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 158: Oregon Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from 2011
November 25, 2012
For this show we check in on an old Oregon producer, and a new one. The Dundee Hills Chardonnay from Cameron has delivered excellent QPR in the past, and we were excited to check out the 2011 release. Both of us had tasted the 2011 Medici Vineyard Pinot Noir from Bow & Arrow at a tasting recently. We both enjoyed it enough that we wanted to share it on the show. Both of these are definitely worth checking out if you have a chance.
What did you drink for Thanksgiving?
Here’s the Cameron video that Chas talks about during the show.
Episode 153: 2010 Pinot Noir from Saint Innocent and Cameron
October 23, 2012
Chas picked out a couple of bottles that he wanted to add to his collection. We’ve had good experiences with both producers in the past, and we’re always interested in checking out their wines when we have a chance. They both deliver quite nicely for their price points and show the quality available from Oregon around $30. We taste the 2010 Saint Innocent Momtazi Vineyard Pinot Noir, and the 2010 Cameron Reserve Pinot Noir.
What animals do you have at home?
When Dan returned from vacation last year, we posted episode 100. Since then, we’ve released a new video every week without missing one! We hadn’t planned on that, but we also thought it was worth celebrating. Chas picked out a couple of highly regarded Oregon Pinot Noirs for the show. We taste the 2010 Arterberry Maresh Maresh Vineyard Pinot Noir, and the 2010 Patricia Green Cellars Notorious Pinot Noir.
Have you read any good wine books lately?
DePonte Cellars and Elk Cove Vineyards are among our earliest favorites from Oregon. We’ve enjoyed these 2010 bottles at tastings, and we wanted to share them on the show. We taste the 2010 Elk Cove Vineyards Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and the 2010 DePonte Cellars Lonesome Rock Ranch Pinot Noir. 2010 continues to impress, and we look forward to enjoying more wines from this vintage.
Do you like the 2010 vintage? If you do, what are some of your favorites?
Chas picked up a couple of bottles of Oregon Pinot Noir in the $20 price range for this week’s show. Both of these are regularly available on the Portland market, and we wanted to give them a try. We taste the 2010 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir from Cameron, and the 2010 Grande Cuve Pinot Noir from Solena Estate.
Have you done any good hikes this summer?
We get back into the exploration of American Riesling with a bottle from Washington that Dan tried in Walla Walla and two new bottles from the Dundee Hills in Oregon. We taste the 2009 Crumbled Rock Juliard Vineyard Riesling, the 2011 Mad Violets Willamette Valley Riesling, and the 2010 The Jack Riesling.
If you have, or could have a high end tablet, do you think you’d spend more than 50% of your computing time on that tablet?
It’s been far too long since we’ve done a blind show. We realized that we had three similarly priced bottles Oregon Pinot Noir on hand for shows, and thought that they’d be fun to do blind. All three AVA’s are represented, and the wines are all from respected producers and vineyards. I’m sure plenty of viewers have tasted these wines, so we’d like to hear your thoughts on them in the comments. We taste the 2009 Arterberry Maresh Dundee Hills Pinot Noir, the 2009 Shea Wine Cellars Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir, and the 2009 Evening Land Seven Springs Vineyard Pinot Noir.
How do you find out about our new videos?
John Grochau was nice enough to invite us back to his tasting room to taste some barrel samples and some of his 2009 releases. He does great work with fruit from a lot of vineyards through the Willamette Valley, and continues to make blends focused on expressing the character of individual American Viticultural Areas (AVA’s) within the Willamette Valley. His wines also continue to be very reasonably priced, providing cool opportunities to try some of the different Oregon Pinot Noir regions as well as solid entry level Oregon Pinot Noir. We taste the Grochau Cellars 2009 Willamette Valley , Eola-Amity, and Dundee Hills bottlings, as well as the 2004 Cuvee Des Amis which John opened as a special treat.
What is your favorite AVA in Oregon?
Episode 122: 2010 Chardonnay from the Dundee Hills in Oregon
March 20, 2012
We picked up two local Chardonnays recently to share our thoughts on some new releases. Dan had tasted the 2010 Arthur Chardonnay from Domaine Drouhin Oregon recently, and enjoyed it. We both enjoyed the 2009 vintage of the Dundee Hills Chardonnay from Cameron a lot, so we were eager to check out the 2010 release.
Do you have any opinions on Oregon AVA characteristics that express themselves in Chardonnay?