No Wine Over $20-Reviews and the LA Wine Scene

Jim Morrison sang "Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down. They're going to destroy our casual joys<. Can we use his gravesite as metaphor for the 2008/9 economic collapse? His fevered fans have trashed his grave like our fevered wall streeters trashed...you get the point. I hope we all listen to his moody lyrics and act with the anger he showed singing. Troubled rock stars are a cliché today. We can only hope boom-to-bust traders, AIG executives and hedge fund managers will become tired clichés tomorrow. I can foresee a new era of celebreality shows that replace the Bad Girls Club; maybe Broke Brokers and Bad Bankers, or TARP Traders; re-enact the hey-day of unbounded greed and self-interest. Thursdays at 9:00 on the WB. Strange days have come!!
Yeh!!

tBoW reports on wines from yesterday and today, encountering mysterious memories along the way.

2005 Domaine Labet Cote de Jura Flor de Savinin $27: Purchased at Palate wine shop. Let's not mince any words. This is a strange wine. tBoW has actually reviewed it before. [ed. recently too] It is so unusual it can only be likened to a Patti Smith song you have to hear at least once more to make sure you did not get it. It is plenty acidic but not volatile. The flavors are dry lemon. Oh? You have never enjoyed dried lemon in your Omega Trek mix? Flavors are bright, woody. Izit oxidized? We thought so before. We are not sure how we feel about it this time except that it is not offensive and it is interesting. I would not say it is an Amy Winehouse of a wine because its picture isn't everywhere you turn...but it is STRANGE.

2007 Barrel 27 "High on the Hog" French Camp Vineyard, Paso Robles White Wine $20: Barrel 27 is a small production, sourced-wine project from the Central Coast. This Rhone-style white is a blend of 54% Viognier with the balance Roussanne and Marsanne. All the fruit is from Paso Robles' French Camp Vineyard. An oily texture, full bodied, balances the foxy Viognier and more sour Marsanne/Rousanne fruit. Good to know interesting wines are still coming out of Paso. tBoW would buy it. 15.1%

2000 Wellington Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard "that time forgot" $n/a: When tBoW was still buying bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1980s he "discovered" Wellington VIneyards in Sonoma. All they do is make a small amount of superior quality Sonoma wines which they sell at bargain rates - for Sonoma and Napa, anyway. The story helped hook tBoW on the wine club. A doctor purchased an old Italian farmer's small acreage vineyards blessed with old varietals scattered throughout the flat acreage. The farmer always sold off the fruit holding back a small batch for his own "red" commonly referred to as a field blend. This was a nice way of saying he had no idea what vines where planted where on the site. The MD, being a scientist, DNA-identified each and every plant on the property. His son became the winemaker and they began to blend the most interesting bottles using the now known locations of old old vines on the property and properly labeled the contents. They also planted new vines and bottled the same old Chardonnay and Cabernet. The most intriguing bottling from Welly-Welly was the Noir de Noirs Old Vines which blended four varieties from the estate and their neighbor, the more famous Pagani Ranch, including Alicante Bouschet, Lenoir, Grand Noir and Petite Bouschet. The stuff was big and hearty without being overwhelmingly acidic or ripe. It was just thick and warm, like a Pendleton blanket. This estate Cabernet Sauvignon is soft and tasty at 9 years old. It is fruity more like a Mendoza Malbec than a Sonoma Cab.

If you love Cabernet Sauvignon from California's premium winegrowing regions for this varietal (Napa and Sonoma) you really should look at Wellington Vineyards. Great wines at great value. Please note the label posted is from a current release and not the 2000 bottle reviewed.

