The 2007 vintage in the mud.

Well, with another late spring and the admonishment from the two or three people who read my blog for being absent so long, I decided it was time I say something about the 2007 vintage in these uncertain times.

There probably will never be a bad vintage every again in Oregon or anywhere else. That's if you believe a vintner and from my perspective you should always believe what we have to say. I have read some crazy things about the 2007 vintage in the Northern Willamette Valley, but suffice to say it is a vintage like 2007 that separates the great sites from the rest. Great sites produced some remarkable wine, worthy of seeking out, but for every great site, there were probably 20 that produced marginal wine.

It's not that the 2007 vintage produced lighter, more delicate wines, but that there is a hollowness about many of them the make them ultimately not as satisfying. Does that mean they aren't enjoyable? Far from it, their delicacy makes them an appealing when juxtaposed to their 2006 high alcohol counterparts. And, if you believe a recent New York Times article detailing the California vintners who are extoling the virtues of delicate Pinot Noir, we should get our pencils sharpened to count all the money from the orders bound to be flooding in. That article might be a discussion for another blog, picking Pinot Noir early to capture it's delicacy......lol.  While we are at it we can hang 4 tons per acre(well my stressed vineyard would never set that much), that ought to produce some delicacy.

But I digress. What I am really hear to talk about is the 2007 vintage. Jay Miller from The Wine Advocate summed up the vintage pretty well: "2007 appears to be a superb vintage for Pinot Noir. It will appeal to fans who like the intellectual appeal of Burgundy as well as those who come down more on the hedonist's side of the coin." That counts about 90% of consumers out. If you lined up 10 wine consumers, not Pinot Geeks, but the type of people who know Pinot and enjoy it and buy it, 8 out of 10 of them would pick the 06 vintage in a blind tasting over the 07. It's just the way it is.

Myself, I would favor the 07 Oregon wines that came from great sites, not necessarily the ones that came from lessor sites. Pinot tends to go from cherry, to black cherry, to really black cherry,to borderline plum and prune in the warmer vintages. There is no denying the opulence of the 2006 vintage, but the bright fruit, inherent spicy qualities of the 07 vintage, work for me better than the flavors of the 06.

I have told people unabashadly that I will be shocked if anyone makes a better 07 in Oregon than my 2007 Lenné Estate. My site is steep and windy which is important to prevent absorbtion from the showers that plagued us all through harvest. It was an interesting vintage to look back on and I am sure it would have been a disaster 10 years earlier when crop levels and canopy management were much more in line with the lower prices of the wines then. But there is a reason we drop fruit, spend a ton of money in managing our canapy and our vineyard in general: vintages like 2007. 

I was also fortunate to have a good mentor in 2007, David O'Reilly of Owen Roe. David buys grapes from me which go into his Kilmore Pinot Noir. He and his crew have had a big hand in making my wine what it is. On the 24th of September, we samples and walked the vineyard tasting grapes. We were at 23.5-24 degrees brix with good pH numbers. We knew the rain was coming and I was nervous, may have even jumped the gun as I hadn't been through a wet vintage on my site. "After we finished walking the vineyard all David said was, "go ahead and pick your grapes if you want to, but leave my portion hang." Enough said, I did it and one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Some good wines will be made from 2007, maybe even some great ones, but no bad wines. You can believe that, you read it on the internet. 

Comments

[Eleanor]

It may surprise you that more than two or three of us read your blog. It has been way too long! I am enjoying a 2007 le nez as I type. :-)

[Rick]

I'm drinking an '06 le nez, so I'm a little behind Eleanor, but it's drinking beautifully so I suspect I'll be into my '07 soon enough. ;-)

The hedonistic pinots are fun and delicious, but it's the elegant ones that inspire. Looking forward to opening one soon.

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