Oregon Trio Makes Tasty Chardonnay

It was only six years ago when three brothers formed Marshall Davis Wines in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA of Oregon's Willamette Valley.  They don't get top billing over the wine, though.  Sean Davis, Ryan Marshall and Matt Marshall are shown only in silhouette on the label.

The website offers that winemaker Davis is a minimalist, "letting each vineyard express itself, with more attention paid to textures and tannin management."  A sample of the 2017 Marshall Davis Estate Chardonnay was made available to me, and I can tell you he makes a pretty good one.

The Chardonnay grapes came from the Marshall Davis Vineyard.  The wine is fully oaked for 16 months, but only 20% of that wood was new.  Alcohol tips in at 13.2% abv and the bottle retails for $39.

This wine's nose comes on with bright citrus and stone fruit, and plenty of it.  Oak is apparent, but not overdone, thanks to the neutral oak.  On the palate, a savory streak paints the grapes with an even hand and provides a counterpoint for the ripe fruit.  The acidity is very lively.

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Oregon Pinot Noir - On The Nose

Lenné Estate is in Yamhill County, in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  They say "site is everything," and they have a minimalist approach to making wine.  They say the grapes are good enough to do the heavy lifting themselves.  They boast of having some of the poorest soil in the county, which makes the vines work harder to squeeze out their tiny, concentrated grapes.  The 20-acre vineyard produces three different lines of Pinot Noir, and this is about their estate brand.

Their website proclaims "deep root Pinot Noir," which I don't think has anything to do with Dr. Cross Deep-Root Hair Oil, a late-night mainstay on some flamethrower radio station across the border from Texas.  If it does, I stand corrected.

I don't know who belongs to the "nez" on the label, but it’s quite distinctive.  Maybe it's Len the hen's profile, the guy who started his family's migration from London to Oregon, maybe not.  It makes me think of Danny Kaye, but I doubt that’s who it is.

This Oregon Pinot Noir is extremely dark in every way.  It's tough to see through a glass of it and it's tough not to notice the blackness in the nose, too.  Black currant, black tea and black coffee dominate.  The palate is also shrouded from light.  The tea note is perky and the dark fruit lively.  Nice acidity and a lengthy finish put a nice bow on the package. 


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Oregon Pinot Noir Bridges Cali-Burgundy Gap

Lenné Estate is in Yamhill County, in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  They say "site is everything," and they have a minimalist approach to making wine.  They say the grapes are good enough to do the heavy lifting themselves.  They boast of having some of the poorest soil in the county, which makes the vines work harder to squeeze out their tiny, concentrated grapes.  The 20-acre vineyard produces three different lines of Pinot, and Le Nez is one of them. 

Their website proclaims "deep root Pinot Noir," which I don't think has anything to do with Dr. Cross Deep-Root Hair Oil, a late-night mainstay on some flamethrower radio station across the border from Texas.  If it does, I stand corrected.  Do you think the label is a little too "on the nose?"

The 2015 Lenné Estate Le Nez Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is nearly a third composed of Pommard, 115 and 777 clones with the rest made up of clones 667 and 114.  It's bottled under the Yamhill-Carlton appellation, racks up 14.2% abv and sells for $35.

This is a medium-dark Pinot Noir with a nose that screams about the earth.  Dark and dirty, the aromas center on forest floor, coffee grounds and black tea.  That's right up my alley, unless we're talking Pinot Noir.  Then I prefer something more subdued and elegant.  The palate, however, gets more along those lines.  There's some tea, and some dark berry, and they get along great together.  It's not exactly Burgundian, but it's not California, either.  It strikes a beautiful middle ground.


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