Kings Ridge Pinot Noir $18: Nice light ruby red color more like Burgundy than an Oregon Pinot Noir. Willamette Valley floor juice sourced form multiple vineyards. Has Oregon smoke, some acid, on the beety side of the flavor spectrum for Pinot Noir. Kings Ridge is a somewhat new project worth checking into once again. tBoW has a wine trip set for Portland in May so maybe we will encounter the Kings Ridge crew? 13.11%

What better way to follow a top shelf wine tasting than by driving out to the wineries that could not get into the PIWF (Portland Indie Wine Fest) just because they produce more than 3000 cases. The 45 minute ride into the northern end of Willamette Valley is dreamy even in the rain. We made a right turn up the hill from Dundee on our way to our first stop, Lange Winery. Our expectations were pretty high given we had busted open the 1993 Lange Willamette Valley in magnum this past August and were blown away by how well the wine showed 15 years later.

Lange Winery is near the apex of the Dundee Hills. The view to the Northeast is majestic. The tasting room and winery are not as humble as the Ayres facility (pictured above and reviewed below) nevertheless Lange is still a pretty basic operation. Generally speaking, the Oregon wineries do not suffer California vanities. The same cannot be said for wine pricing beginning with the $10 per person tasting fee. We split two.

2007 Lange Three Hills Cuveé $40: Perfumed nose, cherry flavors. Ripe for the vintage even though the alcohol is in check. Fruit forward and ripe seems to be the contemporary style for Lange. 13.3%

2006 Lange Estate Pinot Noir $60: Racy, acidic, more fruity, smoke on the palate, herbaceous nose. 13.9%

2006 Lange Freedom Hill Pinot Noir $60: Perfumed nose, creamy flavors, lighter acid. Plenty of stuffing, rich and robust. 13.9%

We left with everything we arrived with. Prices unjustified by the juice and our value-insistent sensibilities.

We took the shortcut road over the hill to the main drag leading downhill to highway 240 and Ribbon Ridge. We could wait no longer to hit the mother lode.

First stop...Bergström Wines. The doctor patriarch started this winery which is a family business employing 6 family members and kin. Josh is the Burgundy-educated son, winemaker and vineyard manager. Josh is turning out some very nice wines. But they will cost you dearly.

2007 Dr. Bergström Riesling $28: The reference to the Bernkastel Doctor vineyard, for some folks the greatest vineyard in Germany's Mosel, was not lost on tBoW, a mosel-a-phile. There is Deutsche character in this wine with its whiff of petrol and racy acidity. Kabinett ripeness with Spätlese richness. It is nice but it is not Mosel. And I think I prefer the Couere de Terre "Alsatian". 12.5%

2006 Bergström Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $30: The entry level bottle is not estate. Sourced from young vines the wine is rich with some veggie quality in the mouth. 14.5%

2007 Bergström Cumberland Reserve Pinot Noir $45: A blend of estate and sourced juice. Lots of ash, tannic, dark. Middleweight body with heavyweight flavors. Really delicious. 13.9%

2007 Bergström de Lancellotti Estate Pinot Noir $75: All estate juice. Gingerbread, baking spices on the nose and in the mouth. Fruity. More ripe than Cumberland. 13.9%

We left the humble tasting room with one bottle. It was not a tough call but it was one we would have liked to not make. The winery has everything going for it except for one thing. We decided against the $30 Willamette Valley (400 cases!) because we liked the et Fille Kalita better (at $34) and the Dewey Kelley Ribbon Ridge just as well (at $22). We loved the Cumberland (5500 cases, $65) and the de Lancellotti (455 cases, $75) but we felt we had to cut our losses given the $20 tasting fee. This is a winery we would love to love. Respect for the vineyards is everywhere, the site is lovely, the wines are spectacular. Emily poured. She was smart and informative about the region. In the end even though we really liked what the winemaker is doing we could not get past the hubris in the pricing policy [ed. or the Doctor reference].

Up the road, around the corner near the hilltop is Ayres Vineyards (see photo at top). The winery is beneath the main house on the property where Don and Carol McClure get to enjoy Oregon wine country sunsets. [ed. Carol pictured with fawning visitor]. Daughter Kathleen and hubby winemaker Brad McLeroy live in the older home on the property. A long drive through vineyards brings us to the split level home and winery where Mama Carol greeted us.

