The Wine Knows

Today, we concluded our judging of Pinot Noirs. We tasted through 133 Pinots from Oregon, Washington and Idaho. We plan to do a separate tasting of B.C. Pinots in the Okanagan, as it is nearly impossible to get samples across the border anymore.

Our guest judge was Tina Hammond, co-owner/winemaker of Privé Vineyard, a tiny Pinot Noir producer in northern Oregon's Chehalem Mountains appellation near Newberg. Tina makes just 300 cases of Pinot Noir from her estate vineyard. One is called Le Sud from the southern block of vineyard, while the other is called Le Nord from the upper northern block. She also is making a small amount of Pinot Noir Port, along with a Bordeaux-style blend. All of her wines are extremely popular and sell out on futures to her mailing list.

A couple of interesting stats from our judging:

-- Of the 133 wines, 29 used alternative closures, including screwcaps, synthetics, glass Vino-Loks and one bag-in-a-box.

-- Of the remaining 104 wines, six were infected with TCA ("corked"). That's 5.75 percent.

-- Consider that all six wines were from the 2005 and 2006 vintages and ranged in price from $25 to $75. This means the producers were spending more money for better corks. It also means the cork producers once again failed the wineries and consumers.

It was interesting to see the range of Pinot Noirs being produced (primarily in Oregon), everything from those with bright fruit tones of cherries, raspberries and cranberries to earth tones of mushrooms and black truffles to bigger, darker wines with bold flavors of black fruit.

I tend to prefer those with brighter tones, such as those from the jory soils in the Dundee Hills. But I also am intrigued with darker-toned Pinot Noirs from the ancient marine sedimentary soils in the Yamhill-Carlton District, Eola-Amity Hills and McMinnville AVAs.

Pinot Noir really is a chameleon, changing its characteristics depending on soil type, elevation and slope orientation. Throw in the various clones of Pinot Noir being used in Oregon (Pommard, Wadenswil, 667, 777, 113, 114 and 115), and you have a recipe for a complex and fascinating wine industry.

I guess I need to get over the fact that so many of the wines we received were from the 2006 vintage. That seems awfully young to be releasing red wines. But they were really good.

Pinot Noir is a maddening grape. I've come to the conclusion that you either "get" Pinot Noir - or you don't, with little middle ground. I think about 90 percent of wine lovers would just as soon drink Merlot, Cab, Syrah or Zin, leaving the Pinot Noirs for the "get it" group. For a long time, I didn't "get" Pinot Noir. But during a visit to Yamhill County years ago, a light clicked on as I tasted through barrels with some tiny producer.

My wife, however, is no Pinot fan (does that make her a bad Oregonian?), so the Pinot Noir in my cellar tends to stack up until I have the opportunity to share with someone with the passion.