2008 Belle Pente Vineyard Pinot Noir Estate Reserve

Belle Pente’s 2008 Pinot Noir Estate Reserve represents a barrel selection, but as usual reflects a reliance on several parcels including one of Wadenswil clone in a warm, steep spot; another of Pommard Selection; and smaller shares from plots planted with Dijon clones 777 and 115. Dried blueberry, damson plum, and fresh black raspberries are accented by bay leaf, anise, and resinous herbs. Surprisingly efficacious acidity and dried berry concentration convey a tart edge that seems typical for young Pinots from this estate. As with other young Belle Pente Pinots I tasted, the tannins here are fine-grained even if the overall texture is firm and not especially flattering. This finishes with admirable complexity, resonance, and impressive sheer grip, and surely seems destined for several more years of interesting evolution, indeed to age more slowly than its 2007 or 2006 counterparts that I tasted alongside. An (as he puts it) “out of control” hobby winemaker, Brian O’Donnell and his wife Jill began planting their impressively-situated and manifestly impeccably manicured vineyard just east of Carlton (which I visited only briefly and not as part of my meeting with O’Donnel) in 1994, two years after a six month search that almost found them purchasing the Archery Summit home site. A significant share of fruit for Belle Pente wines still comes from other sources, Bella Vida and Murto vineyards being the most conspicuous, the latter subject to single-vineyard bottling since 1996. Pinot fermentation here is sometimes spontaneous, sometimes yeasted and follows up to 8 days of cold soak. The young wine typically goes without settling into barrels, only a modest percentage of which are new for any cuvee; and malo-lactic tends, in Burgundian fashion, to take place late. Wines – white or red – are typically not released until they have had well more than a year in bottle. The O’Donnells’ wines enjoy an enviable reputation so I am perplexed not to have found any of the (admittedly, limited) range of highly distinctive wines that I tasted in June more exciting (though the best, to be sure, were very good); and to have had significant reservations about two non-Pinots among them: a relatively dull, bifurcated 2008 Chardonnay and fusil, drying Riesling. I’ll be looking forward to honing or revising all of these impressions next year. Tel. (503) 852-9500