Pinot Noir Barrels Find New Life Thanks To Oregon Whiskey

You and whiskey. All in all, you’ve got a pretty good thing going.

That doesn’t mean you haven’t wandered. A seductive aperitif in a hotel bar. A cheap beer when you really needed it. And, sooner or later, everyone occasionally winds up wetting their beak in a good pinot.

And—you better sit down for this—that includes your faithful whiskey.

Introducing Whipper Snapper Whiskey, a new vagabond of an Oregon whiskey (by way of Chicago), which compensates for its relatively young age with a lifetime of experience. Let us explain.

The first thing you need to know: this is a product from the  distiller (with strong Chicago connections) that last wowed you with Ransom, a gin that gets that little hint of something extra by using former pinot noir barrels for aging. And they figured, hey, if you’ve got some extra pinot barrels lying around, you might as well make some whiskey too…

The result: a pot-stilled hooch that has all that kick you want from a shot of white lightning, but with the refinement and depth of an aged scotch or bourbon. Basically, think of it as the whiskey that would be concocted by a Master Sommelier who dabbled in moonshine.

In other words, your jug band will approve.

(courtesy Urban Daddy Chicago)

Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir Wasn’t Pinot And No One Noticed

NV Brownstone Pinot Noir – $10

People say that you can’t find a good Pinot Noir at an inexpensive price. Well, we have news for them. We have discovered a yummy Pinot Noir for $9.99. Full of earth and juicy grape flavors, this wine is wonderful by itself, but is structured enough to go with most white fish. It is an earthy juice bomb and I have had Pinots at twice the price that are not this good.

find it at http://www.dobbysliquors.com/

2006 Oakwood Hollow Napa Pinot Noir – $14

I thought I was done with the end of the bin series, but I found one more. In Chicago,there used to be two large liquor stores, Sam’s and Binny’s. Binny’s bought Sam’s and all the Sam’s specific Wines are now on cut out. This Napa Valley Pinot is made by the same people who made the ne-go-ciant Syrah, it is comprised from 6 barrels purchased from some unknown Napa vineyard. It once retailed for $28, but Sam’s is gone, it is now an orphan and sells for $14, I don’t expect you to find this exact same wine, but equal deals are available out there, you just have to explore and find them.

Ok, Oakwood Hollow is a fake name and it sounds way too much like the place Winnie the Pooh lived, but a $28 Pinot made from Napa fruit is very likely to be better than a $14 Pinot sourced from vineyards all over California. The color is see thru ruby red. The nose has whiffs of alcohol but also chocolate covered cherries and mint. The taste is sour cherries at first then dark fruit, cranberries and vanilla, the tannins are light, but you can sense the oak on the back of your palate. A long somewhat nondescript finish, a little too sour to be delicious. A tasty wine but with the sour cherries and cranberries it is very tart . This is definitely a food wine and not an afternoon sipper.

2006 Gypsy Dancer Oregon Pinot Noir – $16

Ok, so this isn’t really a $16 Pinot, it normally sells for anywhere from $40 to $60, but again I found an end of the bin special. I was not familiar with Gypsy Dancer Pinot but how can you turn down this kind of deal. The grapes are sourced from the A & G Estate Vineyards in the Dundee Hills region of Oregon. In checking the web for information on this Pinot, I found that the Winemaker, Gary Andrus passed away Jan. 30, 2009 and this is the last vintage ever to be produced. So, that’s the reason the wine was in the cut-out bin. This is a very small volume, (480 cases produced), unfiltered wine.

The color is a dense, but see thru deep red, with brown overtones. The nose is the classic Pinot Noir aroma, mushrooms, crumples leaves, a little bit of flowers and a hint of mint, nothing else smells like a good Pinot. The flavor is delicate, not overpowering but somehow huge at the same time.  Your mouth is filled with flavor, but none of the flavors overpower, just an explosion of subtle blended tastes. There are black and blueberries in there, also some Junior Mints, this is a very balanced delicate yet full. There isn’t really a finish, it is more like the initial flavors refuse to give up, it lasts a long time. The Gypsy Dancer is more fruit forward and less earthy than some Pinots, but is is beautifully balanced and wonderfully subtle.

I spilled some of the wine for a fallen Homey, it looks like I’m a fan of Gary Andrus’s wines a little too late, he made a really good wine. The Gypsy Dancer is well worth searching out if you can find it, it was a $60 wine before he passed and now is $40 and if your lucky much much less.

2005 Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon – $18

“We will sell no wine before its time.”

If you’re a geezer like me, you may remember that this was the slogan for Paul Mason wines when Orson Welles was their pitchman in the 1970s and early 80s. And what happened to Paul Mason wines? I don’t know for sure, but they must have fallen on hard times, because In 1986 Augustin Huneeus, a Chilean immigrant and then-president of Franciscan Vineyards, purchased the former Mason vineyard ranches near the Monterey town of Soledad on California‘s Central Coast, and established them as the home of Estancia Winery.

The first replanting of the estate Pinnacles Vineyards was to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. I first started drinking Estancia’s Cabernet Sauvignon in the late 80s. (The fruit must have been sourced from other local growers, because it wasn’t until 1999 that almost 700 acres in Paso Robles were purchased as the vineyard home for Estancia’s Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, and Red Meritage.)

