vintages in recent memory in the land of Oz. This Shotfire '02 Shiraz from the Barossa even garnered a whopping ninety-something point score from the Wine Spectator and a spot in their Top 100 Wines of 2004. I'm the first to admit that I find most Aussie Shiraz a little too one dimensional....kind of flabby, jammy, a little high in alcohol, good but rarely great...and I have almost none in the cellar. But I had thrown three of these down there when it was released, and was curious to see what had happened in the intervening three years. Well, it was still good, full and rich, but the fruit had lost its bounce and seemed a little flat. It didn't really wow any of us, I don't see it getting a lot better with more time. One of those wines you go "oh, that's pretty good" but nothing that really grabs you, especially odd given its high rating. Hm, I think there is an object lesson in there for all you point-buyers.

The 2001 Brick House Gamay on the other hand was stellar. This organically grown and meticulously made red by Doug Tunnell is always fabulous, and given the great 2001 Oregon vintage I was thrilled to find I still had a bottle of what I was hoping was a hidden gem. When we first poured it I was wondering if it had lost some fruit, as the acidity seemed to have it all over the fruit. But given time to open up, this blossomed in the glass, its still-bright cherry and spice fruit jumping from the glass, and showing that time had mellowed its youthful exuberance into an elegant, absolutely delicious, seamless red that worked perfectly with the roast ham. If you have this or any '02 or younger BH Gamay's rest assured they are only getting better!