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More Oregon Selections
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Monroe, Oregon used to have a Pontiac dealership along the
main drag...
They've "upgraded," however, and now have a a more upscale
enterprise in the building,
the Broadley family's wine cellar.
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BROADLEY VINEYARDS
 The
Broadley story begins in San Francisco's Bay Area, with Craig Broadley
working for the legendary Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Bookstore.
He and his wife Claudia lived in Berkeley and were willing to pay the
exorbitant prices (five bucks at the time for a main plate!) at a little
eatery called Chez Panisse. It was at this point in time, in the
1970s, they developed a taste for good wine. Bitten by the wine
"bug," they explored finding suitable land in hopes of having a
vinous "best cellar" job instead of working with bound-up
"best sellers."
The couple ventured to Oregon, where Pinot Noir production was in its
nascent stages of ferment. Searching for a warm site in the cool
climate Willamette Valley led them to a place just outside the town of
Monroe. And it's there you'll find about 30 acres of Pinot Noir
vineyards, including the normal clones of Pommard and Wadenswil (the two
prominent varieties back in the early days) along with more
recently-available Dijon clones.-
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- Craig & Claudia's son Morgan Broadley with his two kids,
Savanna and Olivia.
2010
Savanna, the lady in pink, is an avid photographer, while Doctor Olivia is
the youngest pediatrician we've ever met!
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Craig Broadley will tell you they make Pinot Noir for their palates, not
"the market." Lucky for them, "the market" likes
their wines! And why not? These can be some wonderfully
expressive Pinots.
Their Claudia's Choice bottling can be a really soulful Pinot Noir.
Named after Craig's wife, it's usually a wine showing black cherry fruit and
perhaps a touch of a leathery note.
We currently have a 2010 Willamette Valley bottling in stock. It's
their entry level wine and we were a bit disappointed to hear it garnered a
favorable review in some wine publication. That bit of cheerleading
means people who don't appreciate the wine will be obliged to buy it, armed
with the knowledge some critic liked the wine when they had it in a
"beauty contest" of a wine-tasting. We like the dark fruit
notes and the hint of brown spices lurking in the background. The wine
is very drinkable now and should be fine for several more years.
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- Currently in stock: 2010 BROADLEY "Willamette Valley"
Pinot Noir SALE $19.99
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Soter Vineyards is marked only with this street sign on the road a half a
mile from the winery and tasting facility.
SOTER We
first met Tony Soter when he was the winemaker at a fledgling vineyard in
Napa called Chappellet. Here was a fellow making excellent dry
Chenin Blanc and marvelous Cabernet Sauvignons who turned out to be one of
the most savvy when it came to the fickle Pinot Noir grape!
And back in the 1970s, Pinot Noir in California was viewed simply as a lost
cause.
Soter had worked in a Napa Valley wine shop before finding jobs in various
cellars. He schlepped hoses at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars for the
Winiarskis, for the Spauldings at Stonegate and then he was an assistant to
Chuck Ortman at Spring Mountain. After that he was at
Chappellet. And he actually held that job for a few years. A
grower begged him to take his Oakville-grown grapes and Soter made,
apparently, his first batch of Pinot Noir and now the rest is history.
Tony left Chappellet in 1980 or 1981 and started a consulting
business. Spottswoode was his first gig and a few years later he was
working with Shafer. Viader, Dalla Valle, Araujo and Niebaum Coppola
soon became clients. In the early 1980s, though, he'd embarked on his
own winery project, calling it "Etude," the French word for
'study.'
Soter certainly has a fine touch with Cabernet Sauvignon. What's
remarkable is he is skilled at making Pinot Noir. So many winemakers
use their Cabernet "recipe" on Pinot Noir and the results are
usually less-than-stellar. Do you think a Bordeaux winemaker could
make great Burgundy? ((There's an amusing anecdote of an enologist in
Bordeaux being asked about making wine from Pinot Noir grown in
Burgundy...and the winemaker asked "What is Pinot Noir?"))
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Mineral Springs Ranch, Soter's Estate vineyard.
