Popped and poured. Drank over the course of 1 1/2 hours. Excellent nose of red fruits, spice, earth and minerals. Seems to be a very different wine than what I tasted this summer at the vineyard(BIG nose of dark fruits and spice, with not much hint of earth and minerality). It's seemed to develop some secondary nuances that were not present before. Everything follow through on the palate with a hint of tartness(acidity)?? Excellent feel and finish.

Got my case today and the wine is BETTER than I remember it while back drinking it with Tom.

Still young, needs LOTS of air,
but the end result is delicious.
I'd buy more any time...if I can put my hands on it.

Jeff,
I wish my palate memory was as good as yours.

Tom opened all his '04's, we tasted them and went for the tour of the vineyards.
When we got back, I couldn't believe how Diversite improved while Tom was showing us around. I asked Tom for a favour -
and he put his signature on the bottle; this is now one of my prized possesions.

We have no more '02 left in the State of Florida,
few bottles of '03 are still in our cellar and we'll start drinking '04 somewhere in 08-09.

Chilly,

Please remember that there are FOUR marjor variables in our wines:

Winemaker
Soils
Clones / Rootstocks
Harvest timing

Each of these are, individually, significant factors. Collectively they are very substantial.

Of late, I've been increasingly impressed by the differences that clones make. The Cote Est is about 70% 667; the character of that wine is uniquely "mocha", "toffee", and "boysenberry". While it think the location in the vineyard, and the winemaking factors into this, my sense is that it is heavily influenced by the 667 clone.

The '04 Diversite is the only one of our 3-wines that has any Mariafeld in it, and the percentage is in the 15 - 20% range. I am convinced that the spiciness of the wine comes in large part from that clone.

The '04 Rocheux, to me, seems more terrior-driven. I just get a sense of that shallow, dusty, rocky, west-side soil in the wine.

But mostly I'm delighted that most everyone seems to be enjoying them; irrespective of which cuvee they favor.

Tom

Tasty Pinot with lots of earthy, rocky notes. Yum. A bit darker in color than I was expecting with darker fruit flavors like the 2003. The lack of any candied flavors is refreshing.

• 2004 Le Cadeau Pinot Noir Diversite - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (3/4/2007)
  
  91+; Clear dark garnet in color with purple tones; This wine had an aromatic nose of spices, balsam and minerals (wet rocks...). The flavors included black cherry, plum, minerals and earthy notes. Overall the wine was balanced but could use some integration from short-term bottle aging. A good effort from young vineyards. Good and should improve. [Decanted 30 minutes and continued to improve throughout dinner; Next bottle in late 2007-08; ~$45 from the winery] (91 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Last night's bottle did not show well. It was not obviously flawed.

• 2004 Le Cadeau Pinot Noir Diversite - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (6/20/2007)
  A swing and a single; This bottle was missing fruit and was strong on the spice notes. Very different from the previous bottle. (87 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Last night's bottle was similar to the first bottle. It smelled a lot like some of the Radio-Coteau (not Savoy..) Pinots. 91 pts

Wineaux,

You raise a good and fair question:  Is there a consistent Le Cadeau style?

My response would be:  Yes-- sort-of; but "blanket uniformity" is not a goal.

The key to understanding the Le Cadeau style is to understand the nature of the vineyard.  It is a very unique site with extremely rocky soils--- all broken volcanic basalt origin, but varying in depth from east to west.  The vineyard soils impart significant and relatively consistent traits into our wines.  Again, ALL Le Cadeau wine is made from estate fruit from a single site.

Between the '02 and '06 vintages we will have worked with 5 winemakers.  (We have produced 4-cuvees in 2006, and our original winemaker made the '02 and the '03).  To understand our cuvees, you need to think of them on three levels:  First, the impact of the overall vineyard site; Second, the impact of the specific soils within certain cuvee blocks, the clones within those blocks, and the "aspect" (east - west, etc.) of selected parts of the vineyard by cuvee; Third, the winemaker's style.

My view is that 50 to 60% of our wine's character is site-driven.  That is, irrespective of winemaker, clone, and aspect, all Le Cadeau wines have some significant common dimensions.  I believe that 20 to 30% of each cuvee's character / style is defined by the clones, specific soils, and aspect of the respective vineyard components.  Finally, I believe that between 10 and 30% of each cuvee's character is defined by the winemaker.

I'm reasonably confident about this for a number of reasons.  First, in our first three vintages our wines were made at a winery where four other vineyards were represented, and all wines were made by the same winemaker in the same winery and in the same manner.  Le Cadeau barrel samples were always distinctive--- from day 1, and in each year.  Second, in '02 and '03 all the same blocks were used and the same winemaker made the wines; however, I would argue that there are more differences between those two wines than there are with some of the wines subsequently made by other winemakers.  Third, year-to-year, ('04-'05-'06) many of the same characteristics emerge from each cuvee, and it is my view that those characteristics are more consistent with the soils and clones than they are with the winemaking styles  ( i.e.--- 667 is a "blue fruit" clone; Cote Est is heavily 667, and Cote Est tends to have "blue fruit" characteristics).

But overall, it's important to understand what we're trying to do:  We're trying to express different unique and interesting elements of the site at a more "micro-level".  For this to make sense, your really need to see the vineyard; if you have the opportunity to visit, I'd be happy to show you around.  My Seattle distributor visited, and after walking the vineyard and tasting the wines she said, "Now I get it!"  That is a fairly common response.

I've increasingly grown comfortable with the legitimacy of what we're doing because I also see the widely varied responses to the different cuvees by our customers.  Pinot Noir comes in MANY different styles, and expectations and desires in Pinot are equally varied.  I've watched husbands and wives argue over how much of which cuvee to buy because they have different favorites.  And I've made calls on several restaurants on the same day with the same bottles and I've watched each restaurant order a different cuvee.  For this reason, I'm not really interested in making "one wine" - "one style"; but that doesn't mean that our wines do not have certain stylistic traits that are consistent and predictable.

Hope this helps,
Tom Mortimer
Le Cadeau

Great perspective Tom. As someone on the side where we are tasting 100's of wine's a week, and multiple wine/varietal across a single producer-it is always great to taste across a line of one winery where every wine is distinct. I have to sorely admit that I haven't tried your wines (since they weren't available in Hawaii), but now that I will be in your semi-neck of the woods I look forward to swinging by.