For the last 20 years, Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon has been my most reliable daily wine. I always keep a case or two in the cellar. When I first started drinking it, it was a steal at $8 a bottle. Today, the normal retail has drifted towards the $16-18 range, but it can occasionally be had for as little as $12 per bottle by the case if you regularly search wine sites for sales. However, even at retail it remains an excellent value.

The color of this wine is classic deep purple. The nose is rather unassuming, and gives little prediction of what is to come. In the glass, the wine starts out quite fruit-forward, with plenty of dark black cherry and currant flavors. The fruit is aided and abetted by toasted sweet oak. Structure is provided by moderate and well-balanced tannins (which become more pronounced after an hour or so in the decanter), and just a hint of pepper and minerality.

These tasting notes are based on the 2005 which I’m currently drinking, but it hardly matters. They must make this stuff in huge tanks or barrels and reserve a large quantity each year for blending, because Estancia Cabernet is the very definition of an unerring house style. I have no idea whether or not this Cab cellars well; it never stays there long enough.

For all of my devotion to Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon, I don’t find the same magic in the rest of their portfolio, which includes all of the usual suspects. The Chardonnay is nice enough, but doesn’t stand out from other similarly priced Chards. The Pinot Noir is thin and unremarkable. The Meritage shows some finesse, but is a poor value at twice the price of the Cabernet. ”

By Stephen Hawk

Owen Roe Sharecropper’s Pinot Noir – $19

Owen Roe is not the name of the Winemaker, Owen is sort of the Irish equivalent to William Wallace. The Winemaker David O’Reilly who along with Jerry Owen make a line of terrific wines from the Pacific Northwest. They’re wines are always top quality and even on years when the weather does not cooperate they come up with interesting wines. This Pinot is sourced from a few different vineyards in the Northern Willamette Valley of Oregon, aged 9 months in French oak, alcohol content 13.75% and a fairly small volume of 4,500 cases produced.

The nose has a lot to offer, jammy fruit, vanilla, a whiff of brewing coffee, and a little bit of musty mushroom aroma. The mouth feel is a bit oaky, a  dry feeling in the back of the mouth, this is a young Pinot, it’s fine to drink now, but a year or two of bottle age will tame the oak. The color is a glassy crimson, very pretty. There is abundant spice and pepper, it comes in layers and is not overwhelming, the fruit is dark and dry, not sweet, with some thin no fizz cola flavor. That may not sound like a good combination on paper, but on your palate it works just fine. A very multidimensional wine, what you taste in the first sip of your glass will change by the last sip of your glass, lot’s of fun to drink.

Not the “Holy Grail” under $20 Pinot ( you need to catch a sale to get the Sharecropper for under $2o), But a rock solid, attention grabbing Pinot.

2007 MacMurray Ranch Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir – $18

Each time I’ve lunched at Biaggi’s – one of my favorite lunch spots – I’ve enjoyed a glass or two of the Fred MacMurray Pinot Noir. The “Sonoma Coast” label is their sub-$20 version of the $35 “Russian River Valley” label, which is a bit more refined and soft, if that’s what you’re into.

Unlike the translucent and Kool Aid-ish Pinots from Burgundy, this wine is bold, burly and intense! First of all, it’s dark opaque red – almost black! Black cherry and raspberry on the nose and black pepper, spicy vanilla and cola in your mouth. A long chewy mouth-coating woody finish has plenty of acidity to go with beef stew, grilled chicken, turkey or bacon.

2007 Byron Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir – $20

Estate bottled Pinot for $20 out of California‘s Santa Maria Valley!

Winemaker Jonathan Nagy knows that Pinot Noir is a touchy grape that needs to be handled delicately in order to preserve the fragile essence of its fruit. What I thought was cool about Byron – they’ve designed their environmentally-sensitive winery from the top down, utilizing gravity rather than pumps throughout the winemaking process. They use old-world natural techniques to gently move the grapes, juice and wine along, which allows them to produce wines that are balanced, elegant, pure and true.

Their 2007 Pinot hit me with smoke ,earth and rose petals on the nose and more smoke and cherry cola on the palate. It has a nice smooth, silky and smoky finish.

Drink with salmon, pork chops, grilled chicken or a Smoke Daddy’s pulled pork sandwich.

2007 X Winery Truchard Pinot Noir – $18

Like a walk through the forest hand-in-hand with  Megan  Fox, only she’s wearing a bikini made of wild berries. Smells awesome – you detect wild strawberries, raspberries and cranberries along with cedar from the walking path. You don’t know where to start – sniff, taste, explore – either one will get you into trouble with that dude who played David on 90210.

So take a sip – nice velvety texture with a good balance – acid but not too much acid, making it great with prime rib, filet mignon or even just Arby’s.

Not only from the Carneros region – which is considered by some to be the sweet spot of Napa and Sonoma Valleys – but specifically from the Truchard Vineyard, which is well-known for producing some of Napa’s best grapes. And just like Megan, this one’s delish and just a little dirty.

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