Anyway, Soter's Etude Winery became a reference point for California Pinot
Noir. He realized he needed to make some investments in the winery and
it was at the time he sold the business to Beringer Blass, since the
enterprise needed its own vineyard as well as a permanent winemaking
facility. He remains affiliated with the Etude winery in
some capacity and
they're making some remarkably good wines.
Tony, who was born in Oregon, and his wife (who was raised in Portland)
ended up buying a vineyard site and planting grapes in the Willamette
Valley. And, though he still is affiliated with the Etude winery, the
Soter Winery is making its mark in Oregon.
We currently have a 2006 Beacon Hill Pinot Noir in stock. This
is a vineyard Soter purchased a long time ago and then added additional
plantings...they sold the property in 2005 and this 2006 is the final year
they made wine from Beacon Hill.
We like the red berry character of the wine and find some dark cherry notes,
as well. There's a nice touch of oak here--not too much, but enough
that you can sense some new cooperage was employed. The balance is
quite good and the wine rather showy in its youth, though it will likely
continue to develop over the next two to five years, maybe even longer.
Future bottlings will be offered under the "North Valley" label
for entry-level Pinot made from purchased fruit. The new estate
vineyard is "Mineral Springs Ranch," a wonderful property on a
hilltop. This is a somewhat sunnier site and Soter has a delightful
reception center atop the hill, with the winery situated down below.
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- Currently in stock: 2006 SOTER "Beacon Hill" PINOT NOIR
$59.99
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- VIDON
 Don Hagge is the
"Don" of Vidon, a small vineyard and winery in Newberg. Vickie
is Mrs. Don, hence the winery name of Vidon.
They have a tiny patch of Pinot Noir in a wonderful location in the Chehalem
Mountains near the bustling metropolis of Newberg. The property
encompasses some 20 acres, though only 5 are currently under vine. I
visited in August of 2010 and found Don drilling for oil, though he claimed
he was trying to move the trellising posts for a row of vines. A new
parcel in front of their house is destined to be a vineyard featuring Syrah
and a bit of Viognier.
Some
of the fruit used to be sold to other vintners, but Don now uses all his
crop to produce a few
hundred cases of his own VIDON wine. Don hails from North Dakota
and he spent some of his youth in France where he became a fan of Burgundy
wines. The fellow might seem, at first, like a simple farmer and a
"country bumpkin," but don't be fooled...he's a clever and sharp
fellow and he's got a palate for good wine.
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Domaine Vidon
We tasted the inaugural vintage and found it to be promising, but the second
vintage was really a winner. The 2006 is also remarkably good,
especially if you appreciate Pinot Noir that resembles "Burgundy"
rather than a Syrah. Here in California many winemakers produce wines
with the color of Syrah and the tannin of Cabernet. These tend to
score well with critics who "rate" wines on a numerical scale and
who think every wine must have the characteristics of Cabernet (inky color,
tons of tannin, etc.).
Don, in fact, stopped sending samples to various
critical publications once he realized his wine did not fit the profile these
so-called experts were looking for. He makes "Pinot Noir," not
Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Vidon Pinot has the perfume of Pinot Noir. It's fairly deep in color
for Pinot, but has the elegance and finesse of this capricious
variety. The aromas feature black cherry fruit and a hint of a woodsy
tone from the oak. The flavors are similar and reasonably long.
Nice tannin, without being too strong. This is a jewel of a Pinot
Noir, so don't tell anybody about this find except your very best
wine-drinking pals.
- Currently in stock: 2006 Vidon "Willamette Valley"
Pinot Noir Sold Out
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ELK COVE VINEYARDS
 Located
in Northern Willamette Valley, Elk Cove is one of Oregon's "old"
wineries. Founded by Joe and Pat Campbell,
Joe studied science history and medicine, while Pat's grandpa was a Swiss
immigrant who cultivated vines in Oregon in the late 1800s!
Their son Adam joined the winery in the mid-1990s and has instituted some
changes in the vineyard and cellar.
Today the Campbell family has 220 acres of vineyards, the first having been
planted in 1974. Their various parcels, however, cover something close to
600 acres.
The winery is situated in Gaston, Oregon, well west of Newberg and north of
Yamhill.
