The year 2020 has started strong at JamesSuckling.com. I travelled to Oregon in mid-January to meet with producers and taste more than 450 of the region’s newest crop of chardonnay and pinot noir wines. Once again the news is very good for lovers of pinot noir, and increasingly so for fans of chardonnay also. Many producers in Oregon are in full stride, delivering wines of high quality and packed with interest.

The 2018 vintage has much to offer already as producers across the board played this warm year well. Cleverly judged picking times gave rise to both red and white wines that offer concentration, balance and freshness. The run of recent warm years means producers now understand how to manage vineyards and winemaking in these conditions, and the wines indicate they are right on pace with the climate.

Pinots full of possibility

Oregon pinots from 2018 show rich fruit, and due to healthy thick-skinned grapes and their fully developed flavors, the vintage delivered a full spectrum of possibility. Most winemakers celebrated this with a richness of tannins that gave structure to the wines. Many we spoke to cited the importance of carefully managing tannin extraction during fermentation and some also mentioned that time on skins as well as aging in barrel was key to safeguarding freshness. 

Very few 2018 pinots showed overripe characters. Admittedly this is a carefully curated group of what we consider to be the better producers, but the conditions had producers completely focused on ripeness from a very early stage in the lead up to harvest. “Picking time is important here in Oregon,” says Tony Soter of Soter Vineyards. “Wines picked later don’t develop the same heights of aromatic interest.”

It was also a very dry vintage with some sites experiencing early bud break and detrimental weather at flowering. Along with the dry conditions, these factors also moderated yields in some cases. “Dry farmed vines started to run out of water in August and there were also high winds in some locations,” said Grant Coulter from Hundred Suns. “Acids are the upside though, as the vines shut down and retained acidity. Tough, thick skins on pinot had to be carefully handled in the winery. It is quite akin to 2016 in power and structure terms.”

Chardonnays show excellent concentration

Chardonnay was on the whole picked with freshness in 2018 and there’s plenty of concentration due to some lower yields. Acid retention certainly played into the hands of these wines. Chardonnay-focused Chris Hermann of 00 Wines cited a good run to harvest. “2018 was really a brilliant vintage for the northern Willamette Valley because it was warm, dry and had no heat spikes,” he said. The concentration and composure in his and many other 2018 chardonnay wines is impressive.

There are a number of 2017 wines tasted here too, a vintage we covered in detail in last year’s Oregon report, but the important factor to remember in the warm 2017 harvest is the way the heat arrived. “We had this heat spike and a number of caper-sized berries in many bunches aborted ripening,” explained Maggie Harrison of Antica Terra. “They colored up but remained tart and acted like little acid capsules. Just two or three percent by weight gave the wines levity in a very warm concentrated deep vintage and we found a lifted posture amid the ripeness.”

There are many good wines from 2017 and scores align quite closely with 2018 in many cases. Chardonnays are stylistically fairly similar but pinots are quite different. Where 2018 has delivered complete wines that are drinking well soon after bottling, the 2017s are more variable and many will require time to achieve completeness. Both will age well, so don’t make the mistake of drinking all your 2018s early. They both produced wonderful wines to enjoy in the future.

In fact, a number of producers opened library bottles this visit and they are all included in the report. Of note was a particularly fine and ethereal 1985 Elk Cove Pinot Noir, a 2008 Domaine Drouhin and a mini vertical of Cristom Jessie Vineyard Pinot Noir, all of which are rated and reviewed here. The highlights of the Cristom lineup included a very rich 2012 with plenty of stuffing filling the long finish, a very composed and aligned 2010 and a stunning 2005 that was just hitting its stride. It was good to be reminded of just how well these Oregon pinot noir wines can age.

Best wines show persistent flavor

The top wines in this report are all very different yet they have much in common. The unifying tenets of deep structure and persistence of flavor are two qualities you will find in the top wines and are qualities that define Oregon’s Northern Willamette Valley as a consistent source of very high quality pinot noir. The ability to then highlight this quality in varying shades of aromas and flavors – all attractive – is testament to the natural character of this place, as much as it is those who farm it and turn grapes to wine. 

Antica Terra’s Pinot Noir Antikythera 2017 takes the top honors for this report along with that stunning library bottle of Cristom Jessie Vineyard 2005. Both are rated 98 points. The Antikythera 2017 has such smooth-honed tannin and a very composed mouthfeel, taut and lustrously textured. The Cristom is still so fresh and just heading into the first stages of tertiary development, exuding a tantalising smoothness of tannin.

A group of wines rated 97 points includes the 00 Wines Chardonnay Willamette Valley EGW 2018, the top rated chardonnay and a wine that delivers a luscious and complete palate with a long, vibrant and mouth-watering impression. Antica Terra’s other 2017 pinots, Botanica and Ceras, both feature here with the former delivering a more savory, earthy impression on the nose and a strikingly fresh palate with a floral, minerally thread. Ceras has a detailed aromatic style and a palate that glows with energy and freshness, especially impressive given the heat spike of harvest.

Also rated in this group of 97 point wines is Domaine Serene’s Monogram 2015 Pinot Noir, which has a darker, richer feel. The commanding 2018 Sequitur Pinot Noir Ribbon Ridge offers succulent concentrated style with plenty of complexity already. It is a wine that delivers plenty now and will reward those who age it for some time. Soter’s Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton Mineral Springs 2016 is a selection from an elevated parcel and delivers striking mineral notes with oyster shell and mixed berries and an elegantly defined and long, mouth-watering palate.

The Eyrie Vineyards pinot noir offering sits in the established pattern of site-driven style and their top release Dundee Hills South Block 2015 (it is held for longer before release), offers a rich delivery of fresh and dried red cherry fruits as well as a composed and regal style on the palate. This is a wine that will age with elegance and grace and has much potential for cellaring.

From here it is a roll call of great producers with wines rated 96 points, including Domaine Drouhin, Lange Estate, Bethel Heights, Ponzi, Domaine Roy, Luminous Hills, Bergström and Sokol Blosser. 

This report illustrates another convincing showing from Oregon, which is producing high quality across a number of vintages and demonstrating real consistency of style from producer to producer and vineyard to vineyard. 

There’s so much to enjoy and explore.

– Nick Stock, executive editor