Surprisingly, the Brooks 2009 Riesling represents their currently-available vintage; and what’s more a single-vineyard and a decidedly sweet bottling that costs more, proved far less successful. Fusil oils mingle with apple, lime and orange zest in a nose typical for many New World renditions of this grape, with tart, bitter, and subtly stony elements well-integrated into a sappy, succulent, buoyant mid-palate. This finishes simply but with admirable persistence and will almost certainly be best consumed over the coming year, lest that petrol tone and bitterness subsequently gain the upper hand. Portlandian Jimi Brooks was among Oregon’s path-breakers and most prominent proselytizers for biodynamic viticulture, and when in 2004 death cut to a mere half dozen years tenure as director of his own winery, his sister Janie Brooks Heuck and assistant winemaker Chris Williams determined to perpetuate the Brooks legacy and style, until such time as control of the estate falls to Jimi Brook’s son Pascal, now 16. An enormous diversity of fruit sources was and remains integral to the Brooks program, but a source intimately associated with Jimi Brooks’ career – the 20-acre Eola-Amity Hills Vineyard planted to Riesling and Pinot in 1974 by pioneers Don and Carolyn Byard – changed hands to become the Brooks Estate Vineyard in 2009. Fruit for Brooks Pinots is always de-stemmed, receives two or even three weeks of cold soak (or is that even the right word in such a case?!) in a refrigerated chamber; ferments spontaneously (de rigeur for biodynamists); is extracted via both punch-downs and pump-overs; and typically spends 18 months in barrel. Tel. (503) 435-1278