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 162: Blind Sparkling Wines in the $20’s for New Year 2013
December 30, 2012
We wanted to do a sparkling wine show for the New Year episode this year. Chas suggested that we do a 3 bottle blind show with a bottle each from Champagne, Oregon, and California. Dan loved the idea, so here it is. All of the wines were selected by Chas, and bagged before the start of the show. We don’t do too well at guessing the origin, but they all make a good showing as simple sparklers. We taste the Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Champagne, the 2009 Argyle Brut, and the Roederer Estate Brut.
What is your favorite sparkling wine?
Episode 147: 2010 Oregon Chardonnay under $15
September 11, 2012
We realized that it’s been a while since we had some local Chardonnay on the show, so we decided to check in on a couple of cheaper bottles. We picked up the 2010 Apolloni Estate Chardonnay and the 2010 Lange Willamette Valley Chardonnay. Both are pretty crisp and enjoyable.
What magazines have you been reading lately?
Chas grabbed a couple of 2009 current releases that are new to both of us. One of the benefits of the show is that it gives us a good excuse to check out new wines, so it was nice to benefit from that this week. We taste the 2009 Andrew Rich Pinot Noir Verbatim and the 2009 Alloro Vineyard Estate. Chas just got a new tattoo too.
Do you have any tattoos? What’s the story with them?
Episode 107: Current Release Oregon Pinot Noir from 2009
December 4, 2011
Joey Shearer has been a fan for a while, and Dan met him out in wine country earlier this year. Since he was going to be in Portland over the weekend, we met up to taste through some current release Oregon Pinot Noir, and he brought a bottle from one of his favorite producers, Bethel Heights. We taste the 2009 Raptor Ridge Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, the 2009 Bethel Heights Estate Grown Pinot Noir, and the 2009 Lemelson Six Vineyards Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.
When you shop, do you usually look for new producers, or established producers with history?
We tried the Pashey Riesling from Trisaetum in an earlier episode and it turned out that the bottle was corked. The winery was kind enough to not only replace the corked bottle but they sent us samples of some other Riesling bottlings as well! We tasted three of them together for this show the 2009 Trisaetum Josahn Estate and Pashey Rieslings. We liked them all and we’re thrilled to see Oregon producers putting focused effort into quality Riesling!
What would you like to see us improve about the show?
De Ponte Cellars is one of our favorite wineries, and we had a great time interviewing Isabelle and tasting their 2007 releases last year. This year, we were invited back to taste the 2008 Pinot Noirs and to chat some more. We discuss the density and aging potential of these wines as well as some of Isabelle’s thoughts on wine making and other topics. Her passion and commitment to quality is always evident, and we hope you enjoy the interview. We taste the 2008 De Ponte Cellars Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, Estate, Baldwin Family Reserve, and Shirley’s Gran Reserva.
In contrast to other grapes, what makes Pinot Noir special to you?