Calendar UPDATE: We are *closed for pickups* for the next two weeks, reopening with our normal Thursday hours (10am-7pm) on January 12.
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Hello friends. I always like to begin our final offering of the year with an excerpt from Tennyson’s In Memoriam:
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Those are beautiful stanzas, aren’t they? Each time I come upon them at the end of a year, I find myself moved beyond measure. The notion of the year-end as a marker – a chance to decide what we take with us on our next spin around the sun, and what we leave behind – has real resonance for me.
What I will be taking with me into 2012 is a sense of optimism. That’s different from my emotions at the end of 2009 (terrified) and 2010 (hopeful), and it’s entirely thanks to our list members. You all are a special breed of wine-lover. While many in the wine trade are enervated by their clients (I don’t envy the life of a grocery store wine steward), I receive the opposite effect: I’m energized. It’s a dream job, this: writing about wine for people who care. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to do it.
Our biggest change in 2011, I suppose, was marching south out of our Washington-only comfort zone and into the Willamette Valley. You all came along with the enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity I have come to expect, beginning with our first Oregon offering, on May 23.
Remember the producer? It could have been no one but Eyrie Vineyards, and today we come full circle.
My friends, this is as exciting as an offering gets for me, and it is months in the making. The folks at Eyrie have agreed to part with small amounts of their most precious wines: library stock, of their Reserve Chardonnays and South Block Reserve Pinot Noirs, at 10, 15, and 20 years old; the highest expressions of the great white and red grapes of Burgundy, from David Lett, the man whose wines were judged to be as good as the best from Burgundy.
These wines are exceptionally rare, and I’m extremely thankful to Diana Lett, Jason Lett, and Russ Margach for their willingness to share these treasures with our list.
First, a quick word on provenance, courtesy of Eyrie: “All the wines that leave our library now are subject to intense scrutiny to assure premium standards of quality. Each bottle is tasted, the top quality bottles are re-assembled in a new cuvee, so that every bottle will be the same going forward without variation. The re-assembled cuvees are rebottled and recorked with the new DIAM closure that assures no cork taint. The entire 21-step process takes place under inert gas to prevent any exposure to oxygen during the process.”
Now, let’s begin with the Reserve Chardonnays. Older versions of these are collectors’ treasures. Unlike many other northwest favorites, these never show up at auction (I know; I have tried to find them). People who own them hoard them, because they’re that good. I have had a few older bottles, always at special tastings, and they never fail to buckle my knees.
The Reserve Chardonnay program was begun in 1987, and it’s a barrel selection program: the best barrels from the old Chardonnay plantings at Eyrie’s original vineyard. Those plantings came from Wente-clone cuttings David Lett got while walking the Draper Ranch vineyard (St. Helena, CA) with the vineyard manager, Joe Torres, in 1964.
The wines age like white Burg, which is what gets folks into such a tizzy about these bottles. Prior to IPNC in 2009, the winery presented a Chardonnay vertical tasting, and the peerless Jancis Robinson was in attendance. In 1984, she became the first person outside the wine trade to earn a Master of Wine. Her books (The Oxford Companion to Wine, which she edits, and The World Atlas of Wine, written with Hugh Jonhson) are the twin bibles of wine education, as far as I’m concerned.
In short, she has a world-class palate, and she went bonkers for old Eyrie Chardonnay (subscribers to her Purple Pages can read her tasting notes), describing the event as “one of the most extraordinary tastings I have ever been lucky enough to experience.” She went on: “I had to go back and alter my suggested drinking dates for the younger vintages on the basis of how well the older wines had lasted. And by the time we had got back to the 1980s and 1970s, I started wondering just how many Burgundian domaines could present an array of white wines that has lasted as consistently well.”
1991 Eyrie Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay
David Lett’s vintage notes from 1991 [note: these are general vintage notes, referring to reds and whites]: “A long, cool spring pushed into late June and early July. The rest of the season was ideal, however, with a long warm fall. As is typical of years in which Oregon experiences a more extended ripening season, quality was excellent, especially for wines intended for cellaring.”
