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Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir 2014

Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir 2014

Enigmatic as all Véronique Boss-Drouhin’s wines are, the 2014 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir boasts freshness and poise in a ripe vintage year. Crushed lavender, cocoa powder, dried mint, underbrush, and an alluring array of red fruits lead into a wine that is medium-bodied and neatly trussed in fine tannins. White pepper and earth emerge at […]

Brooks Estate Vineyard Pinot Gris 2016

Brooks Estate Vineyard Pinot Gris 2016

From Brooks’ estate vineyard, this is old vine Oregon Pinot Gris at its best. Aromatically, minerality that dominates this nose with wet stones co-mingling with white peach and tender spring blossoms. In the mouth, a lithe ribbon of chalk and talc course through it, along with bright lemon pith. Very nice. Sample Brooks 8.9 Points

Bluebird Hill Cellars Barrel Select Pinot Noir 2015

Barrel Select Pinot Noir 2015

The perfect marriage of fruit and elegance, Bluebird Hill’s 2015 Barrel Select Pinot Noir, a micro-lot from the acclaimed Zenith Hill vineyard, is inlaid with ripe raspberries and pie cherries, dried orange peel, cinnamon stick, and rose petal—all rather more delicate notes that transform, at last, to an unexpected burst of iron ore. Undergirded by […]

Bluebird Hill Cellars Willamette Valley Reserve Pinot Noir 2015

Bluebird Hill Cellars Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2015

Red cherries, boysenberries and perhaps a touch of wild bramble berry are enlivened by more delicate aromas of heirloom roses, underbrush, white pepper, and baking spice. I love the balance in Bluebird Hill Cellars’ 2015 Reserve Pinot Noir, with its meniscus-tinged in violet, there’s a distinct backbone coursing through it—a balanced acid that crescendos in […]

Bridlewood Monterey County Pinot Noir 2014

Bridlewood Monterey County Pinot Noir 2014

A nice value with a distinctive underbrush and red cherry note I attribute to Monterey Pinot Noir, particularly the acidity and what it does in the mouth—a bright burst, even though this is a more delicate, fully translucent example from the region. In addition, wafting cherry blossoms, leaves crackling underfoot, instant coffee, a touch of […]

Seed Red Wine 2015

Seed Red Wine 2015

May 28, 2017—Bottle No. 0226 of a 120 case lot from this ultra-boutique winery, Seed. I first tasted this bottling six months ago, when it was still fairly closed—the profile remains unchanged—a heady melange of singed blueberries, black currants, sandalwood, and violets. It has the kind of lightness to it that one would expect from […]

King Estate Limited Edition Blanc de Noirs 2008

King Estate Limited Edition Blanc de Noirs 2008

Aged Sir Lee for 26 months, King Estate’s 2008 Limited Edition White Black is finely wrought, with a delicate bead that gives rise to baked apples and orchard fruit notes, followed by buckwheat, dried marjoram, and whipped butter. Nice concentration on the palate, with eccentric rings of kumquat, sea foam, and sandstone, which impart a […]

Brooks Sunset View Eola-Amity Hills Riesling 2014

Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola-Amity Hills

Brooks is one of a handful of Oregon wineries to have mastered Riesling. Every year, they offer small lots of single vineyard Rieslings like this beauty from Sunset View Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA—the vineyard that sits at a 290′ elevation on a south-facing slope. It’s expressive, deliciously layered in white peach and golden […]

Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Noir Reserve 2013

Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Noir Reserve 2013

An utterly breathtaking, seductive nose perfumed in rose water, rhubarb, black cherry, incense, anise, cola, sous bois. The underlying structure is there in Ponzi’s 2013 Pinot Noir Reserve, in the form of ultra-fine tannins framing out a wine of tremendous grace and elegance. Fruit on the palate—a tumble of red and black— is overtaken by […]

Notable Unoaked Chardonnay 2016

Notable Unoaked Chardonnay 2016

Notable’s crisp and fruity version plays opposite it’s oaky-buttery Chardonnay label. It’s softly textured on the nose and palate with undertones of ripe honeydew melon, green apple, and d’Anjou pear. It’s a fairly straightforward wine—I’m perhaps favoring the oaked Chardonnay, simply because there’s more layered complexity and texture with the judicious addition of oak. Regardless, […]

CHRISTINE HAVENS
McMinnville, OR

christine@christine-havens.com