Havens Logo 23 White Small

Stoller Family Estate Club Exclusive Chardonnay 2016

Stoller Family Estate Club Exclusive Chardonnay 2016

Perhaps one of the most unusual chardonnays I’ve run across in Oregon—Stoller’s 2016 Club Exclusive Chardonnay is partial-malo and partly aged in stainless and in one of the winery’s concrete squares. Had I have tasted it blind, I might have pegged it as a Bordeaux blanc, the profile has a lovely herbal note to it; aromas […]

Ayoub Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015

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

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 […]

Open Claim Vineyard Chardonnay 2015

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

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, […]

Wine By Joe Joe To Go Pinot Gris NV

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 […]

Troon Vineyard Whole Grape Ferment Riesling 2017

Troon Vineyard Whole Grape Ferment Riesling 2017

Limpid, shimmering copper in the glass, 2017 Troon Vineyard Whole Grape Ferment Riesling is a fabulous orange wine—a delicious romp through ripe apricots, orange zest, almond paste, linden blossom, and dried honey. In the mouth, skin contact lends textural dimension, there are beautiful oxidative tones offset by pink grapefruit infused acidity. All in all, Troon […]

Tendril Wine Cellars Pretender White Pinot Noir 2014

Tendril Wine Cellars Pretender White Pinot Noir 2014

The aptly named Pretender is a White Pinot Noir from Tendril Wine Cellars, and offers a rather glorious, pure-fruited nose of white peach, melon, grilled pineapple, and quince. On the palate, texturally, it’s like biting into a ripe market peach—peach fuzz brushes across the palate before subsiding to a lemon-and-pomace-infused acid spine. Nicely done. 13.0% […]

Rain Dance Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir 2016

Rain Dance Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir 2016

A well of plush red fruit set against a frame of silky tannins and moderate acidity, Rain Dance’s Estate Pinot Noir 2016 has much to offer, mainly, pleasure. Black cherry, macerated strawberries, Madagascar vanilla bean, cola, and warm spices round out the nose. This blend of 44% Dijon Clone 667, 14% Pommard, 14% Wädenswil, 14% […]

Rain Dance Vineyards Grand Oak Vineyard Estate Riesling 2017

Grand Oak Vineyard Estate Riesling 2017

Crafted from Reisling sourced from Rain Dance’s estate vineyards—Grand Oak Vineyard lies within Willamette Valley’s Chehalem Mountains sub-appellation and the vines are seated in Jory and Laurelwood-type soils. Aromas of yellow apple, lemon drop, and ripe pear anoint the nose, on the palate, it’s softly-textured thanks to sur lie aging in French oak—perfectly dry and […]

CHRISTINE HAVENS
McMinnville, OR

christine@christine-havens.com