Thanksgiving wines: Oregon Pinot Noir

Originally wrote this for Canadian thanksgiving, but can work as well on an American thanksgiving table. I realize with some six feet of snow on the ground in parts of the Great Lakes and Northeast this week, it's not precisely autumnal anymore...

The Willamette Valley

Pinot in general is I think a good shoulder season bottle, but there is a certain earthiness to the Oregon wines that I think fit nicely around thanksgiving. Pinot Noir is traditionally regarded as amongst the most challenging wine grapes to flourish, much less perfect. This mostly has to do with the grape skin's delicate nature and the exacting conditions the resulting juice requires to thrive. As far as red grapes go it is just about the opposite of the hardy sun-loving plant-all grapes like Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon that practically appear in every wine growing nation on earth.

Indeed it was long conjectured that Pinot's homeland of Burgundy would never face a serious challenger like Bordeaux has seen with Napa. The prices of the top drawer red burgundies from the Cote d'Or may not be touched but the last couple decades has seen upstart colonies in New Zealand and Oregon demonstrate the French monopoly on quality Pinot Noir is well over.

Next comes the cost difficulty. Pinot Noir has never been cheap, and that is just a fact of the high value estates it can be grown in and the meticulousness that it's harvesting requires. The usual low bar for a decent expression of Pinot is around £12 or $20 CAN. The one fantastic exception to this rule is a wine I've trumpeted for years and that's Cono Sur bicicleta Pinot Noir from Chile, which is widely available with it's distinctive lavender coloured twist off cap for £7 or $12 CAN.

I should mention a note on the taste of Pinot. For those accustomed to rather rich, fruit driven everyday wines from, say, the Languedoc or Australia, Pinot can come as a bit of a surprise. It's a bit like the difference between a filet mignon and a t-bone steak. The one more delicate and perhaps exquisite on the tastesbuds, the other hearty and juicy. I know well seasoned wine drinkers who simply don't comprehend the lingering cherry bite of a Pinot, as if it's an entirely different drink than the Cab and Shiraz they're used to. But I digress.

In the lexicon of wonderful archaic descriptions that are associated with the nose (ie. smell) of certain wines, a classic is 'barnyard' with red burgundy. Whether it specifies whether's it meant to be the domicile of cattle or horses, I'm not sure, but it does speak to that earthy quality that can be present in Pinot.

The Willamette Valley south of Portland was the end of the line for American settlers going back to the days of the Oregon trail itself, but it wasn't until the 1960's that world class wine operations began to take shape. It was noted in those days that the climate was more similar to that of Burgundy than anything found further south in California. Since then the number of wineries in the valley focusing their production on Pinor Noir has mushroomed.

 Erath, founded in 1972, was a vineyard I visited on one of my trips to Portland, as it lies just south of the city near the head of the Willamette Valley. It's range of Pinot Noir's have long rated well, and it's principal wine is one of the only Oregon Pinot's reguarly on offer in Ontario at least.

Apparently it's sold by the can in Oregon... allowing for It's Always Sunny in Philadephia induced wild gesticulating during conversation while drinking wine

Underwood Oregon Pinot Noir, availbale in the UK at Marks & Spencer is award winning and at the respectable price of £13. As for a thanksgiving meal, I very much like the pairing of Pinot with turkey and lightish gravy since the wine shouldn't overpower the various flavours combined together in a classic full dinner. For that Oregon Pinot likely represents much better value for money than an average burgundy.