T1B

I don't get that many opportunities to buy U&L wines up here in God's Country, but my local store sent me an email special for a Pinot Noir from Wines by Joe.

Jeff Dobbes was born and raised in one of the greatest regions in the world for producing Pinot Noir, the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The surroundings rubbed off on him as he grew up in the northern portion of the valley and watched as the area began developing into the world class grape growing region that it is today. Instead of jumping right into it, he did his due diligence and learned about making great wines while working for Erbhof Tesch in Germany and then doing a stint with Domaine G. Roumier and Domaine Lafon in Burgundy in the late 80's. His wine eduction didn't end there however. He came home and worked with numerous Oregon wineries including Hinman Vineyards, Elk Cove, Tualatin Estates and Willamette Valley Vineyards. In 2003 he took all of this experience and hung out his own shingle in the form of Dobbes Estate in Dundee Oregon. Sitting on 214 acres of prime vineyard land, Jeff is the producer of our email deal this week, the 2012 Wines By Joe Pinot Noir.

The 2012 Wines by Joe Pinot Noir displays a dark garnet color in the glass. It features a great Oregon nose with black cherry, ripe raspberry, and cranberry fruits intermingled with floral notes and toasty, earthy aromas. The rich body of red berry fruits are surrounded by medium dry tannins and a long lengthy finish. It is a perfect summer red to put a slight chill on and enjoy on a warm day. Pair it up with grilled chicken, tuna steaks or chilled beef tenderloin salad.

Never been one for chilling red wines, though. Ever heard of/tasted this?

Know of the farm, about 12 miles from my hood This is one wine of thousands that are made in this area. All are pretty damn good. These wines have differences by soils and locations. I did some contract work for a company several years ago, where I was taking soil tests, compiling the data, and then going back and taking leaf tissue samples, and using this combined data for plant nutritional work. We would mix specific fertilizer mixes, with emphasis on micro nutrient balance to apply by drip irrigation or foilar application.

These soils in this area are truly unique, with the best being located between 400 and 800 foot in elevation, on the Dundee class red soils with minor variations in nutrient needs from north to south. Thank you Missoula floods. Grapes grown above 800 to 1200 feet have noted differences from the lower elevations adding to the varital differences.

Probably going to be a good choice. Dude shelling out for 214 acres of established vineyards has some backing. That is among the larger vineyards.His work at Elk Cove would have involved the higher elevation wines, a very well established, and the Tualatin Valley vineyards which was one of the first to establish grapes here back in the mid to late 70's, with their vines located at about 200 to 400 foot elevation on some richer versions of the Dundee class soils.

Joe Dobbs is well known around here. And he talks a better game than he produces. Joe is a big fan of Joe.

And the Wines By Joe label is pretty much their grapes that weren't good enough for the Dobb's Estate label.

Put it this way, I wouldn't spend any sort of real money on it.

Thanks.

And there you have it Goobs. Who are you going to trust? The slightly inebriated raconteur from Beaverton or the slightly demented survivalist from "Parts Unknown?"

I'm going to trust the guy who sells me the wine. I buy wine from them all the time based on their descriptions, and I've been disappointed once. The wine retails for $18.49 and the email offer was for $12.99. I ordered two bottles.

I was really interested in what Dins might say, because he knows a bit about wine and he's from the area. And I assume that $12.99 is not "real money" in his book.

I was surprised at the coherency of Derron's response. I assumed that if Derron drank wine, he would make it himself: 2 parts Welch's Grape Juice, 1 part Everclear.

$13 is way cheap for on Oregon (Dundee, no less) pinot. Pretty much the Wines By Joe label is the lees from pressing off their high dollar stuff. I mean, let's not compare them to their neighbor down the road, Argyle, in the Napa Of The North (second-best wine appellation in the U&L, arguably, with Walla Walla (much of which is in Oregon, contrary to popular belief) being #1, and throw Applegate Valley into the mix, as well.

Just don't judge U&L pinot based on anything Joe makes.


I took a pass on the fine opportunity to bottle wine this week (probably would have been paid in golf).


And if I knew in high school that you could dump yeast in a bottle of Welch's and get drunk on it, things would have been even drunker.

Dinsdale wrote:$13 is way cheap for on Oregon (Dundee, no less) pinot. Pretty much the Wines By Joe label is the lees from pressing off their high dollar stuff. I mean,

Which begs the question in the world of quality wines, why would you even off brand the second run stuff under your own name ?? Bottle it off for somebody else and let them brand it.

$ 13 retail even a net special says that was some real cheap wine to begin with.

And growing up in farm country, when my old man and the other farmers were making logan berry, marion berry wine by the fucking barrel full, getting a bottle or 20 of that was no problem. Summer night, a bottle of logan berry wine, a blanket by the creek with the farmers daughter were pretty nice. Fruity berry type taste at 17% or better.

Derron wrote:Fruity berry type taste at 17% or better.

Uhhh... no. There is no "better" than 17% in a fermentation. 17 is pretty hard to get, and requires some pretty hearty yeast.

Derron wrote:the farmers daughter

Wink, wink...nudge, nudge.

Dinsdale wrote:

Derron wrote:Fruity berry type taste at 17% or better.

Uhhh... no. There is no "better" than 17% in a fermentation. 17 is pretty hard to get, and requires some pretty hearty yeast.

Whatever. That is what the old boys said. I know how to grow the grapes and berries, somebody else can make it. I just know that half a bottle of that stuff should have been called " Panty Dropper Special". Rack my old man and his cronies back in the day for teaching 14 year old boys what good wine was. Great knowledge that came in very useful later on.

Derron wrote:I just know that half a bottle of that stuff should have been called " Panty Dropper Special".

Imus - Ya gonna swing at that or not?