Wine & Spirits - October 2020 - 98

US NEW RELEASES
90 | Hermann J. Wiemer

$27

2018 Seneca Lake Cabernet Franc ^ This
appellation bottling is slightly waxier and
more obtuse than Wiemer's vineyard designate (also recommended here), with dirtyMartini aromas and dark candied-plum flavors. It's very young and still showing baby
fat, but some compelling elements are in
place. Cellar. -P.J.C. (600 cases) §

WHITE BLEND

of it channeled through vibrant red-cherry
and raspberry flavors, with a diaphanous tension and lightness that's astonishing. Pahlow
made some spectacular wines in 2018, and
Sojeau may end up being the most complex
and lasting. One taster named it Prince, for
its binary sensuality, yin-and-yang expression
of power and delicacy, its virtuoso fruit and
its haunting savor. -P.J.C. (450 cases) §

OREG O N W H I T E
RIESLING
521424

91 | Ovum

$18

2019 Elkton Oregon Big Salt (Best Buy) ^
A cofermented blend of riesling, gewurztraminer and early muscat, Big Salt is juicy and
exuberant. The aromatics are in the key of
gewurztraminer-rose petal, peach, gardenia, litchi and apple-giving way to a wine
that's juicy, salty, blowsy and irresistible. Buy
it by the case, to pour with Korean dishes, like
the bubbling hotpot of gochujang goodness
at LA's Beverly Soon Tofu. -P.J.C. §

OREG ON RED

521425

95 | Ovum

$30

2018 Rogue Valley Off the Grid Cedar
Ranch Riesling ^ From an old vineyard of
shallow cobbled soils riddled with devigorating serpentine, this is a haunting wine.
John House does as little as he can to the
fruit, aging it in cement eggs and acacia
puncheons, adding sulfur at bottling and little else. So, there's nothing to suppress the
seemingly boundless aromatics-lemon oil,
lemon peel, scallion, petrol, saffron, cedar
tips, peach, quince and on and on. Its flavors start out broad-shouldered, on creamy
spiced pear and peach, only to tense up and
become sinewy and delineated; all the while
the texture feels luminous, filled with energy
and an invigorating acidity. Generous now,
this has the structure to age into something
even more luxurious. -P.J.C. (455 cases) §
521426

90 | Ovum

$30

2018 Elkton Oregon Base Line Bradley
Vineyard Riesling ^ This smells like it's going
to be a fat wine, with its scents of coconut oil
and peach nectar. And yet it's bone dry, all
that fruit and its doughy contours an ephemeral sensation as the wine gathers like drumskin to a taut finish. It merits a few months
in the cellar to come together. -P.J.C. (240
cases) §

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2020

PINOT NOIR
521388

96 | Rose & Arrow

$150

2018 Eola-Amity Hills Hopewell Hills
Gathered Stones Pinot Noir ^ Hopewell
Hills is a shallow-soiled fragment of fractured-stone in the basalt structure of the
Eola Hills. In 2018, it produced a wine like no
other I've ever tasted from Oregon. It has a
vigorous spiciness when first poured, a series
of reductive aromas of tar and rail ties and oil
that fall away one by one, revealing, by day
two, a wine of stunning complexity and fulsome flavor. That industrial savor becomes
a background the fruit rests on like a dancer
on a stage. By day three, the wine's aromas
are explosive, reminiscent of a spice bazaar-
cardamom, ginger, chai and cacao, all wound
around expansive, pure cherry fruit. A bravura performance. -P.J.C. (125 cases) §
521489

96 | Walter Scott

$65

2018 Eola-Amity Hills Sojeau Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Sojeau was planted in 2007 by
Denny Peseau, who's farmed in the area since
the 1970s. It's on the southern edge of the
Eola-Amity Hills, set high on a ridge and facing southwest, toward the Van Duzer Corridor winds, on exceedingly shallow basalt
soils ("rocky as f***!" says winemaker Ken
Pahlow). It is a haunting wine, with scents
of licorice, cinnamon, allspice and tea, all

520553

95 | Bergström

$85

2018 Chehalem Mountains Winery Block
Pinot Noir ^ This comes from a two-acre
vineyard adjacent to Josh Bergström's winery on Calkins Lane, the vines spaced so
close that he's farmed it by hand since 2005.
It's a wine of exceptional purity and grace,
from its brambly crushed-raspberry scent to
the modest peppery spice that comes from
whole-bunch pressing and the joyous fruit,
ripe and succulent, with a powder-coating of
fine tannins. It is so captivating I'd recommend opening it now, even though it's built
to age. -P.J.C. (240 cases) §

520555

94 | Bergström

$70

2018 Eola-Amity Hills Temperance Hill
Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Josh Bergström has
been drawing pinot noir from Temperance
Hill since 2004. This vintage is slightly more
austere than some of his other pinots recommended in this issue: It smells vinous and
savory, with a green, foresty scent and lingering violet notes. The flavors are at once
delicate and firm, pomegranate and thyme
propelled by a wash of persistent, vibrant
acidity, generous in energy. Give it plenty of
air, and pour it now to capture its youthful
splendor. -P.J.C. (380 cases) §

https://ovumwines.vinespring.com/purchase https://wineshop.bergstromwines.com/purchase-wines https://ovumwines.vinespring.com/purchase https://wineshop.bergstromwines.com/purchase-wines

Wine & Spirits - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2020