The new Domaine Drouhin wines have arrived!
After waiting a couple of extra months because of the warn weather in Oregon this summer, I finally received my Domaine Drouhin Direct club shipments. DDO was nice enough to combine my 3 bottles of 2005 Willamette Valley (aka Classique) Pinot Noir with my 3 bottles of 2004 Laurène Pinot Noir into one shipment. The 2005 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was actually released months ago, but I only received my bottles yesterday.
Production levels for the 2005 vintage are up from 2004, although the production of Laurène has steadily increased over the past few years. Take a look at these comparative numbers for the various Pinot Noir releases:
- Willamette Valley Pinot Noir: 8,982 cases in 2005 compared to 7,454 in 2004 and 8,907 in 2003
- Laurène Pinot Noir: 2,550 cases in 2004 compared to 2,200 in 2003 and 2,000 in 2002
- Louise Pinot Noir: 189 cases in 2004 compared to 196 in 2003
The 2005 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir sounds like a seriously bad ass wine. A good quote from the mailer is as follows: “In contrast to the more delicate 2004, the 2005 is built on larger shoulders, with a strong backbone that will certainly reward with extended aging.” Nice. Veronique recommends 7-10 years of aging or more, which is quite a while for the Classique-level release. At $45/bottle, this wine should provide nice value over time; I know the 1999 and 2000 vintages are drinking really nicely right now.
If the 2004 Laurène is anything like the 2003, extended aging will be required here too. I think it’s still way too early to touch the 2003, so I’m definitely putting my 2004 bottles away for a while. Veronique recommends 8-12 years of aging for this wine, which seems right to me. I doubt I will be able to wait that long, but we’ll see. I love the fact that the 2004 Laurène is just being released to market after many other Oregon wineries have begun making their 2006 Pinot Noir releases available. Now that’s simply too young yet, if you ask me.
My next DDO Direct shipment will arrive in February 2008 when the 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is released. My next general shipment of wine may be the 2006 Privé futures I ordered earlier this year. Now that ought to be interesting….