Ayres is another family winery whose winemaker, in this case the son-in-law, boasts Burgundian training. Brad learned from Matt McKinley and Veronique Drouhin of Domaine Drouhin in Oregon. History moment...Maison Joseph Drouhin effectively put this region on the wine map when the leading Burgundy wine negociant selected Dundee Hills to build its new world winery. First vintage for Domaine Drouhin was 1988 (first for Maison Joseph Drouhin was 1880). When tBoW visited in 1993 Ms. Drouhin told us tradition would have stood in the way of her becoming principal winemaker in Burgundy. Not so in Oregon. By choosing to build in Dundee Drouhin upped the stakes and the price by anointing Oregon Pinot Noir as Burgundian. Here is what one of the local Domain Drouhin spinoffs is doing on his own.

2007 Ayres Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $24: The entry level blend is perfect for getting to know the winery. Forest floor and mushrooms in a rounded blend. What we are looking for in fairly priced Oregon Pinot Noir.

2007 Ayres Piper Pinot Noir $34: Knocked us out. Take the Willamette Valley blend and pump it up 300%. Same forest floor funk, mushrooms and spice. In the mouth it is exotic, medium weight, balanced perfectly, friendly and so easy to swallow. This is Pinot Noir the way we love it. 13.5%

2007 Ayres Pioneer Pinot Noir $35: Another stunning wine that contrast beautifully with the Piper. The wine is lovely enough to purchase for enjoyment on its own. It is more high-toned, elegant, bold, structured from the nose to the palate. These wines are all the evidence one needs about what can be done with Oregon's "troubled" 2007 vintage. 13.5%

Last stop was Carlton, the western most village in the Newberg-Dundee-Lafayette-Carlton quadrangle. The rain started as we pulled into the no-stop-light town center. Scott Paul, our target, was right there in a converted stone and wood creamery. We could have been in Beaune.

Scott Paul proprietor Scott Wright poured the wines on this rainy afternoon so we pretty much had him to ourselves. "I have been a Burgundy geek all my life. My father collected Burgundies and other wines so there was always good wine on the table". He explained he had left a marketing career in Hollywood to manage the Domain Drouhin business. When he left that gig he started his own winery and import business. He imports approximately 18 Burgundy winemakers. For his own brand he exclusively uses screw caps and he may have influenced some of his Burgundy vignerons. BRAVO!! We might have tasted his wines at the Portland Indie Wine Festial except his production is 3500 cases which exceeds the 3000 case limit. The import/producer business strategy ensures multiple revenue streams with one caveat. He has to pour his wines next to some of the best Burgundies going. He poured a sample of Burgundies first.

2007 Benjamin Leroux Bourgogne Blanc $24: Chardonnay from a Burgundy village blend under his label. Wine is lean and tart. Never confuse this for New World juice. You do have to like Chardonnay. 13%

2007 Benjamin Leroux Savigny les Beaune $35: Wines from Savigny les Beaune are commonly referred to as "good value Burgundy". Lean, earthy, tart. You have to like Chardonnay. 13%

2007 Benjamin Leroux Volnay $65: This is French Pinot Noir. More spicy and intense. High tone. It turns out Leroux trained winemaker David Croix at Camille Giroud. 13%

2007 Hospices de Beaune Cuvee Maison Drouhin for Scott Paul $50: This is THE wine. Big wow factor. The best value on the table. Scott Paul bought the barrel at the Hospices de Beaune tasting. As the buyer Scott Wright gets to choose who will make the wine and bottle it. The wine is restrained and powerful, beefy with cherry flavors. This is Burgundy. And at this price it is a bargain. There is always one wine you wish you had picked up. Here it was.

