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Pinot noir This is what Pinot noir should be
Perhaps the finest example of this sort I have
tasted The wine is a smooth rive r loaded with
black cherries currants and blackberries The
wine has a rich, fu ll body and nice spice to it The
finish is surprising The tannins, earthiness and
extract sneak up on you as you drink, but they are
definitely a prominent feature to the wine This ¡
wine is the jewel of this small, super©premtum
winery At $22-126 this w ill not last long If you
can t find it try any of their other wines (aside
from Pinot no ir they make beautiful Chardonnay
and a very interesting Pinot blanc)
Secondly. I w ill go out on a limb and
recommend a wine I have not lasted Crass7
Perhaps, bul I th in k this is a deal worth taking a
chance on I have only found this at the West
Hollywood Fred Meyer but the deal probably exists
elsewhere too It is magnums (1.5 litres) of Van
Duzer 1990 Reserve Pinot noir $16! I have had
the 1991 Van Duzer and it is very good Most
wineries made better Pinot in 1990 than they did
in '91 so this could be very good wine and for
essentially $8/bottle! The 750ml bottles sell for
the same orice Van Duzer bottled too many
magnums and they have to unload them at nearly
half price I f you're quick you might beat me
down to the store and get a bottle or two. but you'd
better run because I have my eye on those
Happy 1995 and happy wine drinking!
i S rapevinl ’
I have to make this column painfully short by
my longwinded standards Already one of my
columns has been digested by a computer w ith an
attitude and it is now December 22nd and 1 am
certain the good Reverend has more than lost his
patience with me I w ill attempt to summarize my
thoughts on wine into a concisely worded bit
This being said
No winery review again this month I thought
it might be time, seeing as this is the one year
anniversary of this column, to go over its growth.
One year ago I wrote about the Sunday Brunch at
Eola H ills V in e r y (which is still top notch
according to my sources) In that introduction I
hardly mentioned the wine at all. In the last
edition of the Edge I reviewed 24 of my favorite
Oregon wines Times change and people grow
Actually, I have found that along with my
increased palate for wine many of my friends and
relations have increased the ir appreciation and
consumption of wine We are blessed to live in a
state that affords us the opportunity to live near a
growing wine region Heck, Oregon is practically
the sophisticated beverage capital of the States
Tm not being snotty or anything, just simply
staling what seem to be the facts Great micro
brews, superb wine and (from what I understand,
as I don t drink the brew) good coffee I f rainy
days that require lots of indoor time are the price
we must pay for our particular distinction I am
w illin g to pay
Back to the wine though We certainly are n t
California in terms of the wine we produce,
although, for the firs t time, 3 Oregon wines made
The Wine Spectator sTop 100 Wines of the Year
List In fact, the 1992 P on zi P in o t n o ir
R e se r v e , ranked at number 51. was the highest
rated red Burgundy in the world Not bad While
California wines and Bordeaux dominated the list
from the one periodical which may be more
provincial than this one Oregon's best showing is
worth noting The fact that winemakers from
France and California are scrambling to snap up
acreage all over the western part of the state
shows that this is a place to be
The drawback to all of this is that increased
popularity combined with a limited supply creates
all sorts of nasty problems for us not so wealthy
wine drinkers Supply and demand hurts when
you are on the purchasing end Sure, even now
it is d ifficu lt to find really good Pinot no ir for less
than $10 This is a big change from even a few
years ago A friend of mine noted that I spend a
goodly amount of money on wine I agreed, but
noted that it is really no more expensive than a
good coffee or microbrew habit. It s just that it
costs more at one shot It can be d ifficu lt to pull
the string on the bottle of $25-$30 wine I f you
know what you are buying, though, it can be well
worth the price
In keeping with the spirit of knowing what you
are buying I would like to change m y column
around for the upcoming year I w ill still go and
visit the wineries I dragged myself and various
companions to over 50 wineries in in 1994 and
sampled in the vic in ity of 250 different wines I
intend to keep those type of numbers up in the
coming year I want to explore some options and
give you a broader picture and a more up to date
sense of what is available
I would also like a little feedback from you, the
reader, on what you thin k of this column I know
at least somone out there reads it because the
Reverend told me he ran into a woman on the
streets of Cannon Beach who blamed him. as the
publisher of The Edge, for causing her to
purchase all the wine she was encumbered by I f
you read this column and find it all useful and/or
interesting I would sure be glad to hear from you.
I am not much into what you th in k about the way
I write as I am quite attached to my rambling,
non@Hemingwayesque (thank you. Ms Duggan)
form of prose, but I am interested in almost
anyone s thoughts on wine So pass along any
comments to c/o The Upper Left Edge, 3118 SE
Alder, Portland, OR 97214
In the spirit of change I am unveiling one of
mine In my last column I was distressed to have
to eliminate many excellent wines due to early
releases and limited supplies For instance, the
1992 Benton@Lane Pinot noir at only $12 was a
great wine but was pretty much gone by the end
of the year I w ill now feature 1 or 2 wines each
month that I think are Worth exploring and may
not be around for long So, here are the in itia l
recommendations
First, the Cameron 1992 Clos Electique
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Cannon Beach
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Featuring Norihwcsi, California
& Imported Wines
Collector Wines From 1875
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INSTO C K: T te vary best of Owgan Wines,
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imnnrtsit Kami
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Open 11 AM-5 PM ■ Closed Tues.
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124 N Hemlock
P.O. Box 652. Cannon Beach OR 971 IO
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UPPER LEFT f DGC T ftM lW l??5
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