Top Three Wines for April 7
This may be the best top three lineup I've posted this year. All great wines.
Wine of Week
White Walnut 2021 Estate Grown Chardonnay
The biodynamic farming brings extra texture and some flavors of wild yeasts into the mix. This is not your standard cookie-cutter, ultra-safe and oaky Chardonnay. It's a let-it-all-hang-loose approach becoming more and more characteristic of Oregon. Lemon yellow, this mixes aromatic floral, tangy citrus, white peach and herbal tea flavors in well-balanced proportions. It's long lasting and further develops its Meyer lemon fruit with a hint of honeycomb as it gently fades. Tasted on day two it was as good as ever. 175 cases; 13.1%; $40 (Dundee Hills) 93/100
Outstanding Value
Ovum 2022 PNK Salt
This unusual rosé is sourced from 40-year-old Columbia Gorge Cabernet Sauvignon. It's a musky, dusky wine, a sunset hue, with astonishing depth and power. Perhaps the pink salts of Hawaii are the inspiration; it's bone dry and mineral-drenched wine. The strawberry and candy cherry fruit carries an appealing hint of saltiness that should prove irresistible for matchups with "take me out to the ballgame" type foods. Definitely one of the top rosés of the vintage. 12.5%; $19 (Oregon) 93/100
For the Cellar
Force Majeure 2020 Syrah
This was co-fermented with 2% Viognier in a traditional Rhône style – 22% whole cluster, concrete fermenters, native yeast. Mixed clones add texture and detail, the purity of the varietal fruit is clear and the tight focus lingers all through the finish. In short it's classic, textbook Red Mountain Syrah at the highest level. Black fruits are adorned with notes of black pepper, violets and sage. Somehow, despite its youth and power, the wine carries a sense of restraint, muscular, balanced and built to age. 520 cases; 14.8%; $85 (Red Mountain) 96/100