Tasting at Authentica

My friend Steve Baker, owner of one of the best wine stores in the county, gave a gift certificate for a wine tasting to OMP's auction and Linda bought it. Last night we took advantage of it and had a great time tasting through three whites and three reds. The whites were all Chardonnay and were all just to my taste. We blind tasted and I pegged the first one as an Oregon wine. I was right! Winderlea '09 Chardonnay. What a wonderful and rich wine with great balance and complexity showing hints of soft apple and oak. Sweet but balanced finish.. The minerality that makes the great whites is always missing in wines from around here as we have no limestone, but Winderlea and a few others from up north have managed to coax out every bit of taste from the grape and it shows in this wine. Drinkable for another 3-4 years, great now. I highly recommend this one.
I did not take notes but the other two were also good and the one from Frances was the best with olives and hard cheese. The Winderlea was remarkably good with blue cheese. I will get the info from Steve and list the other wines.
I was fooled by the reds. The first wine was obviously a Pinot Noir but it had the rich full leathery hard red fruit of wines from the Van Duzer area. I was wrong! It was from the Alexander Valley in California. Very impressive wine! I will get the info from Steve and post it. The one I remember most is the Johan '08 Nils Reserve. The winemaker,  Daniel J. Rinke,  uses only native yeast, does not use SO2 to clean (and kill) and they are Bio-dynamic. This wine is so elegant it almost did not fit with the two other wines (the third was a Burgundy) and would have stood by itself. Soft mouthfeel with very soft tannins and minerality. Black fruit and hints of sweet cherry. Great with the white cheese.
More on the other wines later.