2006 Scott Paul Le Paulee Pinot Noir $30: The price is right but the wine is handicapped coming after the Burgs. The fruit is forward per the 2006 vintage. tBoW tastes mint, sasparilla. Scott thinks I am nuts. 13.9%

2007 Scott Paul Audrey $65: From the fifth oldest (1970) Pinot Noir plantings in the region; the Marsh vineyard atop Ribbon Ridge. This is soft and seductive wine. It is concentrated with cola flavors. It is very very nice. At this price point the obvious question is Bergström Cumberland or Scott Paul Audrey? And the answer is Hospices de Beaune!! 13.1%

It rained the entire drive back to Portland and the Hotel deLuxe [ed. highest recommendation for price/quality ratio]. The two missus snoozed in the back. Dotoré cat napped while tBoW tasted Pinot Noir the entire ride. Now that is a l-o-n-g finish. Dined that evening at Le Pigeon in Portland, another strong Murray the K tout. Staff performed exceptionally well. Strongly recommended. We ordered another Patty Green.

2007 Patricia Green Estate Old Vine Pinot Noir $34: Tight, lean, more of that funky but elegant (romantic? sublime?) forest floor. Good acid. But tight. We did the right thing and decanted.

To summarize...tBoW will keep his eye on Ribbon Ridge. This relatively new AVA (2005) is home to important vineyards and wineries emerging as leaders in high quality Pinot Noir. Most plantings are fairly young, i.e., less than 10 years. However, the region is proven with notable older plantings that have produced premium juice for decades. There still exists enough naivete and joy in winemaking to place the experience of touring and tasting a long way from the Napa-Sonoma limo/winetrain trip. Tasting rooms with the over-the-top pricing are unfortunate and ill-advised. At least apply the tasting fee to purchases over $100. Of course, the best experience is still discovering something new in the basement/winery at no cost.

The first half of the 2009 has been lush with Pinot Noir and Burgundy from the Camille-Giroud tasting at Palate Food + Wine in February to the Oregon wine tour in May. Faith in Pinot Noir has been firmly re-established. While there are no U20 wines to be had there are truly special wines that are very good value for the Pinot-phile.

Portland is a nice place to visit with the river and the Pearl District in the old town. Compact, quaint, served by an ultra-convenient light rail. Next year's NBA champs work here. But if you like to drink great Pinot Noir, dine at inventive and casual restaurants, shop for new and out of print books at Powell's and sample chocolatiers like Sahagun Chocolate Shop or Alma Chocolate then this is a GREAT place to get lost in.

The Portland Indie Wines Festival's back room was a quick 40 feet over a linking cement path that required a walk OUTDOORS. It was actually nice to walk outside for a few moments before plunging into the second wave.

Impressions shared later that evening included the following big pictures: (1) vintage preference was for 2007 over 2006; and (2) Ribbon Ridge is the region to watch. The tBoW team's vintage preference was unpopular especially among vintners. One winery told us a subscriber wanted to refuse the 2007 vintage and wait for 2008. The 2006 vintage is widely viewed as ripe and bombastic sporting higher alcohol levels and forward fruit. The 2007 vintage is lean and limp, "disappointing" by comparison. 2007 was cool and late to ripen. Murray the K notes vintners who waited for Indian Summer did best in 2007.

As always it depends on what you like (even if it means being WRONG). You want big and ripe try Santa Barbara County. If you prefer lean and more exotic stay with Burgundy and Burgundian styles. In other words, the 2007 vintage wines tasted in Oregon, at the festival and in the Valley, were closer to Burgundy. And you just do not get that in any California Pinot Noir wines, with a very few exceptions (e.g., McKenzie Mueller, possibly Chasseur).

Certain phrases come up repeatedly when describing Pinot Noir: barnyard (poopy), cherry, strawberry, exotic spices (turmeric, curry, saffron) and forest floor. That last one - forest floor - is the most elusive. What exactly is on the forest floor? Maybe because tBoW just finished reading The Lost City of Z which goes on for pages describing what is lying in layers rotting on the forest floor that he was more attuned to the suggestion. We smelled and tasted the forest floor in the festival's back room and again in Carlton and Ribbon Ridge the next day. The good news is the 2007 vintage delivers forest floor in heaps unlike 2006 which is fruit driven and more viscous.

