The second of Oregon's hottest vintages that fell under my body of work. Not only a warm vintage, but one marked by extraordinary increases in Brix at harvest. Picking Pinot Noir from a vineyard on three consecutive days saw 23.5 Brix on Day 1, 25.5 on Day 2, and 27.0 Brix on Day 3. Compounding matters in a compressed vintage, fruit often arrived at the winery at temps above 80F. Most of these wines are either ready to drink now, and beautiful in a fruit forward way, or showing distinct signs of oxidation. A bit of a crapshoot, but I am happy to replace any off bottles with a current vintage wine. My current joke is that the 2006 Hommage is a fantastic old bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape…but the other wines appear to be in a bottle by bottle stage. So enjoy the better bottles, and we’ll replace the others with a different wine.
2006 Whistling Ridge Blanc is absolutely gorgeous. The 2006 Riesling is also in a lovely window. Drink both over the next 3-4 years.
*Under cork, wines over 10 years of age develop considerable bottle variation. Our thoughts on these wines are based upon recent samples, but each bottle is unique.*
**This post covers Matello wines**