1996 Thomas, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

Beautiful medium ruby color with brick edges. Very aromatic with earthy plum, strawberry and cedar on the nose. On the palate are gentle flavors of ripe plum, blackberry and a touch of strawberry. The finish is balanced and lingers nicely with no harsh edges whatsoever. No sign of decay. This wine is at it’s peak and a pleasure to drink. Tasted on the Maresh Family Farm. 89points.

Paulie, due to its age I suppose this wine is no longer commercially available?

Dick

Dick,

No, it is not available. Jim Maresh brought that one out of his personal cellar. The Thomas vineyard is only 4 acres and much of it is spoken for before it's even bottled. It sure was nice wine.

cheers
paulie5

paulie,

It's been a bit more than a year since I had the '96 Thomas. At that time, it was wonderful. I'd put it more in the 92-point range.

The 1992 Thomas, after about 3-4 years of bottle age, is one of the most memorable wines I've ever had. It was largely responsible for that "ah-ha" pinot noir moment... that has subsequently been very expensive.

John Thomas distributes all of his wine at year-end. If you're interested in some of the current release, now would be a good time to go after it. He can be reached at 503-892-6969. Prices are quite reasonable.

A side note: His vineyard has phyloxera so he has been replanting over the last few years. This is a "good news / bad news" story-- better clone diversity, but younger vines. However, I believe that the older vines (from '84, I think) are still largely hanging-on, since phyloxera moves slower in OR. That said, his new wines will likey be somewhat different from his older wines.

It's great to see you posting here, BHV. I hope we'll see more of you here. And we need to drag latour67 in here also.

Board-O,

Blame it on Winetex!... and my soft spot for Piedmont wines... and my love of pinot. This Thomas post hit a nerve because I've always respected John Thomas who, like Matt Kinne (McKinlay), is a true artisan grower / winemaker.

I'll try to drop-in from time-to-time... but the next couple weeks are gonna be busy, got to bottle the pinot and work on the label.

Good luck with it. I anxiously await your 2002 bottling.