The tBoW team consistently preferred the 2007 wines. Lighter in color and weight, more delicate, lower alcohols, more elegant, better balanced. Conclusion? Look for wineries that may "dump" their 2007 Pinot Noir wines in the SoCal markets.

Ribbon Ridge is in the northern section of the roughly four-square Newberg-Dundee-Carlton-Ribbon Ridge area. Here is a link to a description of the Ribbon Ridge region. RR became an AVA in 2005. It has fewer vineyards and newer wineries than its neighbors including a few notable older vineyards. It is less publicized. The climate is a bit cooler. Stay frosty for Ribbon Ridge.

To the wines.

Longsword NV Accolade Sparkling Chardonnay $20: That is correct sir. A slightly sparkling chardonnay full of spicy apple and cinnamon flavors. Light alcohol. No cork. No screwtop. Pop that cap with a churchkey. He calls it the perfect wedding wine. Needs to be half the price to be "tBoW perfect" but it certainly is tasty.

2006 Monks Gate Yamhill-Carlton District Pinot Noir $26: Very small production wines well priced. The 2006 is smoky, acidic.

2005 Monks Gate Yamhill-Carlton District Pinot Noir $26: The 2005 is leaner. The Monks Gate vineyard is Yamhill-Carlton which is the sweet spot. These are nice wines. We just thought there were slightly better ones.

2006 Quady North Applegate North Cabernet Franc $35: Another real cute couple making wine. Yes, they are related to Quady of Napa fame. And this is a pretty nice wine with anise and mint in the nose and mouth. Like a poor man's Phelps Insignia. With some pepper. 14%

2006 Ribbon Ridge Dewey Kelly Pinot Noir $22: Bingo. The winemaker at Ribbon Ridge VIneyard is Dewey Kelly. He made this wine for himself. Wife Robin collects the dough. At this price and this quality level they had to sell out. 700 cases of his "white label" wine with his name on it real big. Baking powder nose, baking soda in the mouth, 100% new oak for 10 months. This is his entry level. Funky nose. Cola and black fruit flavors. 2006 fruity with a deft and restrained touch. Has the 2006 higher alcohol. After all that negative talk on 2006 tBoW bought half a case. Maybe Dewey is maybe Dewey ain't Paul Lato. tBoW felt he found a fine winemaker and will be looking for his 2007s. [ed. that's Dewey at top of page] 14.3%

2007 Seven of Hearts Eola-Amity Hills Reserve Pinot Noir $42: Dotoré was McLovin this wine. Nice enough and a 2007. Probably suffering from Dewey hangover effect.

2007 Vidon Vineyard 3 Clones Pinot Noir $39: Good nose, flavors trying to focus the wine but high alcohol does not meld well. 14.7%

2007 Winderlea ANA Pinot Noir $45: More cola and baking soda nose and flavors. Flavors like Dewey's wine even though it from Dundee Hills. Liked these wines. 385 cases. Low alcohol. 13.5%

2007 Patricia Green Reserve Pinot Noir $25: We ate at a highly reputed Portland restaurant that evening that recently lost its very popular chef along with considerable cachet. The meal and service were fine however the wine was most exciting. Patricia Green is a very hot Oregon winemaker whose wines are hard to come by. We grabbed this 2007 off the list. Exotic mushroom nose, i.e., the forest floor. Flavors equally exotic. Weight is light yet color is dark jewel red. Notable acid yet remains balanced. Comes off a tad thin. From 25 year old vines in Ribbon Ridge. 13%

Next stop...Willamette Valley and two winery winners from Ribbon Ridge.

Rosé, Moscato d'Asti, fresh fruity bracingly acidic and low alcohol white wines. These are summer wines we have learned to adore. And every summer brings a new batch. What is it about summer wines that seem so fresh and new soon as the weather gets hot? As Dotoré might say these are the best days of the year.

