My Opinions Of The Last 13 Years Of Oregon Pinot
Updated:
- 2007: Delicate, hard to love on release, fantastic complexity 8-12 years in, many have faded by now.
- 2008: Didn't try enough of these to have an opinion.
- 2009: Warm & ripe: Californian? Maybe I just feel that way because it's the year I moved up from California and remember those 100 degree days in July and August.
- 2010: Cooler year, Plenty of tannin, fussy when young, took a few years to open up.
- 2011: Underripe, cool climate year of the decade. Tight for years, soft and floral and complex and simply beautiful once they finally started opening.
- 2012: The first of a run of warmer years. Really nice balance of fruit, structure and acidity. Delicious right on release, unlike the previous two vintages.
- 2013: Another warm year but this is the hurricane remnants year, an uneven vintage because some winemakers picked before the torrential rains and some picked after and the wines are all over the place as a result.
- 2014: A lot like 2012, which is a really good thing. These might have a little more structure than the 12s but really they both were fantastic and still are.
- 2015: Warm & ripe: Even more Californian than 2009. Bold and beautiful in their fruit-forward way on release, I've only been disappointed by the bottles I've aged.
- 2016: Darker & concentrated with heavier tannin. I liked these on release and I like them better and better as they age.
- 2017: Fire-engine red: The racy acidity year.
- 2018: Back to darkness again - kind of funny the two swings of the pendulum between 16, 17 and 18. The swing here got us further than 16: this is the muscular year of the decade.
- 2019: A return to modesty and delicacy without the fragility or early fussiness of either 2007 or 2011. Most of these seem more accessible at release than either 17s which need a few years to work out that acidity or the 18s which I think need the better part of a decade to resolve some of those monster tannins.
- 2020: Fire smoke! I haven't tried or bought enough of whatever got made to really have an opinion.