While visiting tasting rooms, Dan picked up a bottle of 2010 Estate Pinot Noir from the Eyrie Vineyards for a show. When picking a bottle to with it, Chas realized that he had recently purchased the newly released 2011 Estate Pinot Noir and thought that it would be interesting to taste them side by side this week. They’re one of Oregon’s historic estates, and they regularly show great evidence of the aging potential of wine from the Willamette Valley.
What did you do with the first nice day of summer this year?
DePonte Cellars has been one of our favorite producers from very early in our wine experience. We’ve been thrilled to be able to discuss new vintages with Isabelle Dutartre, the wine maker, over the past 3 vintages. 2010 has shown itself to be a wonderful vintage, and we’re excited to taste and discuss these wines. Isabelle also has some great comments about her wine making philosophy that we’re excited to share. This year, we implemented a bit of a change too. Since the Shirley’s Gran Reserva is released so late, we decided to taste the previous year’s wine in the show. In the past three years, we were essentially tasting it before they thought it was ready for release, and we all agreed that this is the best format for discussing this wine. So, in this show we have the 2010 DePonte Cellars Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, Estate, and Baldwin Family Reserve, and the 2009 Shirley’s Gran Reserva.
Do you have another favorite area for Pinot Noir outside of the USA and Burgundy?
Episode 169: Some Samples from Zonin
February 18, 2013
We received a box of samples from Casa Vinicola Zonin, and we picked three from their range of Italian wineries to talk about on this week’s show. We selected three wines from a range of their estates, including wine from Sicily, Puglia, and Piedmont. While they do produce a lot of volume, we like to see the effort to present regional grapes and styles. We taste the 2010 Principi Di Butera Nero D’Avola, 2010 Altemura Sasseo Primitivo, and the 2011 Castello del Poggio Moscato D’Asti.
What is the highest quality Moscato d’Asti that you know of?
Episode 166: A Visit With Craig From Del Rio Vineyards
January 28, 2013
We met Craig Havlinek this past summer at the Wine Blogger’s Conference, and had a great time chatting with him about Southern Oregon and Del Rio wines. Del Rio Vineyards is the biggest single vineyard in Southern Oregon, and we were familiar with the Syrah they’ve supplied to a bunch of Willamette Valley producers that we’re familiar with. We learned that they grow a wide range of varieties, and that they have a line of estate wines in addition to the grapes that they sell. Their wine maker, Jean-Michel Jussiaume is from the Loire, which lets him bring a unique viewpoint to Southern Oregon wine. We taste the 2011 Pinot Gris, the 2010 Pinot Noir, the 2010 Syrah, and a white blend that was brought to us fresh from the tank.
Would you rather spend your time watching us, or watching the Lance Armstrong interview on Oprah?
Episode 164: 2010 Pinot Noir from the Lachini Vineyard
January 14, 2013
Dan noticed a bottle of Pinot Noir made by Mark Ryan on the shelf. We both like Mark’s wines, but we’ve only seen the big red wines that he’s known for. We didn’t know that he made a Pinot Noir, so we were curious to see his take on it. We saw that he sources his fruit from the Lachini Vineyard, so we picked up a bottle from Lachini to try on the show as well. Specifically, we have the 2010 Mark Ryan Black Love, and the 2010 Lachini Vineyards “S”.
What do you think about Oregon truffles?
Episode 160: 2010 Ayers Pinot Noir
December 18, 2012
We’re happy to check in on two more wines from Ayers. This producer has been very consistent and very good in our experience, and we always like checking in on their wines. For this show we taste the 2010 Ayers Perspective Pinot Noir and the 2010 Ayers Lewis Rogers Lane Pinot Noir. Both are from the Ribbon Ridge AVA, and both deliver impressive quality around the $30 price point.
What is your favorite type of mushroom?
We’ve been a fan of Matello Wines for years after discovering Marcus at the tasting room in Adea. Since then, his operation has grown, and he’s moved into a new space in McMinnville. We’ve been trying to get a show together for over a year so it was very exciting when all of our schedules lined up on a Friday night. We were offered five wines, and we were unable to select bottles to drop, so we ended up doing a long show. We think that Marcus provides some excellent commentary on his wine making philosophy, and the individual wines as well. Matello is a great part of the Oregon wine community, and we’re excited to share this conversation and some insight into how his wines age. In part 1 we taste the 2010 Matello Clover (Pinot Gris), and the 2007 and 2010 vintages of the Matello Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir. In part 2 we taste the 2008 Matello Souris Pinot Noir to discover that it’s improved a lot, and that we drank it way too early when we tried it about 2 years ago. We end with the 2009 Matello Fool’s Journey (Syrah) from the Deux Vert Vineyard.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Will Ben Roethlisberger be back for the playoffs?
Episode 156: Tasting With Kim Kramer of Kramer Vineyards
November 12, 2012
We met Kim Kramer about a year ago when our friend Beau moved to Oregon. At various social events, we discussed the new things she was doing at her family winery, Kramer Vineyards, and her excitement for their vineyards. A few tastings of their wines proved enjoyable, and we finally managed to schedule a visit to the winery to do an interview. They have some unique vineyards and an ambitious Brut program, and we hope you enjoy Kim’s insights as we discuss the wine. In this show, we taste the 2010 Kramer Vineyards Brut, the 2010 Kramer Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir, the 2010 Kramer Vineyards Cardiac Hill Pinot Noir, and the 2010 Kramer Vineyards Estate Müller-Thurgau.
What is your favorite kombucha?
Dan picked up two bottles of Pinot Noir for this show. We’ve both enjoyed wine from both producers, and Dan really enjoyed the 2009 vintage of this wine from Walter Scott. The 2010 Haden Fig Willamette Valley Pinot Noir No. 52 is made by Erin Nuccio, who also produces Evesham Wood. The 2010 Walter Scott Dumb Ox Pinot Noir is made by Ken Pahlow and Erica Landon, who have been Portland wine professionals for years and started their own winery in 2008.
What’s your favorite type of white Burgundy?