The 2012 Pinot Noir Meredith Mitchell Vineyard has a stony, slightly aloof bouquet at first, the fruit a little darker with subtle woodland and undergrowth scents. The palate is medium-bodied with quite firm tannin that lend it more masculinity. There is a touch of bell pepper toward the structured finish that exerts a gentle grip and a touch of allspice on the aftertaste.

From ungrafted Pommard vines planted in 1988 on breezy basalt outcroppings south of McMinnville, Wright's 2010 Pinot Noir Meredith Mitchell leads with strong, cedar-like resin, allied to black raspberry and dark cherry. This is exuberantly bright and juicy as well as persistent, but a bit strident in its combination of phenolic pungency and tartness and with an underlying firmness that for now at least borders on the hard and spare. I want to revisit this a little later on before hazarding any prognosis as to its aging potential. Louisville native Ken Wright has long since become one of the iconic and most influential figures of the Oregon wine scene, a go-to for countless winery start-ups as well as valuable projects to benefit the Willamette wine community. Wright's career evolved from one of negociant-winemaker (founder of Panther Creek) and farmer of other people's vines to that of vineyard owner. "It was twelve years before I bought my first vineyard," he notes, "because before that I was in the exploratory phase of trying to find the best sites in the valley." Today, in addition to the three vineyards he owns, Wright holds 15- to 30-year leases on five others, and 80% of the vines that supply him are farmed by his own extensive (and in places site-specific) team. Wright is passionately vocal on myriad aspects of Pinot production, but one he emphasized especially in our recent session was "nutrition-based farming," which he characterizes as "a whole nother level beyond biodynamics" focused on "the uptake of minerals," which he believes is especially critical in the Willamette to encouraging ideal ripeness. It's thus the soil's microbial life he nurtures, he says, in order to get at the vine, with annual block-by-block soil and tissue analyses employed to establish what's needed and what's been accomplished. Wright makes clear that he sees ripeness as reflecting optimal harnessing of the sun's energy in the form of sugar, but indicates that he considers the use of must concentrators a more than acceptable alternative to chaptalization if grapes don't reach an optimal level of sugar. I was left with an uneasy impression from most of Wright's recent line-up of ripeness to be sure, but variously allied to phenolic stridency; firm, at times rustic tannin; or opacity of flavors. Wright appears from my limited research and my conversations with him to be the source of a considerable consensus that, in his words "as a result of doing single vineyard bottlings for so long, a pattern has emerged that basalt sites " Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills - generally tend to be more fruit-focused - (whether) red, blue, or black - and marine sediments (exhibit) more spicy and floral. And since these marine soils, mostly sandstone, are so dry, that triggers a hormonal response in the vine much earlier in the year to begin the process of ripening; where with (eroded basalt) volcanic soils there's more clay, more water-holding capacity, and so the vine remains vegetative longer. And for whatever reason - I don't quite understand that - we have higher acidity in the volcanics.- I don't share that consensus - I can't say that my admittedly limited experience even entitles me to judge it - but I wanted readers to be aware of it. Tel. (503) 852-7070

The 2009 Pinot Noir Meredith Mitchell Vineyard gives up an overtly herbaceous nose reflecting its cooler site. This herbal character persists on the palate deflecting attention from an otherwise savory, well-balanced, moderately lengthy wine. Drink it over the next 5-7 years. Ken Wright Cellars’ 2009 Pinot Noirs range from excellent to outstanding in quality but generally lack the structure, density, and richness of the great 2008 vintage. These are pretty, elegant wines to drink while the 2008s continue to fill out in the cellar.Tel. (503) 852-7070; www.kenwrightcellars.com

The 2008 Pinot Noir Meredith Mitchell Vineyard comes from a site described by Wright as “?old school with 6 X 12 spacing giving clusters half the size of normal with yields 2 tons an acre in a big year. In 2008 yields were 1.5 tons.” This was generally true throughout Willamette Valley, a splendid vintage but with considerably below normal yields. Dark ruby red with an already complex aromatic array of smoke, spice box, incense, violets, black cherry and black raspberry, in the mouth this is a brawny, more structured wine than its siblings (partly a trait of McMinnville Pinots). Densely packed and structured while buttressed with lively acidity, this will be a long-lived Pinot demanding a minimum of 3-4 years of cellaring. It should effortlessly see its 20th birthday. Ken Wright’s Pinot Noirs in 2008 are exceptional but only slightly better than his 2007s from a much more difficult vintage. Perhaps it is in the more challenging vintages that the cream really rises to the top, whereas the challenge in 2008 was to NOT make a really good wine. Tel. (503) 852-7070; www.kenwrightcellars.com