2008 Le Saint Andre Vin de Pays du Var Rosé $11: Rosé de Provence that is 25% each Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Grenache and CInsault. Light salmon color. Tastes like a lightweight non-fizzy soda yet serious in a summer rosé context. Like it fine but it ain't the killer summer wine we know will eventually turn up. 12.5%

2007 Vida Organica Torrontes $8: Argentina's great white wine [ed. must you say this every time?] this from Mendoza produced by the Zuccardis, wine royalty in the heart of Argentina's wine country. Floral nose so common to Torrontes. Good acid and medium weight. Tropical flavors just like the label says. Torrontes is consistently lush with natural acidity that brightens it up. Viscosity makes it almost beefy. These are organic grapes, purchased at Whole Foods. It is a real deal at this price. Screw cap and 12.6%

2006 Domaine Gauby Les Calcinaires Cote du Rousillon Villages $24: The red version of the white wine from the same house. Imported by Weygandt. Dark almost black red color. Red berry fruit flavors. A village wine which means it is not very complex or it is exactly what you would expect to find in a local restaurant in southwest France. Put this next to your Qupe Syrah at $12. Is this Gauby twice as good? Is it worth another $12? I think it is twice as interesting as the Qupe but problem is there are some really nice Pinot Noir wines or otherwise in the same price range. So I would rather have the Gauby than the Qupe but then I wold rather buy the Dewey Kelly than both. 13.5%

2007 Belle Pente Wlliamette Valley Pinot Noir $19: Purchased at local wine shop WHWCo. Wanted to visit this the winery when up there last month but they were closed on Sunday. tBoW has reviewed Belle Pente wines a 2005 specific vineyard before. That was in the $30+ range. This is the entry level and we wanted to see if the quality trickled down into lumpen land. Color is light red brown as we expect in a 2007 Oregon PN. Looks like it is aging but it is not. More like tomato soup with burnt red peppers. There is no hint of oxidation. It is just a lighter vintage. The nose is all about the forest floor. Mushrooms, wet decaying leaves, earth. I know it sounds just awful but it is actually decadent. The wine is yummy and I would buy it again. An excellent example of what one can expect from the 2007 vintage in Willamette Valley. At $18 it is a U20 winner. Sorry Gauby. 12.5%

When it comes to Pinot Noir we are entering unchartered territory, if you will, irregardless of goodness of fit. Pinot Noir, like "common" language, is becoming absurdly stylized and impossible to understand. In the attempt to create individually expressive Pinot Noir wines that can win big Parker Points, a phalanx of PN wines has emerged that does not taste like Pinot Noir while at the same time tastes remarkably alike. Either my palate is becoming more finicky or there are more and more of these big fruit big alcohol Parkerized fiascos.

The whole movement to re-make Pinot Noir as a new world vision began when the alcohol levels crossed 14.5%. The tBoW has tasted a Pinot Noir above 16%. tBoW liked it! as the excessive alcohol was balanced by the excessive fruit. Kind of like hippoes in toe shoes. The flavors one associates with Pinot Noir are barely present in high alcohol Pinot Noir. This grape is supposed to make wine that is exotic, gamey, even stinkyfunky, the old forest floor. Mushrooms, bacon fat. Cherries, strawberries, black cherries. Sometimes beets. They are supposed to be delicate, light to medium weight, translucent. Neither clouded or dense. And the alcohol should begin with the calming figure of 13%.

Otherwise we get problems in the most egregious New World versions. We get palate crushing fruit bombs that are closer to New World Syrah. In fact, tBoW gets confused sometimes with these two varietals especially if they are from Santa Barbara County or Paso Robles. In many cases the high alcohol blows out the fruit, overwhelming the palate and even the nose. The wine comes off hot. The winemaker needs the big fruit to balance the high alcohol which gets harder to pull off the higher the alcohol. Even when the trick is pulled off the result still ain't Pinot. Serious music fans HATED Fantasia. Here is a mixed review that tries to get at the weaknesses and strengths of the 1940 animation. As for New World Pinot Parker bombs when the winemaker gets the gaminess going the typical correspondent is a profound smoky nose and flavors. This is where things begin to melt into the Rhone style.