1996 Eyrie Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay
David Lett’s vintage notes from 1996 [note: these are general vintage notes, referring to reds and whites]: “Good ripeness and balance, but from a cooler vintage. Like the 1996 Burgundies, Eyrie 1996s had very firm tannins and higher acidities. The fruit was fully ripe, and a cool harvest meant good aromatic retention. Yields were slightly below normal levels, but not financially threatening as in 1994 and 1998. The 1996 South Block received 3 years in barrel to help resolve tannins that were more aggressive than what is typical for an Eyrie wine.”
2001 Eyrie Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay
David Lett’s vintage notes from 2001 [note: these are general vintage notes, referring to reds and whites]: “The 2001 growing season started out with good flowering and a productive fruit set. A dry and moderate summer followed, with a few days of extremely hot weather in early August. Rain showers (less than 1 inch) came at the end of September. Cool weather, combined with larger berries and clusters than 2000, meant that the 2001 vintage was more suited to wines of finesse.”
The 1975 vintage is the famous one, the one that finished second, two-tenths of a point behind one of Robert Drouhin’s ’59 Burgs, in a blind tasting organized by Drouhin. After that, the wine was made for the next 32 vintages, through the 2007 harvest, David Lett’s last.
But it was never released.
“Never released?!?” I asked, when I visited Eyrie.
“Never released.”
These were David Lett’s crown jewels, from 10 specific rows of Wadenswil clones, in the south block of the original vineyard, and only a few barrels were produced in each vintage. They began to take on an aura of myth, of legend: unreleased works of art, snapshots of time, aging slowly in the Eyrie cellars.
Bottles would appear now and then: one or two sold at an Eyrie holiday open house; a few traded with Ken Wright or Gary Andrus (former director of operations at Archery Summit) so they could showcase the magic of aged Oregon Pinot; a vertical sold to a restaurant that asked nicely (Charlie Trotter’s boasts of an 8-year vertical, and they sell the 1975 for $1250/bottle).
But at some point, even the mythical, even the legendary, have to be released, have to be tasted. And that’s what happened in July of this year, when Eyrie presented a vertical tasting of all the South Block Reserves, from 1975 through 2007. It is difficult to find tasting notes from this event, but here are two (one short one, and then a longer one from Dan Johnson of the Wine Is Serious Business video series).
It’s my understanding that these wines have never been offered at retail before, and they may never be again. These are not inexpensive bottles (unless, of course, you collect fine aged Burgundy, in which case you likely see these as incredible values), but I would encourage you, if you’re wavering: find five friends; split the costs; build a tasting event around one or two of these bottles. No need to wait for a special occasion. The bottle itself is the occasion: as mesmerizing and enchanting as any great work of art:
1991 Eyrie Vineyards South Block Reserve Pinot Noir
Repeating David Lett’s vintage notes from above: “A long, cool spring pushed into late June and early July. The rest of the season was ideal, however, with a long warm fall. As is typical of years in which Oregon experiences a more extended ripening season, quality was excellent, especially for wines intended for cellaring.”
1996 Eyrie Vineyards South Block Reserve Pinot Noir
Repeating David Lett’s vintage notes from above: “Good ripeness and balance, but from a cooler vintage. Like the 1996 Burgundies, Eyrie 1996s had very firm tannins and higher acidities. The fruit was fully ripe, and a cool harvest meant good aromatic retention. Yields were slightly below normal levels, but not financially threatening as in 1994 and 1998. The 1996 South Block received 3 years in barrel to help resolve tannins that were more aggressive than what is typical for an Eyrie wine.”
2001 Eyrie Vineyards South Block Reserve Pinot Noir
Repeating David Lett’s vintage notes from above: “The 2001 growing season started out with good flowering and a productive fruit set. A dry and moderate summer followed, with a few days of extremely hot weather in early August. Rain showers (less than 1 inch) came at the end of September. Cool weather, combined with larger berries and clusters than 2000, meant that the 2001 vintage was more suited to wines of finesse.”
Please limit order requests to 2 bottles of each wine, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. These wines will be picked up from the Eyrie cellars and should arrive in late January, at which point they will be available for pickup or shipping during the spring shipping window.
And that’s it, my friends, for 2011! We’ll go dark for a few weeks (no offerings, no pickups) and will return during the week of Jan 9-13. In the meantime, happy holidays to you all, thank you again for a memorable year, and here’s one more New Year’s poem for those of you who had the stamina to make it to the end of this marathon offering, from haiku master Kobayashi Issa:
New Year’s Day–
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.
Full Pull Wines Offer Archive 