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We've found good wines from this estate and they seem to have a handle on
growing good grapes and turning them into interesting wines. They make
a nice range of wines, from Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Riesling to Pinot
Noir. There's a very fine Willamette Valley appellation Pinot Noir
which is their entry level bottling, a Reserve designated wine and
five single vineyard Pinots. Elk Cove also produces one of the best
sweet wines in the Pacific Northwest, a fruity, aromatic white called
Ultima.
Currently the winery produces around 50,000 cases of wine
annually.
- Currently in stock: 2004 Elk Cove "Mount
Richmond" Pinot Noir Sold Out
2004 Elk Cove Willamette Valley Pinot Gris Sold Out
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- DOMAINE SERENE
 Ken and Grace Evenstad own this winery, along
with hundreds of acres of property on the Red
Hills of Dundee in the Willamette Valley where they cultivate Pinot Noir,
primarily.
The couple hails from Minnesota where Mr. Evenstad studied to be a
pharmacist and Mrs. E was a registered nurse. The Evenstads bought a
small pharmaceutical company, one that had been owned by her uncle.
They bought the company for $1500 and thanks to the enterprising pharmacist,
turned it into a multi-million dollar business with more than 600 staff
members.
The firm is famous for its ability to copy others, producing generic
drugs. And so Domaine Serene produces wines which some say nicely copy
the wines of Burgundy.
The vineyard lands were purchased in 1989 and for the first few years, they
bought fruit from local growers. The first harvest from Domaine
Serene's own vineyards took place in 1995. Ken Wright was their
original winemaker and some years later they hired a fellow named Tony
Rynders who did a fine job in producing serious quality wines. Today
Domaine Serene encompasses some 125 acres of vineyard, split into ten
distinct parcels.
The Evenstads are, by all accounts, very competitive and this doesn't sit
well with many of their neighbors. In a relatively small wine
community where many vintners are willing to share their expertise and
experience, Domaine Serene's owners view their company practices as
"trade secrets."
The notion of their winemaker, for example, launching his own label did not
sit well with the proprietors of this winery and they filed a lawsuit
against Mr. Rynders asking for $75,000 in damages. There was a claim
he had used company equipment for his own wine and that he had knowledge of
their "secret" method of vinifying red Pinot Noir grapes and
turning it into a $75 white wine called "Coeur Blanc."
Other winemakers laugh when hearing of this sort of "trade
secrets" legal entanglement and Rynders says the method of making a
"Blanc de Noir" wine from Pinot Noir is common knowledge and it's
been done by wineries for years. The case was settled out of court and
no details have been revealed apart from the fact that winemaker Rynders is
prohibited from either making his own or consulting with some other winery
in the production of a white wine made of Pinot Noir. This condition
runs on sometime into 2013, we understand.
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The winery is, however, a very business-like enterprise and each staff
member has his or her particularly duties and responsibilities. One
Oregon industry insider described Domaine Serene as "a bit rigid and
unbending." A former staffer told me "Domaine Serene
is very weird. All the cool folks are scared...I got screamed at for
the most ridiculous things..."
I saw this first hand when I visited the property in 2010, having asked to
see the winery so I might take some photos for our website. I had
just tasted a range of Serene wines and the tasting room lady explained
she might be able to show me around if another colleague showed up.
She did not know, though, it this staffer would arrive in 10 minutes or 45
minutes...as I was on a tight schedule, I departed. It was a bit
odd, though, that on a week day, during normal business hours, there
wasn't an office person, cellar or lab crew member with the ability to
spend 5 minutes walking through the winery.
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The receptionist in the Domaine Serene offices seemed to have the
compassion of an IRS or DMV bureaucrat when I asked her about having a
quick look in the cellar.
Neighbors and vintners seem bemused by their wealthy competitors and I
heard this winery derisively referred to as "Domaine
Obscene." Part of this stems from an attitude neighboring
winemakers view as "We're better than you and we'll tell you
so." And consumers may see that this winery is proud of its
wines, too.
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- The wines are premium-priced, to be sure. We had been impressed by
the quality of the wines in general, but they had two really good
winemakers from the start in Ken Wright and Tony Rynders.
