Oregon’s Dynamic Pinots, Plus Czech Wines With an Edge: Weekly Tasting Report (May 17-23)

Oregon pinot noir has an attractive sameness to it in many cases, particularly after two of my editors rated hundreds of samples earlier in the year, but I just tasted some that stood out and for good reason, since they are extremely difficult to find – Rose & Arrow Estate pinot noirs, which have been of terrific quality in recent years.

The small producer makes a number of single-vineyard wines from about 60 acres of vineyards throughout many of the key appellations of Willamette Valley, and the best bottlings focus on parcels of pinot planted in volcanic soils. This seems to give the wines more structure and intensity than most pinot noirs from Oregon, with a chewy and linear tannin quality enhanced by forest floor and bark, pine and wet earth aromas and flavors. These are dynamic wines worth seeking out even if you need to find them on the secondary market.

It’s also worth noting that some of Rose & Arrow’s owners and winemakers are superstars in the wine world, including Louis-Michel Comte Liger-Belair of Burgundy and Mark Tarlov, who started Evening Land Vineyards. The latter was arguably one of the first to begin the cult wine status of some Oregon pinot noirs.

The report includes tasting notes from a vertical tasting of various wines from Rose & Arrow organized in my restaurant in Hong Kong with a close friend who has a small interest in the winery.

What I gleaned was that Rose & Arrow, like most other top Oregon pinot producers, is making some of the best wines ever although I slightly preferred the cooler growing season of 2019 to the hotter 2020. Accepted wisdom is that 2020 is a better vintage of the two, but I suggest trying both and seeing for yourself.

A Zoom call tasting last week also highlighted how cooler vintages in Australia's Barossa Valley are producing reds more in line with the taste buds of the JamesSuckling.com team. I rated all the new releases of Torbreck in the Barossa Valley, and I was excited by the quality of the 2021 wines coming out. Ian Hongell, the winemaker and head of the winery, explained that the vintage was very cool and long and that the extra “hang time” for the fruit made more balanced, refined, structured, and coolly flavorful reds. Check out the video, above.

CZECH WINES WITH AN EDGE

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott made an important discovery when he tasted a range of wines from the Gurdau winery in the South Moravia region of the Czech Republic.

It is often supposed that the wines of Eastern Europe are trapped in a vicious cycle of poor quality and difficult sales, and sometimes that's true. But for a long time in the Czech Republic it was easy sales of unremarkable wines to tourists that held back the development of the wine industry: acceptable quality plus good distribution in Prague was all you needed.

Stuart said he had always asked himself where the daring and exciting Czech wines were, and now we have the answer in the latest Gurdau offerings.

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF THE WORLD 2022

The most remarkable of them is the Gurdau Riesling Moravia Stára Hora 2021, a dry riesling that reminded Stuart of a top Wachau wine, but with fresher acidity. Still very young, it is brimming with lemon blossom, Amalfi lemon and chamomile aromas, concentrated and impeccably balanced with excellent precision at the extremely long finish.

The succulent and vibrant Gurdau Pinot Blanc Moravia Vinohrádky 2021, meanwhile, has so much good energy, and is extremely aromatic (white pepper, dried flowers, aromatic apple and sliced pear) with excellent concentration for the medium body. So Gurdau is a winery with a triple focus.

Although it was founded back in 2012 by Marek Sedacek, the winery has recently been transformed by the completion of an innovative winery building designed by Ales Fiala. It not only houses the winery but also hotel rooms, a restaurant and wine bar.

We can’t wait to visit and taste the 2022 vintage!

HEATING UP IN ADELAIDE HILLS

As with many wine regions around the world, the effects of climate change are irrefutable in the Adelaide Hills. Fires strafed the northern parts in the summer of 2019-2020, and the region was arguably the worst affected of any in Australia as a fallen power line and belting heat conflated the infamous Cudlee Creek fire, damaging approximately 1,100 hectares (2,718 acres) of vineyards.

With the fires came a change in the stylistic patina of the wines, particularly the pinots, according to Senior Editor Ned Goodwin MW. He found that they were either brooding, dark-fruited and high in alcohol, or thin and underripe as a result of having been picked too early.