There are exceptional New World Pinot Noirs. Several have been reviewed here: Skewis, Chasseur, Paul Lato. Each winemaker shows restraint and a traditional idea about what comprises classic Pinot Noir. However, for each one of these New World traditionalists there seem to be thousands that occupy a narrow bandwidth where big fruit, high alcohol, short finishes, ultimately produce a forgettable wine. It is shocking how many big name producers are in that space. They are making something closer to a milk shake or chocolate covered briquets.

As with many enterprises today (sports, cooking, unction) that prefer to stretch the limits of taste and skill, there exists within the broad New World group an extreme contingent: the Uncharted Pinot Noir Winemakers. These are the Pinot Noir wines that are from another dimension. We tasted one such recently and it is reviewed below. These Pinot Noirs taste nothing like any of the above descriptors. At best, they begin to taste like lesser known Italian varietals, i.e., Amarone or Lagrein or Sagrantino wines. I am not talking about Pinot Noir wines from Germany, Austria or Switzerland which express their regions and climates without losing the Pinot Noir character. I am talking about somebody's vision, maybe their dream, to do something truly exceptional. Whatever. Please pick on another grape.

2005 Le Cuvier Paso Robles Pinot Noir $45: Bourbon? Sour mash? The alcohol is not really that big but combined with the over-ripe fruit that tastes like it was dried on straw mats in the sun, and some premature aging in the color, this could be a high-end Amarone. It is not a bad wine [ed. you mean FLOD] but it ain't Pinot Noir either. Bee-zarr. The http://www.lcwine.com/ is highly entertaining. Maybe I should try some other vintages but I don't think so. 14.7%

2006 Williams Selyem Allen Vineyard $78: Here is the original model for New World Pinot Noir. WS wines - only Pinot Noir - were always sweet to the point it was rumored they contained Viognier. But they were also balanced, delicate, lyrical. WS wines made the perfect book end for their neighbor Rochioli. WS still produces a Riverblock bottle which is premium Rochioli juice. The Allen vineyard is about as big as it gets for WS. This is no exception. There is smoke and light tannins. The flavors are ripe, crossing the robust fruitiness of Gamay and cherries with some gamey qualities. This would be a great Thanksgiving wine big enough to stand up to all the important flavors of that meal (nothing can handle Mrs. tBoW's marshmallow yams). Allen is a cornerstone WS wine; one you can count on to show characteristic style. A classic wine even though tBoW feels a twinge of hypocrosy given the price and the wine's sweetness. 14.1%

2006 Eric Ross Poule D'or Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ~$30: Another hot [ed. as in alcohol] wine that comes across on the nose and dominates the first sip. The poster wine for Parkerized Pinot Noir. Sourced form xxx in the Russian River Valley, arguably California's best Pinot Noir region. [ed. It isn't; Carneros is]. Flavorful enough but undistinguishable from a million others just like it. 14.7%

2005 Cote de Brouilly Cru de Beaujolais Cuvée Vielles Vigne $20: Here is the other end of the discussion. A Gamay wine from Beaujolais that is almost Pinot Noir. This is a house blend selected by North Berkeley WInes which is a favorite tBoW retailer. The wine is almost brawny. Tannins still very much in evidence, balanced, good dark fruit flavors. Beaujolais has been blessed with great vintages in 2005, 206 and 2007. If you see one from a producer other than Georges Dubouef you might snap it up. 12.5%

