2003 Raptor Ridge Yamhill County Cuvée

Region: Yamhill County (County appellation overlapping Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton District, and McMinnville AVAs), Oregon, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: This was an impulse buy when I was picking up groceries the other day. It didn't work out in the end, which makes me sad-- I wanted to like it since the winery sounds like a nice place to be. It is named Raptor Ridge because they happily share the land with a bunch of raptors (sharp-shinned and red-tailed hawks, owls, and kestrels), which is not only cool but also probably helps with the pest situation, if they ever have one. They age in French oak and rack "in synchrony of the dark of the moon", and who doesn't love that? Besides the grapes grown on their own 27 acres, they also source grapes from eight other vineyards throughout Oregon.

This is their entry-level Pinot, a blend that is sourced/blended from grapes from seven vineyards (you can see the exact makeup with their pie graph. It's 14.2 percent alcohol, and seems like it should be a respectable Oregon Pinot, although probably not as interesting as some of their single-vineyard offerings.

Notes: Fairly clear blue-red in the glass with pink shading at the rim. It looks young (which it is). The nose is slightly hot with very faint rose/geranium, red cherries, and some slight tobacco. There is a lot of acid in the mouth, and it feels slightly out of balance-- it's a lot of acid and oak and (soft) tannin (more of an astringency than anything) and it overpowers the fruit that is there (mostly a sour cherry flavor). My tongue/throat actually tingles once I swallow it. It's still tight and could use some time in the bottle to sort itself out, although I can't really get a good idea of what it will be like in a year or two. I had it mostly by itself since I didn't even have dinner (dinner of, uh, losers) last night, but had a little cheese and bread with it to see if that would help at all. It did, but only a little. I then even gave the wine some time to calm down (in the bottle, and also in the glass because I had a very bad decanter mishap and my backup is doing vinegar duty, so I couldn't decant) and it still didn't unwind. I will try it again tonight and see if anything new has come about.

Cost: $16

Overall: C