The 2014 Pinot Noir Casteel is more of a location-orientated cuvée since 2008, coming from two parcels within the Bethel Heights vineyard. It has a crisp and very focused bouquet with dark plum, cranberry leaf and cold stone aromas that show impressive transparency. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, very harmonious and cohesive with a supple texture, very pure with great tension and precision towards the finish. What a fabulous Pinot Noir—world class.

The 2012 Pinot Noir Casteel Reserve is a selection of the best barrel from the Dijon 114 and 115 clones planted in 1996 and 1994 respectively. This vintage was picked October 6-7 at 23.5 Brix and sees 14 months in French oak, 40 percent new barrels. It has a genteel bouquet at first: pure red cherries, bergamot and strawberry that unfolds to reveal motes of chalk dust and flint. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, soft and rounded in the mouth, but not plush or luxuriant. It is very harmonious with overtly red fruit rather than black, a light pinch of cracked black pepper on the finish. Lovely.

"In 2011, as in 2010," relates Ben Casteel of the 2011 Pinot Noir Casteel Reserve, "we found ourselves building this wine around two relatively young blocks right outside the winery that were good, but made pretty rustically phenolic wines in 2007 and 2008 that we didn't feel merited longer barrel time. Then, in 2009, I just assumed we'd gotten them riper and that's why I liked them so much. But here we are in a cool and a cold year building our reserve wine around them. Something changed." One plausible hypothesis is that the roots simply needed to reach a point where the plant could channel the inherent potential of those particular sites. Having relayed all of this, though, I must say that I miss the primary juiciness here that's characteristic of the best 2011s, and I tend to think that is on account of the nearly half new wood reinforcing the material's native tannins. Fortunately, there are both deeply meaty savor and pronounced salinity that serve for welcome stimulation of the salivary glands, which in turn helps one over the roughness of the tannins. Nor do I mean to imply that ripe fruit is lacking; it's just somewhat along the line of dried cherry and cranberry. There is an energetically tart, almost savage intensity to this wine's finish. I'd want to revisit it in a year or two before handicapping its bottle potential, other than to say that the tannins will almost certainly be prominent for the rest of this decade. "They weren't that different, at least in terms of the season" maintained Mimi Casteel and cousin Ben Casteel in amusing tandem when I asked them to differentiate 2011 and 2010, "just the latest harvest on record, and then the next latest on record! And we haven't felt that there is a qualitative difference either. But we were picking in the 12th-13th of October range, with 2010 (whereas) we didn't start picking until the 25th in 2011 and didn't finish until the 11th of November. Our goal was to get 12% natural alcohol and enough extract that the more tannic parts of our vineyard weren-t going to be just tannic." And many Pinots in this 2011 collection got into bottle at or little over 12%, with distinctively delightful results. The fruit was all destemmed and the extractive regimen lightened. After not getting the results they had hoped for in those few 2010 lots to which tartaric acid had been added (out of concern that the wines would fall flat after such high malic converted to lactic), the Casteels performed no acidulation in equally high-malic 2011. "The changing of our barrel regime to lighter toasting, but more turn-over (hence also newness) and different tonneliers has been gradual, but is something we've really worked on" explains Ben Casteel. "When Mimi and I took over in 2005 we didn't want to change anything dramatically because you have an established track record" to consider. A new property, Ingram Lane, has recently been planted to enhance the future volume here, which is still suffering a bit from the loss of Seven Springs after that venerable neighboring site became part of Evening Land. (For more about Bethel Heights consult my Issue 202 introduction.) Tel. (503) 581-2262

Combining fruit from several sweet spots on their property (and reflecting two Dijon clones and a bit of Wadenswil), the Bethel Heights 2010 Pinot Noir Casteel Reserve displays a delightfully juicy and flower-bedecked amalgam of red and black currant, elderberry and cherry, as well as a polished feel and saliva-inducing undertone of nut oils and salted, fatty roasting pan scrapings that send my salivary glands into palpitations. And there’s a real ping of energy in this wine’s dynamic and sustained finish. This ought to be worth following for a decade. Ben Casteel returned home in 2005 from a stage in Burgundy and a five year stint at Rex Hill to work a crush alongside his father and founding winemaker Terry; after which, he took over that job. Cousin Mimi Casteel – whose background is horticulture and forest ecology – acts as both general manager and viticulturalist. This site northwest of Salem, whose oldest block dates to the Casteels’ original 1977 and 1979 plantings, is known for consistently delivering fine Pinots, although the Casteels also source somewhat beyond its bounds and are serious about white grapes – theirs and those of neighbors – as well, even if with mixed success. The team here is beginning to favor a certain percentage of whole clusters and stems in Pinot depending on vintage, though fermentation is usually still induced by inoculation. Tel. (503) 581-2262

The 2009 Pinot Noir Casteel Reserve displays a touch of herbs as well as a darker shade of fruit. Black cherry, black raspberry, and plum notes lead to a savory, plump, chunky effort that narrows slightly in the finish. It will be at its best from 2012 to 2019. Bethel Heights Vineyard is moving toward using 100% estate fruit for its wines. They produce a substantial amount of solid quality white wine and around 10,000 cases of Pinot Noir with the Willamette Valley and Estate bottlings accounting for roughly 80% of that total. And if the truth be told, and to the credit of Bethel Heights, the quality of these entry level cuvees is very close to the Vineyard and Block-designated wines at a fraction of the price.Tel. (503) 581-2262; www.bethelheights.com