The wines fare well in blind-tastings, though some may criticize the Pinot
Noirs for being more along the lines of Californian wines than of
Oregonian. ((And there's a certain Napa Valley vibe or attitude at
this winery, coincidentally -or not-.))
I've found the Domaine Serene Pinots to be a bit beefier than most of the
wines of their neighbors.
The 2007 "Yamhill Cuvee" shows classic Pinot Noir fruit...nice
cherry notes on the nose. It's bright, lightly oaked and mildly
tannic. Very good.
A 2006 Evenstad Reserve shows good Pinot fruit and plenty of oak.
There's a pencil shavings-sort of flavor on the finish, so it's a wine for
fans of lavishly-wooded wines. At $58, this struck me as a bit
expensive.
Ninety bucks will get you a wine with the "Mark Bradford" designation. I
was a bit perplexed by this wine, not finding much in common with Pinot
Noirs from Burgundy or California's north coast. It does have a red
fruit character, but I did not recognize this as a Pinot Noir, nor did it
strike me as a wine for which I'd ask customers to drop $90.
A 2006 Winery Hill bottling was more tannic and structured and it seemed
to have greater character of Pinot Noir. Brushy and woodsy, too.
Though they claim to admire the wines of Burgundy, their 2007 Etoile
Chardonnay ($45) was a total mystery to me. The honeyed notes
dominated and the wine, at nearly 3 years of age, seemed to be
ever-so-slightly on the edge of oxidation. I thought of the Jura
wines called Vin Jaune as I sniffed and tasted this. We
tasted this again in San Francisco and found it merely woody and in better
condition than the bottle in their tasting room...
The wine dabbles with Syrah wines, which come from either Southern Oregon
or Washington's Columbia Valley. I did not find these to be
reminiscent of Rhone Valley Syrahs...they were simply "red
wines."
- Currently in stock:
Wines Available By
Special Order
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SHEA WINE CELLARS & VINEYARD
 If
you've perused the labels of Pinot Noirs from Oregon, you've probably run
across the Shea name. The vineyard amounts to some 140 acres planted
on a 200 acre estate. The vineyard is just north of Highway 240 a
short distance east of Yamhill.
They sell fruit to well more than a dozen wineries, even one or two in
California! About 25% of their fruit stays "home" and is
vinified by the Sheas these days, up from 10% a few years ago.
The roster of Shea Vineyard wineries is impressive: Ken Wright,
Broadley, Penner-Ash, Panther Creek, Raptor Ridge, St. Innocent and even
California's Ancien winery!
The wines have routinely been good from this vineyard and its own
"Estate" wine bottling is quite good. The wines tend to be
fairly well-structured, not light, fruity or flimsy...
Their 2009 "Estate" Pinot Noir attracted my attention at a recent
tasting. The wine displays notes of dark berry and cherry fruit with
an tone of forest floor. It's a medium-bodied Pinot Noir with a hint
of wood. In a sea of shallow and empty wines, I found this to be quite
satisfying on the palate--medium-bodied, elegant and with a sweet spice note
on the finish. Nice intensity, too.
Currently in stock: 2009 "Estate" Shea Vineyard Pinot
Noir $39.99
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KEN WRIGHT CELLARS
 If
you're looking for "Mister Wright", this is your man. He was a partner in
Panther Creek before establishing his own winery in 1994. The wines were
originally made in a
shared facility (Domaine Serene being the other part of the cellar) in Carlton.
Wright offers especially distinctive batches as single-vineyard bottlings. He was
"dubbed" (or "knighted") as a
 "Master Winemaker" by The Wine
Spectator. The wines are subjected to minimal cellar treatment, the usual regime by
Pinot Noir producers.
We have a few bottles of some of the 2009s.
The Shea Vineyard comes from the Yamhill-Carlton area...Wright gets several
parcels, 2/3s of which are planted with the Pommard clone and the rest is
Wadensvil. We like the firm structure of the wine and its dark
cherry/berry character.