2007 Pali Pinot Noir Alphabets Willamette Valley $15: The label is from Santa Rita Hills. The winemaker for 2007 was Brian Loring whose own label tends towards big and fruity. Pali produced 13 Pinot Noir wines in this vintage from what many would consider the premier domestic growing regions for Pinot Noir: Sonoma, Santa Rita and Oregon's Willamette Valley. This is one of three Oregon efforts. It tastes like the 2007 vintage which tells you that it is all about the terroir. The wine is smoky, light to medium weight with restrained pinot noir flavors on the forest floor side of the spectrum. Not a fruit bomb. If tBoW had tasted it at the Portland Indie Wine Fest it would not have made the final cut. But the terroir is there as is the lightweight nature of the vintage. And he used a screw cap. 13.3%

Fall in LA is the best time of year. Fall in LA means it is safe to go outside without fearing a microwave burn. The tarantulas and rattlesnakes have left the patio to the hounds. [ed. real-Yankee Derek Jeter likes to have a little Halloween fun this time of year] I can watch TV outside into the early evening.

Fall means baseball playoffs and a chance to see the current future ex-Yankees: among the star players an ex-Red Sox, ex-Angel and ex-Twin. The once September, then October, Classic now ends in November. Yo. The Yanks and Phils are worth watching long as the "tri-state area" don't get an early snowfall no-what-i-mean? October is also the middle of the Pac 9 season. UCLA football is the nucelar winter of local sports teams and USC, having already lost its annual sucker game, can win the conference and go clobber Cincinnatti or Iowa in the Rose Bowl.

Tanks gott for new neighborhood wine shops. Wish they were in my neighborhood. The discerning LA wine buyer who lives in Venice should check out El Vino (covered here) and if you live in Atwater Village you should check out 55 Degree Wine (covered below). Both have excellent style and interesting wine buys. 55D has the most tasteful dungeon with their ex-Yankeesspeakeasy-like subterranean wine tasting room. tBoW got the tour from ex-YankeesJennifer as earthy and toffee-tinted as one of the atypical Italian varietals for sale upstairs. Of course, we bought some. For tBoW it is a drive but being well placed in my memory bank makes 55D a future stop whenever in the neighborhood.

2007 Klee WIllamette Valley Pinot Noir $22: Unlike the artist, this wine is uninspired. It is kind of simple, somewhat fruity, with a detached acid spine. It did not hang together. Needs a neurologist. Or a chiropractor. Acupuncturist? 13.5%

2007 Erath Oregon Pinot Noir $19: Compare this to the Klee and faith is restored in the region and vintage. As the entry level wine for Erath - once a flagship winery for Oregon Pinot Noir - this is elegant, deliate and nicely balanced. Nothing terribly complex, has enough acidic spine to avoid the flabby tag. Think of it as the Saintsbury of Willamette. Steady, dependable, always tasty, never challenging, Color is very light. Some Internet raters not as pleased as tBoW but they are probably not fans of the 2007 vintage either. A U20 winner. 13%

2006 Skewis Salzgeber-Chan Russian River Pinot Noir $40: A very nice example of premium RRV Pinot Noir. tBoW reviewed Skewis wines at a summer tasting hosted at Palate. That was a lucky day because we had no expectations. The wine is still very impressive with well balanced smoky and cherry choco flavors. Scent of game makes it complex. The kind of wine you can drink with or without food and enjoy it equally. Alcohol under control. 14%

2006 Lomazzi & Sarli Latias Primitivo $14: She asked what style of wine I liked. A perfectly acceptable question. Light and delicate Pinot Noirs did not ring the bell. So she steered me towards this U20 bottle of entry level Italian Primitivo from Puglia and we forgot the Nero Amore [ed. he made that name up] altogether. She admonished that Priimitivo is not Zinfandel. So how was my non-Barolo/Sangio Italian-for-wimps wine? Not too shabby. Acidic like many Italian reds tend to be. Steel fermentation, no oak. Exotic kind of like...Amy Winehouse? A little dirty and quite good. Italian wines not my palate but I can learn. 13%