Sunday, February 21, 2016

A taste of the '13 Pinot Noir from 3A

Last night I had the pleasure of tasting a local wineries fare, a 2013 Pinot Noir from 3A Winery at Oregon Wine LAB. Winemaker Randy Rasmussen, 
a pharmacist by profession, was there introducing the new vintage.

His first release, a '12 Pinot Noir, is bold and has "Drink NOW" written all over it. Big fruit wine from a year when winemakers in Oregon could trip and fall down and make great wines. Over the last year it has been fascinating to taste the slow and subtle migration from fruit forward taste to a more cloven divide between bold forward fruit and long, complex flavors on the finish.
Interesting to experience the change.


Now we get to the '13: Very light, smooth, almost rose' in character yet it has just enough tannins and acid to make this one both drinkable now (chilled and paired with spicy foods, as we did last night) or put down for a few years to let those long chain molecules form.
I plan on getting 6 bottles and labeling them with a "drink on" dates and seeing if I am right.
I did the same thing with some of the more diminished '07s, going around Oregon chasing the post offs at small backwoods stores in search of some gems. I got a mixed case of Pheasant Valley Winery's '07, Chehalem "3 Vineyards", and a few bottles of random, small wineries for an average of $7.00 a bottle. I still have a few '07s yet to open but the ones opened so far have been stunning!
I have the same opinion of the '11s and 13's. Time will tell.

At $15 a bottle at Oregon Wine LAB you really can't go wrong either way.

Stop in and try some, and while you are there enjoy the last week of my large abstract oil paintings and "Women in Stone" in the upstairs meeting room.
 

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