Drinking the 2000 Domaine Drouhin Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and Dining at Canlis
I took my wife to Canlis in Seattle for her birthday quite recently. At dinner, I heard the sexiest thing anyone has ever told me:
“Are you in the industry?”
The sommelier asked me this question when I asked him whether they had the new Riedel Oregon Pinot Noir stemware yet. I spotted a few Oregon Pinot glasses on another table, so I was a bit taken aback when he asked me, with complete sincerity, whether I was a wine professional. I was tempted to say yes. But I didn’t, and so we started talking about the merits of the glasses, why they’re indicative of how Oregon has arrived internationally, and so forth. Yes, this was my wife’s birthday dinner, but hey: Anything for this blog, right?
Actually, we had a great time. Sort of. It was a really bizarre place to eat dinner, to be honest, but not because of the staff or the food. More on that in a minute.
I got excited when, earlier that day, I read the Canlis wine list online and saw something interesting: a half-bottle of 2000 Domaine Drouhin Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Now, this is my wife’s favorite wine, from quite possibly her favorite vintage (1998 and 1999 are hard to ignore, though). We had a bottle of 2000 Laurène once before with my wife’s family, which went over quite well with them (my wife’s mother described it as the third red wine she had ever enjoyed in her life). I usually prefer to drink the Laurène Pinot Noir rather than the Willamette Valley (or Classique, as it is also called), but a 2000 is a 2000. It’s hard to object when you know it’s going to be worthwhile, and it’s also a rare vintage at this point. I had to look for a while to find a reasonably priced 2000 Laurène a couple of years ago; now, it’s all but gone from the gray market.
At $60 for a half-bottle, I was more than willing to place my order with the terrific sommelier. Here are my notes on this wine:
- Aroma: Rich and dense yet straightforward and accessible; a tapestry of red and black cherry, black berries, dried hay, vanilla, and a hint of barnyard but in a good way. Very, very enticing.
- Flavor: A beautifully restrained array of black cherry, oak and vanilla, smooth acidity and tannins, and a bit of smokiness and underbrush creep across your tongue. Delicious.
- General impression: This wine is drinking quite well after several years in a half-bottle. Truly a great wine from a wonderful vintage; I was excited to try this one and I’m glad I did! Clearly I need to keep aging my younger Domaine Drouhin bottles.
The wine showed brilliantly; the sommelier was excited by my selection as he was an Oregon fan, so to speak. Clearly, the wine was a winner.
Speaking of winners, Canlis was full of them. The woman on the mobile phone who seemed genuinely shocked when the staff came and asked her to retire to the bar to complete her call. The man wrestling with his friend over the check. The entire family of late-middle-aged folks dutifully ignoring their father, sitting his wheelchair and trying to enjoy his ice cream. And all the while, the Canlis waitstaff did a superlative job of remaining impenetrably professional as they flitted from one rich jackass to another. Very amusing to watch. Now I know why my father used to grumble about the “old codgers in that place” whenever, as a child with my parents, we’d drive by the restaurant.