RWP 91; Winetex 89; $29

Another nice Pinot from St. Innocent. It is definitely still a youngster but balanced and approachable now. It had cherries and darker fruit on the nose along with violets. I found myself thinking it was a very pure expression of Pinot in a good way. In the middle it had more dark fruit (blueberry and blackberry) than you usually expect from Pinot. It had a nice, long finish. My overwhelming impression was that this is good wine but a bit of a lightweight. It matched very well with food.

Mr. Winetex wanted me to add that we had a very split decision on this wine. He gives it only 86 points and thought it was nice but wimpy. He was hunting around for a Burgundy to open before this wine opened up. Rovani’s review calls it “feminine”. Not that there’s anything wrong with this but just an FYI on the character of the wine.

Thanks for taking one for the team, Winetex.

Any thoughts on the best drink window for this one? I only have one bottle. From your description, I'm thinking 2004. BTW, I don't mind a feminine Pinot at all. Some of the best Burgundies are feminine.

jb

I agree with you JB. I like the floral aspect. I go nuts when I get violets in Pinot. Upon further review Mr. Winetex said he doesn't care for the floral but he thought the wine opened up nicely at the end.

I don't think this one should be held very long. I'm thinking about 6 more months in bottle so mid-late '03. There's something to be said for wines that are ready to drink young!

The Seven Springs is next. To drink or not to drink is the question. I like to taste them before ordering quantities but it's tough with these limited supply wines.

Winetex, it seems lately that I'm following you around this board. I have 2 of the 2000 St. Innocent Shea's and will postpone trying them for a while thanks to your notes.

Wineaux - unfortunately I only bought two bottles of each of these since I had not tasted them in advance. I'm impressed with the St. Innocent wines. They are OK on their price point provided you get them at $25-30.

Were you able to buy these in NO?

this isn't worth it's own post, so I'll just bury it in here:

Silvan Ridge 2000 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir:

sucks. don't buy. move away from and forget

Vitis, I think that you should create your own post for that wine. Might make a nice addition to the QPR Hall of Shame.

jb

Winetex,

No, the Shea is not available here that I know of. I ordered them through Wine Exhange.

My take is that this is really tight right now. Needs a 2-3 years at least. This has the makings of a nice "feminine" pinot, but was completely un-giving for me. Only started showing much by the end of the bottle. Perhaps I needed to get it drunk?

I might have considered that......if I hadn't gotten it for free. Good QPR there.......you can get hammered if you drink enough.

St. Innocent Shea '00 PN

Had this tonight at a new excellent restaurant, Alexis, replacing an old dinosaur 1 mile from my house.

Color-light violet
Aroma- very expansive, violets, plum , and red licorice.
Flavor- initally little, but after 2 hours---a long meal---burst of black cherry city, cherry liqueur, blackberry, some vanillin, and touch of mint, and earth. Medium bodied. More approachable than the '99. Some tannin, so could cellar several more years.

89pts

We opened our last bottle of this tonight. It had a great nose as per the previous notes but was lacking in the middle and finish. We weren't impressed and didn't finish the bottle.

Winetex, I've got to believe your last one was an off bottle. I opened my first one of these last night. A very impressive Oregon PN - elegant and feminine it is. I'd give it 91pts. and wish I had more.

Wineaux - that's great news. The last bottle could have been off - it just seemed like a pale imitation of the first bottle.