two paws down: McKinlay 2005 Willamette Valley PN

AxisOfBeagles wrote: It's been at least a couple years since I

Surely that should be Mrs. Beagles? :P In this case, "you get what you pay for" (YGWYPF?) might apply.

Mark Lipton

In either case, it is still SWMBO - "She Who Must Be Obeyed"

cmon, 16 bucks ought to buy something decent and drinkable. Otherwise, it's just crazy.

Anyway, I assumed it was Mrs. Beagle, singular. That way several of 'em could form up and do an axis, uh, thing.

-E

I had this wine a few months back and had a similar opinion. It seemed that the fruit was picked before it was ripe leaving an empty acidic shell with little dicernable fruit. $16 USD is acutally about $4 cheaper than the listed price of $19.99.

Should have been used for vinegar. Always better than the drain.

Unfortunately, Oregon Pinot Noirs are expensive. I have had this one as a wine by the glass and sent it back as undrinkable.

If the wine wasn't "tainted in any way," why didn't you save it for cooking? You don't need great wine for cooking, and a wine without flaws, even if you didn't like it, should be good enough for cooking.

I have little experience with Oregon Pinot Noir. It sounds as if the main problem is under-ripe grapes. I have found that some unripe Burgundy from years such as 1972 can be very acid and soon seem to lose all fruit. For me, it can be undrinkable for at least the first

10 years. However in some cases, when from a top vineyard, the wine seems to just do nothing for many years after that. Then at perhaps 15

- 25 years it begins to develop bottle fruit bouquet and the apparent acid is reduced. In some cases the bouquet is not attractive, reminding one of something from an old fashioned paint shop that sold oil based paint. In other cases the bouquet is attractive. I once tasted an off vintage Romanee-Conti, perhaps from 1963, but I am not for sure. I was told it was very acid and undrinkable when young. Yet it had developed considerable attractive bouquet. It was only a shadow of Romanee-Conti from a decent year, but it could be drunk with pleasure, especially with food. If I had more than one bottle of the wine you mention, I think I would just leave it alone for at least 15 years to see what happens. It likely will just become more undrinkable, but if you already owned the wine, you would have nothing to lose but perhaps some vinegar.

Fair quesion. And the honest answer is; as a winemaker, I have way more than enough mediocre stuff on hand to keep us in cooking wine for a few lifetimes!

That sounds like a good answer to me. Thanks.

that this wine "proved that

excellent Oregon PN, but sold for

accompany an informal meal of a

slightly earthy PN nose -

acidic, and lacking any fruit

the grapes were harvested

quality fruit. We let the

of our own estate Syrah's

been at least a couple years

had any second thoughts - the

our house again.

Ditto for the 2006...