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Lange Estate Vineyard North Block Chardonnay 2014

Lange Estate Vineyard North Block Chardonnay 2014

The acid balance and focus is perhaps the loveliest element this Lange Estate single-vineyard bottling. The 2014 North Block Estate Chardonnay is particularly lovely—with beguiling aromas of clementine, quince, pastry cream, and warm spice—on the palate, there’s weight and weightlessness. A nimble mineral-infused spine crests and ebbs, leaving the impression of apricot pit, baking spice, […]

Lange Estate Vineyard Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2016

Lange Estate Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2016

With nose is awash in raspberry coulis, cardamom, lilac, and forest floor, Lange Estate’s 2016 Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir is taut and laser-focused. High-toned red berries flesh out the core—cranberry and alpine strawberry are neatly framed by fine tannins and bright acid spine. Attractive mineral-and-spice-infused finish surges on, adding length and persistence to this wine’s […]

Lange Lange Estate Vineyard Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2015

Lange Lange Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015

A riotous, deeply perfumed nose of blackberry crumble, Rainier cherry, rose petals, violets, and a touch of smoky, iron-tinged minerality. Lange Estate’s 2015 Pinot Noir is a study in precision and elegance. Beautifully integrated tannins and to a perception of overall silliness, it fans out across the palate before it’s hemmed in by mineral flecks […]

Domaine Drouhin Lauréne Pinot Noir 2012

Domaine Drouhin Lauréne Pinot Noir 2012

Elegant, developed aromas of black raspberry and mulberry, fig leaf and dried mushroom, decaying leaves and a dusting of iron ore. In the mouth, silken, fully-integrated tannins lend structure to ethereal tones of black tea, violets, dried bark, and stratified minerality that surface momentarily, winking in and out—shimmering shards on a backdrop embroidered in dark […]

Ayoub Chardonnay 2016

Ayoub Chardonnay 2016

Another lovely vintage from Mo Ayoub that is clearly made in small lots and with great technical care, his 2016 Dundee Hills Chardonnay is only 400 cases and is enrobed in white peach, Asian pear, yellow apples, granulated honey, and apple blossom. It fans out across the palate, with exquisite creaminess and density offset by […]

White Rose Estate The Neo-Classical Objective Pinot Noir 2014

White Rose Estate The Neo-Classical Objective Pinot Noir 2014

Tasting through a series of vintages one can say that White Rose has its own style, it stands apart from the rest of the wines of Dundee Hills—there is a pure-fruitedness along with a perfumed exuberance on the nose that is a common thread through all their wines. The 2014 Neo-Classical Objective Pinot Noir is […]

Knudsen Vineyards Pinot Noir 2016

Knudsen Vineyards Pinot Noir 2016

The 2016 vintage was quite warm for the Willamette Valley, here Knudsen’s estate-grown Pinot Noir expresses a touch more black fruit than I have found in previous vintages—black cherry and black raspberry along with more ethereal notes of twiggy underbrush, a touch of iron ore, talc, and nuanced florality. It’s round and silky on the palate, […]

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 […]

CHRISTINE HAVENS
McMinnville, OR

christine@christine-havens.com