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There's a Freedom Hill bottling we liked...this vineyard site is in the
Coast Range area, about 15 miles west of Salem near the town of
Dallas. They buy the fruit from a parcel totaling less than 3 acres
and it's all planted with the Pommard clone. Freedom Hill is typically
softer than the Shea vineyard wine, too.
Ken Wright owns the Abbott Claim vineyard, just east of Carlton.
There's the Pommard clone planted at this location along with some numbered
clones which only serious wine geeks bother memorizing. Suffice it to
say Wright's wine from this place tends to be slightly bigger and show
darker fruit notes than the other vineyard bottlings we have.
 Tyrus Evan is
Wright's small, non-Pinot Noir label. The name for this project stems from
Wright's sons' middle names, Tyrus and Evan.
We liked the 2003 Syrah from the famous Del Rio vineyard 15 miles north of
Medford in Southern Oregon. The climate is warmer than in the
northern part of the state where Pinot Noir reigns supreme. The wine has
berry-like fruit with a nice touch of wood. It's a softer styled Syrah
(remember, it's in the hands of a Pinot Noir producer!), so drinking this in its
youth is probably wise.
- Currently in stock:
2003 Tyrus Evan "Del Rio" Syrah $31.99
2009 KEN WRIGHT "Abbott Claim" PINOT NOIR $49.99
2009 KEN WRIGHT "Shea" PINOT NOIR $49.99
2009 KEN WRIGHT "Freedom Hill" PINOT NOIR $49.99
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LEMELSON
 You
probably have not heard of the name Jerome Lemelson. I know I hadn't
until I did a bit of research.
This guy was amazing, holding patents on hundreds of gizmos and
gadgets. Only Thomas Edison and Edward Land (Polaroid cameras) held
more patents!
Lemelson's innovations made possible all sorts of things
we take for granted: ATM machines, Camcorders, Sony's "Walkman"
devices, fax machines and more.
It seems Lemelson developed technology used in "bar codes" and
scanners, helping speed up purchases at the point of sale in all sorts of
stores and yet early vintages of Lemelson's wines did not have a UPC code on
the bottle!
There's a bank of solar panels outside the winery...and inside you'll find a
modern, multi-level facility geared towards traditional winemaking but with
an eye on technology.-
- Here's a look inside their innovative winery...
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- A platform, complete with sorting table, can be moved
throughout the fermentation room to fill the variable-capacity tanks and
to do a "punch down" of the red wine fermenters.
One of his sons, Eric Lemelson, was bitten by the wine bug and he runs this
modest enterprise in Yamhill County. They have had a number of
winemakers the past few years and Anthony King holds the position
presently. He seems to have the wines on the right track and there's
a measure of stability in place as a result.
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The Jerome's Reserve wine is a barrel selection, representing the best wine
in the Lemelson cellar. The 2001 won a blind-tasting in May of 2004
here at the shop. We've had our eye on this producer ever since.
A nice range of wines is produced at Lemelson. There's a good dry
Riesling and Pinot Gris from a relatively high elevation site. An
oaky Chardonnay rounds out their white wine roster. Some
single-vineyard Pinot Noirs also are offered.
Currently in the shop is a 2009 "Thea's Selection." This
comes from a number of vineyard sites and it's their flagship Pinot
Noir. We like the berry and cherry fruit in this wine and there's a
faintly floral element lurking in the background. The 2009 has a touch
of forest-floor or maybe tobacco? Well, it's a good example of Pinot
Noir and since it comes from a variety of vineyard sites and terroirs,
there are numerous interesting notes in this little symphony.
We have a lovely dry Riesling in stock. It's from the 2008
vintage. There's a chalky aspect to this wine with classic fruity,
floral, Meyer Lemon-sort of fragrances and flavors. Delicious!
Currently in stock: 2009 Lemelson "Thea's" Pinot Noir
SALE $29.99
2008 Lemelson Dry Riesling $19.99-
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- PANTHER CREEK CELLARS
 Ron and Linda Kaplan are the owners of this enterprise. They
bought the winery when there was a falling out between the winemaker (Ken Wright) and the
other partners. They had enlisted Mark Vlossak to be the winemaker. He is the
winemaker at St. Innocent, as well. Not sure who's there making the
wines these days....Located in McMinnville, Panther Creek leases
some 59 acres.
