Notes from a West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington and BC)
tasting.

2004 Henri Bourgeois Le MD de Bourgeois Sancerre – a little smoke in
the nose, and a clean wine but I found it perplexingly uninteresting
in the middle with little character. Citrus and good acidity at the
end. No herbs, no grass, no grapefruit, no nothing.

2001 Sanford Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir – decent colour, a nice oak
drive nose, medium weight and an early drinker, but very well
balanced, lacking only one thing – even one iota of Pinot Noir
character. A totally anonymous wine. Well at least this one showed
some character, even if it wasn’t typical of the grape.

2004 Cristom Marjorie Vd. Pinot Noir (Willamette) – this was more like
it. Sweet spicy pinot nose, a slight bit of funkiness and a lot of
cherry and some raspberry. Smooth and tasty.

2001 Cedar Creek Platinum Label Pinot Noir – this very presentable BC
pinot, a perennial pleaser, showed second to the delightful Cristom.
It was lighter ion colour, had some interesting caramel in the nose,
and showed more acidity than fruit in midpalate, perhaps getting a bit
long in the tooth. The fruit was mostly cherry in character.

1994 Caymus Cabernet – these early 90s cabs from Caymus were very good
and have held up very well. I still have a half case of this as well
as the 91 and there is no rush. The edges were starting to pale and
the nose was good mature cabernet with a briary spicy component, and a
hint of bell pepper. Very pleasant.

1997 Columbia Winery Red Willow Sangiovese – of light to medium weight
with a cherry nose, a bit hot, some tannin, smooth and well balanced.
Not bad.

2001 Quail’s Gate Old Vines Foch (BC) – I am decidedly not a fan of
interspecific hybridization and generally feel that taking up vineyard
space with grapes like Marechal Foch is a waste of space that could be
dedicated to good vinifera grapes. In this case, though, I make an
exception. The wine was very dark with a spicy jammy nose of fruit and
cocoa and it also had lots of fruit on palate and a decently length.
I find these wines to be awkward in youth, and then they either die a
young (but usually humane) death or once in a long while, mature into
something interesting like this.

1998 Leonetti Merlot - rubbery nose, medium body with good fruit, some
tannin and lots of acidity. Probably needs drinking – doesn’t seem to
have the longevity of some vintages.

1988 Ch. Lafaurie Peyraguey – some botrytis, but not as much as I
noted last time I tasted this, mostly vanilla and apricot in the nose,
fairly dark colour, good intensity and length. Good wine now just
coasting with many years left in it.