Tasted a the Napstravaganza wine & cheese reception on Nov. 5th…

From the forums own BHVineyard, courtesty of Winetex, this pinot had an interesting and very pleasant nose of pine & red berries. Medium bodied, showing some earthy notes along with high-toned fruit and dusty plum, good balance, light tannins, and a fairly short finish. Not a deep or complex Pinot, but certainly a pleasant quaffer. 88 points.

Eric, I tasted the 2002 BHVineyard wines from barrels and they were very promising. They will be bottled with the Black Hole Vineyard designation. Across the board, the Willamette Valley 2002 barrel samples were better than the 2001 wines in bottle.

I had this wine a couple weeks ago with similar impressions. I also agree with Board O that 2002 is a much better vintage than 2001.

Eric,

Good review, and I think about "on target".

My view is that the DePonte 2001 is coming out of the bottle a bit "hot" these days. I've found that about 3-hours of airtime will clean it out. But it will also drink well into the next day.

The strange thing about the DePonte '01 is that everyone universally agrees that it is an 89, or so, point wine (Latour gave it an 86/87... but he's a Bordeaux lover...), but it always gets consumed quickly. There is something about it that makes it an "appealing" wine. I think it is the "polish". I asked Latour what his wife thought of the wine, and he said, "She rejected my Bordeaux and drank the DePonte the rest of the night... so did "the kids" (over 21)".

As noted above, the 2002 wines are stronger, and the "Black Hole Vineyard" 2002 will be kept separate. Regrettably, I've been persuaded that the BHV name is not market-friendly, so it will come out under a new name: "Le Cadeau".

Meanwhile, ask Winetex where she hid the Weinbach!

Thanks for the tip on breathing time. Now, whenever I get them, I'll know how to have it at its best.

BH - good tip on the decant time for the wine. I thought it was drinking very well and the bottle went quickly (always a clue at these type of events).

Winetex 88 points

and the Weinbach stayed at home for this trip. We are going to drink that when we return.

Board-O,

You've not been forgotten!

I know. I was just joking.

This was our fifth bottle of this wine and each has been better than the previous bottle. Tasted at three hours:

The beautiful floral nose took some time to develop. The flavors of cherries and raspberries are bright and elegant, though I'd have preferred a little more expansiveness. Very impressive for a first vintage. This time 90. My wife 91. If you drink this wine, be sure to give it plenty of time in the decanter to open up. I very much look forward to the 2002s from the BHVineyard, which are to be labelled at Le Cadeau Vineyard. I like the name Black Hole Vineyard, but the marketers won out.