The 2005 Domaine Drouhin Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is nearly here!
Summer is in full swing in Seattle. The skies are blue, the sun is shining, the crows are slowly roasting to death on the power lines. You get the picture.
Also, summer marks the release of each new vintage of Domaine Drouhin Willamette Valley Pinot Noir; this year, it’s the 2005 vintage that will be released on August 1st. Apparently the 2005 vintage yielded a small crop of grapes again, although by “small” they meant almost 7,500 cases of the 2004 vintage, which was down from 8,907 cases of the 2003 vintage. I think of the concept of “limited” a bit differently; 189 cases of 2004 Louise Pinot Noir sounds limited to me.
Anyway, the 2005 will be shipped to me in mid-October, once the summer ends and football season begins. That’s “football” as in American football, not “soccer.” And from the sound of it, the 2005 Pinot Noir from DDO will require 7-10 years of aging before it is fully ready to drink. Nice! That’s quite a long aging cycle for their basic Pinot release, so I’m quite excited to hear what that means for the Laurène and Louise releases.
The 2005 Willamette Valley (aka Classique) hits the market at $45/bottle, the same price as the 2004 release. I get 15% off as a member of the DDO Direct club, which is pretty darn sweet. I can also order a Jeroboam for $200 if I want. For those of you not in the know, a Burgundy Jeroboam is a wine bottle with 3 liters of wine inside, equivalent to 4 regular bottles. Hot damn! That’s a big party waiting to happen, I’d say. In Bordeaux, a Jeroboam contains 4.5 liters of wine, so be careful if you’re buying a Jeroboam at auction and it seems cheaper than you expected. I know this sort of thing happens to me on a weekly basis.
I look forward to the 2005 releases from DDO; the other Oregonian Pinot I have tried from the 2005 vintage has been universally worthwhile. I think Lachini really produced some of the best 2005 wines that I have had the chance to taste so far. But I expect DDO to make some really awesome wines that should compete with anything from California, or possibly Burgundy….