2007 Oregon Pinot Noir - no b.s.

2007 is my kind of Oregon Pinot Noir vintage. It fits my Pinot Noir sensibility- it's classic with it's red fruits, minerality, healthy acid and aging ability. I am enjoying my favorite producer's 2007s and buying some to lay down cause I think they're going to be a lot of fun in the next 5-10 years.
So what's the deal with all the downer press about the vintage? What in the heck are people apologizing for?

I reached out to one of Oregon's favorite winemakers with 15+ harvests under his belt, for a clue. Here's what he had to say:

'H.S. came up for his annual visit to Oregon, and the forecast for the next two days was ten inches of rain in four days.

But let's back up.

Here in Oregon the saying goes " When the St. Paul Rodeo happens, it's summertime". But it never happened. It stayed cloudy and cool. Squirrels were gathering nuts in July, yellow jackets disappeared and leaves turned brown in August. For the grapes- super slow maturation.
So, H.S. comes up, sees the forecast and starts asking "Well, what do you think?". And, unlike the Burgundians or Californians, Oregonians are a blatantly honest lot when it comes to spinning on vintages, and pretty much said what they thought at the time "F---, we're screwed". Dick Shea threatened to build an arc.

So, H.S. returns home and blogs just this-- many, many times-- and people read as much.

Yet, on September 28th the cool weather and the rain came, but in reality that ten inches of rain was only two inches, which is pretty normal around here. It stayed pretty cool and cloudy for the rest of the year, and the sun never really came back till the end of November.

Rain happens every year in Oregon. It's just what happens. Yet some winemakers, whether too new or just inexperienced, ran out and picked all their fruit before the rain came. What they got was green seeds, astringent characters and herbaceous flavors. Sugars might have been okay, but the flavors weren't there.

Not the case for the winemakers who were patient and waited to pick. On September 28th the rains started, mostly coming in fits and starts and, because it was such a dry year, was never enough to really soak the ground, and it wasn't enough to get down to the roots so the plant could soak up the water and dilute the fruit. Therefore dilution didn't happen. The other thing that didn't happen was rot because it was too cool for botrytis to grow. So, unlike 1997 where it started raining and it was also 75F and rot spread, it stayed cool.

No dilution and no botrytis. And even without the sun physiological maturity still happened because the vine still thinks 'I've got to ripen my seeds so I can drop them on the ground and grow another plant'. So the seeds did turn brown and flavors went from green banana and herbal to red currant, raspberry and strawberry- the red fruit flavor spectrum-- and the skins started to get a little more physiological ripeness. Just what 2007 needed'.

H.S. never writes the rest of the story.

Finally, one last thought about Oregon's 2007 Pinot Noir from winemaker Josh Bergstrom- " I kind of think great Oregon winemakers have a Bode Miller ski approach to how they make wine, which is either crash and burn or gold medal. And I think 2007 is the vintage for that".

There you have it.

Although many consumers enjoy the higher alcohol and more densely fruity Pinots from a typical Oregon vintage, I am thoroughly enjoying classic red fruits, minerality, refreshing acidity and 12-14.5 % alcohol patiently delivered by many of my favorite Oregon producers of 2007 Pinot Noir, and I look forward to drinking them with another 5-10 years of age on them.