He started St Innocent in 1988 and has been making some of the more highly sought-after wines from the Willamette Valley ever since. tasted the 2000 Brut 3 years ago and I really liked it, by the way. And it tastes that way too at first, quite big and powerful, although there is obvious acidity and a mineral streak too. MORE >>

honestly do not remember how I knew to visit Adelsheim when BrooklynLady and I toured Willamette wine country in the unusually sunny and warm first week of January, 2005. In fact, it was an Adelsheim wine that recently won Eric Asimov's NY Times Tasting panel sampling of Oregon Pinot Gris. Yup, basically 2 years ago on the button. MORE >>

In that spirit, BrooklynLady and I dug into the ol' wine fridge and sampled five Oregon Pinots from the Willamette Valley. We drank these wines with dinner, not all together in the typical tasting format. We were looking for some sort of continuity in the wines, though, so we decided to taste wines from the 2004 vintage. MORE >>

Cruising the hilly outback in the Willamette Valley, Oregon? This was the scene last Sunday when I went to the North Fork to meet Lenn and five other good people to taste a case of mature Long Island reds. Lenn decided to put together a tasting of 12 year old wines from the 1995 vintage. How would these wines hold up? MORE >>

I am so happy to find that I might be a big fan of the 2005 vintage in the Willamette Valley. The '04 wines I've tasted tend to be lush and fruit forward, concentrated and dark, new world in style. Like '04, '05 was another tough one in which yields were low. heartily recommend both of these wines. From vines planted in 1996. MORE >>