2004

A beautiful early vintage for me, and my first vintage with Whistling Ridge fruit. Also the first vintage where the majority of wines were fermented with some percentage of whole clusters. The wines are long lived and elegant, moving slowly into the tertiary flavors reminiscent of old world Pinot Noir. The Willamette Valley bottling is in a prime drinking window. The Hommage was composed of wines from Momtazi and Winter's Hill and carries the dark fruit signature of those two vineyards. THere is an ageless aspect to this wine, and while I look forward to seeing where the curtain finally falls, it would be quite a while from now based on current bottles. 2004 Souris is beautiful, reminiscent of old Pommard but with plenty of life remaining.

*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**

2003

One of Oregon's warmest vintages, these wines are burly and fruit rich. 350 cases total production yielded three wines. The Willamette Valley bottling is surprisingly youthful, but also ginormously fruited and weighty from a rather robust abv. Drink 750ml bottles sooner, rather than later, and mags at your leisure. The Hommage was very broad and dark early in life and is now, IMO, past it's prime. Alive but a bit ponderous. The 2003 Souris was a composite of favorite barrels as always, but an very large portion were from Stony Mountain fruit, fermented with 30% whole clusters, and produced a very balanced wine for the vintage. This is waning, but still beautiful.

*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**

2002

Our original vintage, and what an auspicious vintage to begin! From a total of 186 cases, I made two wines. The Willamette Valley is lovely, demure, and in a great space. Drink now or in the near future. The Hommage a'A&D is thriving and beautiful, with more years to come but perfectly ready to drink. If you have either of these two wines still in the cellar, let me know if you're planning on drinking them soon (I am guessing you probably also already have my cell number, since the 186 cases didn't go far....)

*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**