Roco 'Private Stash' Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, USA

羅科私人珍藏黑皮諾干紅葡萄酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：3955

Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2015 Pinot Noir Private Stash has a nose of warm cranberries and black and red cherries with licorice, cola, black tea leaves and underbrush. Light to medium-bodied, it has somewhat innocuous red and black fruits in the mouth with very soft tannins and juicy acidity. 240 cases produced.

The 2012 Pinot Noir Private Stash is made by Rollin Soles and his better half (according to Rollin, she has a much better palate). This comes from a field selection of 777 propagated by Rollin with 667. It has a "rockier" bouquet, more stones littered about the aromatics - granite and flint infusing the fruit that is a tad darker and broodier than the Wits' End. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red berry fruit, a lovely saline character coming through, fine tension here with raspberry and cranberry fruit interlaced with minerals defining the finish. You could broach this now, or I would prefer to leave it in bottle for 2 or 3 years because it will repay cellaring.

From his Wit’s End property – prominently featuring his own small-berried selection out of Dijon Clone 777 – Sole’s 2011 Pinot Noir Private Stash delivers sweetly-ripe, almost confitured cherry and boysenberry fruit, a bit awkwardly tinged with caramelized resin and vanilla – both functions of barrel – and, more intriguingly, with peat-like smokiness, all of which adjuncts follow on an expansive palate and into a finish harboring pronounced pungency and piquancy. This should prove worth following through at least 2016. Having stepped-down after 28 years as director of Argyle (whose wines are also reviewed in this report), Rollin Soles will continue to consult there, but devote increased attention to the small estate that he and his wife – after having for 14 years owned the land – began in 2001 by planting Wit’s End Vineyard, immediately west of Newberg and along Red Hills Rd. as it departs the Dundee Hills A.V.A. and enters that of the Chehalem Mountains. I was perplexed by the comparatively weak showing of this 2011 collection vis-a-vis the 2010s that I had tasted for issue 202; but hopefully, I’ll have a chance to revisit some of the 2011s next year and find them more harmonious and expressive (and/or my own palate more receptive). I’m happy to report, though, that the 2012 vintage barrel samples Soles showed me alongside, were rich in both insights and luscious fruit. Tel. 503-538-7625

Sole’s 2010 Pinot Noir Private Stash – from his Wit’s End estate vineyard – offers a pure nose and palate expression of ripe cherry, with nutmeg, tamarind, nut oils, the piquancy of pit, and a medicinal herbal and mineral melange all adding interest and allure, while a suffusion of salinity – as in the corresponding basic Willamette Valley bottling – serves for welcome saliva inducement. This satin-textured, complex Pinot ought to be worth following for the better part of a decade. Rollin Soles – for more about whose methodology see my account in this report of Argyle, which he has directed since its inception (but whose Pinot Noirs aren’t nearly as impressive) – was able to show me the principle 2010 bottlings from his own establishment in the Chehalem Mountains and its attendant Wit’s End Vineyard. Tel. (503) 538-7625

The 2009 Pinot Noir Private Stash is a bit more deeply colored, displays greater depth and concentration, and has enough structure to blossom for another 1-2 years. Mouth-filling and succulent, this lengthy, pleasure-bent effort offers a drinking window extending from 2012 to 2019. Roco is the personal project of veteran vigneron Rollin Soles of Argyle Winery. www.rocowines.com