We had some bottles of Panther Creek's 2000 "Winemaker's Reserve"
Pinot Noir in the shop. These folks make a bunch of single vineyard
wines and this is their "blended" Pinot. In 2000 they have
fruit from the cool climate Willamette Valley with some from the warmer
Umpqua Valley to the south. They started the fermentation using
native yeasts before kicking it with some special strain of cultured yeast
(I guess they wanted to insure the wine fermented out to dryness).
You'll find a touch of wood here, along with dark cherry and a whiff of
forest floor aromas. Drinkable now...we like it at cellar temperature.
Currently in store: 2000 Winemaker's Reserve Pinot Noir (list $35) Sold
Out
- KING ESTATE
 These people quickly appeared on the radar screens of Oregon wine aficionados as
it is the largest winery in Oregon. The King family made a few bucks in an
enterprise known as something like King Avionics, making radar devices for airplanes.
Ed King, Jr. developed a taste for good wines while traveling around
Europe. His son, Ed III, went to school in Oregon and was mainly
looking for a source for hay for some horses. He had already planted a
small vineyard just for kicks, but when he saw the property, Ed III decided
to really make hay. Or, rather Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir!
They have a 1033 acre estate southwest of Eugene. The winery is making about
100,000+ cases annually, so while not huge, it dwarfs the many tiny cellars one encounters
on the Oregon wine trail.
They make a rather pleasant Pinot Gris, a medium-bodied, somewhat fruity style
that's a refreshing change-of-pace to those who are just discovering there
are wines other than "California Chardonnay." The wine
displays "sweet" notes all the way through the aromas to the
flavors. I find notes of candied citrus and some tropical fruit tones
here. It may be close to dry, but the over all balance is of a softer,
less acidic white wine.
The winery makes some Pinot Noirs and we've tasted perfectly nice red wines,
but nothing compelling. King Estate has yet to be identified as a
major source of Oregon Pinot. Perhaps this will change in the future?
- Currently in stock: 2009 Oregon Pinot Gris (list $20) SALE
$14.99
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- ST. INNOCENT WINERY
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- This Oregon winery is one of the "early" ones, as winemaker Mark
Vlossak had been assisting at the late Fred Arterberry's winery back in
1987, or so. (Fred was also famous for his cider.)
Vlossak grew up in Wisconsin and his father had been interested in wine,
hence it was something Mark was privileged to taste as he was growing
up. Going off to college, he studied theater and then decided on a
career in pediatrics. And he had some sort of internship in Oregon.
At some point he started taking classes at UC Davis and was working for a
prominent wine chemist, doing lab analysis for various wineries. And
then he was hanging out with Arterberry, too, even while in the medical
business.
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- In 1988, with the backing of a small group of investors, Vlossak launched
the St. Innocent brand, making a few hundred cases of wine.
Along the way he took on the job of winemaker for the Panther Creek winery
(1994-1999), but these days his full-time gig is making wine for his St.
Innocent winery along with handling the cellar for a label called Zenith
Vineyard. Zenith is the old O'Connor vineyard and today it's owned by
Tim & Kari Ramey.
Vlossak has been a good ambassador for Oregon wine as he promotes his St.
Innocent and Zenith wines. His newsletters were quite scholarly and
it's clear this fellow is a 'wine geek' as well as being a skilled
winemaker.
 We've
found Vlossak's winemaking style to be quite good and he doesn't make
"extreme wines." That is, his wines tend to feature balance
and elegance over power and concentration.
We currently have a 2009 Pinot Noir in stock. It's from the Shea
vineyard, just west of the Chehalem Valley. Shea usually has firm
acidity and good structure. The 2009 is a medium-bodied Pinot Noir and
it's one which we expect to continue to develop over the next decade...it's
quite good now, though.
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- Currently in stock: 2009 ST. INNOCENT "Shea
Vineyard" PINOT NOIR SALE $39.99
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- OWEN ROE
 The
name of this brand is that of an Irish patriot who roamed Europe in the 1600s.