Although the Adelaide Hills’ “cool climate" tag is debatable in certain circles, many parts of the region are now simply too warm for quality pinot noir of any consistency. Many were clunky, medicinal and hot; picked early to retain acidity; and/or buttressed by an excess of underripe stems. "Pinot is like a Janus here, defined by a liminal slip into excess no matter which side of ripeness the grapes fall," Ned said. "Gamay was better, showing real promise at ArtWine and Golding Wines, each responsible for delicious offerings – all red fruits bound to a bone of herbal astringency, auguring for promising times ahead."

Sauvignon blanc can be good, yet craftsmanship is too often stifled by the commercial diminution of the variety to a role of cellar-door cash cow. Exceptions include the Grounded Cru straight-shooting expression and, best of all, Gentle Folk’s ode to Francois Cotat, although Ned didn’t get to taste the latter. Adelaide Hills chardonnay can be superlative, Ned added. Shaw + Smith’s M3 is a more bumptious expression, he said, reminiscent of California over Australia’s leaner, more mineral-infused interpretations, while he also adored Coulter’s take on mineral pungency and relaxed harmony of fruit, toasted nuts and phenolics.

Sparkling wines from Adelaide Hills are also in fine form, although dosage levels are to be questioned as things heat up. The equilibrium between sugar and acidity is not as balletic a stretch when acids drop and sugars rise. There is less, if any, need to add sugar. Low to zero dosages, vintage-dependent, seem to be the logical progression as with other warming parts of the world. Deviation Road’s suite of toasty fizz delivers hedonism and ample pleasure. These are wines for those who appreciate long lees aging and autolytic complexity.

SERIOUS REDS FROM FAMILIA TORRES

And our tastings of the latest Spanish releases continued in our Hong Kong office, with the  elegant and precise Familia Torres wines among the highlights. Familia Torres is one of the leaders in the Catalonia region in organic and regenerative viticulture practices, and it now makes more refined, drinkable yet serious reds in Penedes, Priorat and Conca de Barbera. Senior editor Zekun Shuai found the wines much more aligned with each other in terms of style, delivering more finesse and precision – both for their carinena and garnacha wines.

“The concept is to make more gastronomic wines,” said Josep Sabarich, the technical director of Familia Torres, who talked about the wines with Zekun during a Zoom call, elaborating on their concerted effort to make more ethereal, elegant and textured wines – despite the challenges of global warming and consecutive warm, dry vintages in Catalonia.

“The last fresh vintage for us was 2018, and 2023 has been the third consecutive dry vintage after 2021 and 2022,” Sabarich said, while also shedding light on the importance of regenerative farming in combatting global warming. “We focus on increasing the content of organic matters in the soils, such as the use of organic compost, which increases soil fertility, pushing the vigor of the vineyard so the vines are less susceptible to drought.“

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF SPAIN 2022

Familia Torres has also been reducing planting density and using more bush vines in working with Mediterranean varieties that thrive well in warmer, drier climates.

Sabarich also stressed the importance of reviving the ancestral but long-forgotten indigenous varieties in the vineyard, such as forcada and morneu, which delivers good acidity that helps the wine to achieve better freshness and pH. Their Torres Conca de Barberà Grans Muralles 2019 also adds 10 percent querol and 3 percent garro to the blend of garnacha, carinena and a splash of monastrell, delivering a wine that is both deep and fragrant, with racy red and blue fruit and a fantastic structure.

While Familia Torres has a stronghold on Mediterranean and indigenous varieties, their cabernet sauvignon and cabernet blend are also exciting. The Torres Penedès Mas La Plana 2019 echoes the rest of the portfolio, highlighted by ever-more soft-spoken details and freshness, while the Torres Penedès Reserva Real 2019 was our favorite wine of the flight. It gets even more precise than Mas La Plana, with 59 percent cabernet sauvignon, 35 percent cabernet franc and 6 percent merlot in the blend.

– James Suckling, Stuart Pigott, Zekun Shuai and Ned Goodwin MW.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.