Ayoub Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015
I have long admired Mo Ayoub’s wines, and so meeting with him, and tasting with him at a recent dinner held by the Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association was a real honor. His 2015 Ayoub Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir is still young and expansive, showing off attractive notes of black raspberry, cherry, cola, sweet tobacco. Texturally, […]
White Rose Estate Pinot Noir 2010
A breathtaking Oregon Pinot, the 2010 White Rose Estate possesses a graceful sensory arc of candied cherries, rose petals, sweet spices, and sous bois. It’s elegant and nimble in the mouth, framed in fine, sweeping tannins that crescendo and submerge beneath layers of cinnamon bark, chokecherry, and rose hip. Whole-cluster fermented, from the estate’s old […]
Bledsoe Family Winery Flying B Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
From Bledsoe Family Winery, Flying B 2016 is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Syrah aged in 64% new French oak for 20 months. At this stage in its development—the nose is heavily laden in primary fruit—juicy blackberries, black currant, and black cherry precede lighter tones of cinnamon, vanilla bean paste, and sweet […]
Cayuse Vineyards Camaspelo 2014
A first for me from cult Walla Walla producer, Christophe Baron of Cayuse Vineyards the 2014 Camaspelo expresses smoke, earth, alder wood, black olives, Pu’er tea, incense, and underbrush that burnoff like morning fog to reveal a finely-wrought structural base of blackcurrant and cassis. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with there’s a touch […]
Open Claim Vineyard Chardonnay 2015
There is a story to this wine, and one that explains the reason why the bottle was shot in its thoughtful tissue wrap—you see, I took it on a date, this was the second date, mind you, with a person who by all accounts enjoyed wine immensely. And somewhere in the midst of that date, […]
Open Claim Vineyards Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2015
A new and very small project, the winery website mentions only 121 cases altogether, Open Claim Vineyards 2015 Pinot Noir hails from a historic site so named “by the virtue of the Donation Land Claim Act 1850, parcel #68 in Polk County, Oregon was offered in open claim…” Headed up by veteran winemaker Tony Rynders, […]
Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Another wine wholeheartedly enjoyed in the company of team #mywinesociety—the 2013 Silver Oak Alexander Cabernet Sauvignon is composed of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and 1% Malbec, all from the same sub-appellation. It’s plummy, but quickly opens to reveal subtler notes of cassis, kirsch, sandalwood and vanilla bean paste. On entry, juicy black fruit is […]
Prophecy Wines California Pinot Noir 2015
As a former student of design, I am ever drawn into a label series with thoughtful, enchanting imagery—such is the case with the Prophecy collection, it’s bottlings span several continents and I have been perhaps slightly more enamored with the whites and the rosé than the reds. That said, this 2015 California Pinot Noir is […]
Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
A decade on the 2008 Alexander Valley Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon has developed nicely—it’s spent 24 months in barrel with another 15 months of bottle conditioning prior to release. Red currant, sweet red cherries, cassis, loamy soil, cinnamon bark, and vanilla bean anoint the nose. For a Sonoma Cabernet, it’s lighter in style, and medium-bodied. […]
Wine By Joe Joe To Go Pinot Gris NV
From one of Oregon’s most forward-thinking winemakers, Joe Dobbs—the Joe to Go series of canned wines is meant to be convivial, light, refreshing, and portable. That being said, canned wines and the canned wine trend is here to stay, and there are some perfectly quaffable examples out there, this being one of them. Straw yellow […]