Owen Roe O'Neil.
The wines for this brand are made in Washington State and "Baja Washington", which would be Oregon's
Willamette Valley. They actually have a winery in Washington's
Columbia Valley, along with a modest warehouse winery near the Champoeg
State Park in Sherwood, Oregon (a short drive from Newberg).
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- David O'Reilly is the driving force at Owen Roe. He was born in
Ireland and came to California for college...and he ended up working at the
Elk Cove winery, handling marketing but always interested in the production
side of wine. His partner, Jerry Owen, takes care of looking after various
vineyards.
In 1999 O'Reilly began working on the Owen Roe project. And what a
project it's turned into! From the first vintage, making a several
hundred cases of wine, the various labels (Owen Roe, Sharecroppers and
O'Reilly's) now tally to 100,000 cases.
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The Wine Spectator's Harvey Steiman was very quick to praise this producer
and practically nominate the winemaker for sainthood shortly after their
first release. We've found the wines to be quite good, in general,
and some have been exceptional. Now that they've had a decade, or
so, to hone their skills, we can say the top wines are usually stylish and
have a measure of intensity. In general, the Owen Roe wines, anyway,
are always worth a look.
The vineyards are typically contracted for by the acre, rather than by the
ton. This allows them to regulate crop levels with an eye towards
quality rather than quantity. The protocol in the winery features a
minimalistic approach to winemaking. Oak tends to be a
prominent feature in many of their Owen Roe wines, though I think they've
pulled back a bit and seem to shine the spotlight, these days, on the
fruit.
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 Their
2008 Abbot's Table wine is a hodge-podge of what-not. As in "what
not there?" How about 24% Zinfandel, 22% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet
Sauvignon, 12% Syrah, 10% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 6% Blaufränkisch and
4% Malbec All those numbers DO add up to 100,
by the way! The wine is full-bodied and no single variety really dominates. It's quite drinkable now with well-seasoned foods.
A 2007 "Yakima Valley Red" is especially good. It's a
Bordeaux blend...24% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Franc, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit comes from
a couple of different vineyards. We like the charm of this wine and it
really has a lovely fragrance and flavor. The Cabernets sing loudly in
this chorale group. Harmoniously, too.
The Cabernet from 2005 is a medium-full bodied red with some nice, cedary,
woodsy note.
The DuBrul 2006 is, as usual, a hefty and robust wine. Nicely oaked,
full-throttle without being a gob o'fruit bomb. And it's drinkable
now.
- Currently in stock: 2008 "Abbot's Table" Sold
Out
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon $41.99
2007 Yakima Valley Red $41.99
2006 Dubrul Cabernet Sauvignon Sale $69.99
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BRANDBORG VINEYARD & WINERY
We've known Terry Brandborg for ages...he used to make small lots of
various California wines at a little facility not far from San Francisco.
His day job, back in those days, was as a longshoreman in San Francisco
(does San Francisco have any shipping industry these days?) during the
early part of the day, leaving his afternoons and evenings free to either
work in the cellar making wine or, even better, attempting to sell some of
it.
In 2001 Terry and his wife Sue did some exploration in Oregon for a
vineyard site. He'd always been interested in Pinot Noir, so Oregon
made sense. But while so many vintners set up shop in the Willamette
Valley, the Brandborgs found a site in the southern part of the state in
the Umpqua Valley. They're 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean in a
little place called Elkton, 495 miles north of San Francisco and 160 miles
south of Portland.
Elkton has had Pinot Noir since the 1970s. The Brandborgs
place is situated 750 to 1000 feet above sea level. They've got
approximately 50 acres which they're working on planting. In
the meantime, fruit from established vineyards in the Umpqua Valley
provide the grapes for their wines.
We found the entire range of wines to be nice...especially good is their
2009 Pinot Gris. This wine is left on the spent yeast until
bottling. We like the faintly toasty, smoky note in this wine, along
with the mild spice of the ripe, mature Pinot Gris. It's dry,
medium+ bodied and a delight.
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Currently in stock: 2009 BRANDBORG Umpqua Valley
PINOT GRIS $14.99
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