Owen Roe Barrel Tasting 2005

Northwest Wine Fan Presents
Owen Roe Barrel Tasting 2005
By Tim Sinniger

Date: Saturday, April 23, 2005
Where: Owen Roe wine making facility - St. Paul,

The overall rating we gave to the wines we tasted was Very Good to Excellent. A lot of fruit was showing magnificently, especially the Pinot Noir, Merlot and the Cabernet Franc. Others like the Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Zinfandel were showing their potential but still needed some barrel time to flesh out. Jerry was genuinely excited as we navigated around the barrels exposing us to the newer vineyards they were working with. As he wielded his wine thief you could tell this was a person of the vineyard, revealing to us the terroir of the vineyards in the wines we tri

2004 Pinot Noir - Kalita Vineyard: Pommard Clone
The Kalita Vineyard lies in the newly designated Yamhill / Carlton area which has Willakenzie soils. Used for some of their top releases this is a full-bodied Pinot showing dark fruit and I picked up a touch of spice and coffee. This is set to be used in 2004's "The Kilmore" Pinot Noir under the Owen Roe label as well as in their O'Reilly's Pinot Noir. Carolyn and I had a bottle of the 2003 recently at our favorite wine bar Vino Mercato and loved it. We will be looking forward to future releases using this fruit.

2004 Merlot - DuBrul Vineyard
Wow! Stick this in a bottle right now and I'm out of here with as much as they will let me have. DuBrul Vineyard is located in the Rattlesnake Hills of Yakima Valley has long been a favorite vineyard source for Owen Roe. We have many of their DuBrul wines dating back several years and this 2004 vintage should be another great offering. We are hopeful they will do a single varietal bottling of this dense, inky red, of a brooding Merlot complete with chocolate and spice showing. This is one to lay done for a few years. Ok, I'm dreaming of a large format bottle, double magnum maybe, ten years from now. Wow!

   2004 Zinfandel - Hillside Vineyard
Annually one of my favorite Owen Roe wines is this Hillside Vineyard Zinfandel and this vintage portends good things again. Once again as in years past I get dark raspberry fruit with that pepper, spice nose to it. This is one to look forward to and age-worthy to boot. We just enjoyed a bottle of the 2000 Owen Roe Zinfandel the other night and it was delightful. The bottling consisted of grapes from both the Hillside Vineyard and Lonnie Wright's The Pines Vineyard. Lonnie also stewards the Hillside Vineyard and his effort in these vineyards is apparent in this Owen Roe wine. Both of these vineyards believe it or not are near The Dalles, Oregon. The bottle carries the Columbia Valley designation.

   We tasted wine from barrel from many other vineyards including Oregon vineyards Cummins Ridge and Lewis. From Washington we sampled Elerding, Rosa Hills, Saint Isidore, Seven Hills and Slide Mountain. From all accounts 2004 looks to be another great year for Owen Roe.

   Cellarmasters Note: Owen Roe's Abbot's Table Red Wine
This is Owen Roe's most popular wine. A lot of people I speak with believe this wine is made up from the leftover lots grapes once the upper end varietal and blend choices have been made. In talking with David O'Reilly he says that they were looking to be able to get a wine on the shelves for folks to buy that is approachable now rather than having to be cellared for years. The important thing to remember he said was that it also had to be of the highest quality. Hence the Abbot's Table grape selection takes place first. It's quite a treat to have such a great red blend for around $20.

   By way of history I have been following the career of David O'Reilly of Owen Roe for a few years now. I had tried some of his wine and was intrigued by this Oregon winemaker making Washington Cabernet Sauvignon. I was finally able to meet him during a trip with Carolyn and our daughters to Salem Oregon three years ago. The ladies were spending the day shopping at Nordstrom (the closest within three hours) while I trekked up to the Willamette Valley. David was pouring his wines at Medici Vineyards. He was close to opening his own facility, but was still doing tastings there. Three wineries were represented at Medici that day, Owen Roe, Sineann and of course Medici. Peter Rosback, owner of Sineann and the winemaker for Medici has had a relationship with David for quite a few years. I had a wonderful time with them that day, but the thing that struck me about both David and Peter was the fact that even though they were located right in the middle of some of the best Pinot Noir territory in the country, that was not enough for them. They were working with Bordeaux and Rhone varietals while being headquartered in the Willamette Valley. This peaked my interest in their winemaking endeavors.

   Both of these winemakers have pursued great grapes from all over Oregon and Washington. Their goal: To make the best wine possible from the best grapes available. They are not afraid to venture out, take chances with vineyards that are not well known yet and their pursuits have paid off for all of us who enjoy great wine. They have worked together as well separately to make these wines and completely support each others efforts. This is true artisan winemaking in its purest form. If you have not tried an Owen Roe, O'Reilly's or Sharecropper's wine yet you are missing a treat

Year

Wine

Score

2002

Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

$36

2002

DuBrul Vineyard Rosa Mystica Block Yakima Valley

$39

2002

Chardonnay Willamette Valley Dijon Seventy Six

$27

2002

Cabernet Sauvignon Yakima Valley DuBrul Vineyard

$60

2003

Yakima Valley Red

$42

2002

Syrah Yakima Valley DuBrul Vineyard Rosa Mystica

$42

2003

Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Seven Hills Vineyard Saint Isidore

$42

2003

Grenache Columbia Valley Voce Populi Elerding Vineyard

$24

2003

Syrah Yakima Valley DuBrul Vineyard

$54

2002

O'Reilly's Chardonnay Oregon

$12

2002

Merlot Yakima Valley DuBrul Vineyard

$45

2003

O'Reilly's Pinot Noir Oregon

$13

2003

Abbot's Table Washington-Oregon

$21

Owen Roe is a partnership between Jerry Owen and David O'Reilly. Jerry closely monitors the vineyards and David is the winemaker. Together they own or have secured grapes from some of the best vineyards in the Pacific Northwest to make their O'Reilly's, Sharecropper and Owen Roe wines. With grapes coming from Southern Oregon, the Willamette Valley, Columbia Gorge, Columbia Valley, Yakima Valley and Walla Walla they have been consistently making some of the best wines coming out of the Northwest. From well known vineyards such as DuBrul, Rosa Hills, Hillside, Casa Blanca and others they have produced wines that are all about place (terroir). Newer vineyard sources such as Lewis, Elerding, Saint Isidore and Ironbird will be in the forefront of wine talk in the years to come.

With great Oregon wines such as their Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, it might sound surprising that they are actually better known for their Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel and Red Blend wines that use grapes sourced from Southern Oregon, Northern Oregon and Washington. Their DuBrul Cabernet and Merlot are highly sought after by "Big Red" wine collectors.

Carolyn and I visited the Owen Roe facility and spent the afternoon with Jerry Owen. We were on business nearby in Salem and were fortunate enough to have Jerry agree to see us on a Saturday afternoon. Their wine tasting facility in Newberg is only open a few weekends a year to the public and so it was nice of David and Jerry to accommodate us at their St. Paul winemaking facility. The Willamette Valley is so beautiful in the spring. Driving along the country roads and seeing all of the farmland, vineyards and flowers along the way made the trip that much more satisfying.

Jerry was there to meet us when we pulled into the parking lot. We went into the main warehouse where he gave us an overview of the facility, how they stage for harvest and get the wines into barrel. After, he asked us if we would like to do some barrel tasting. We of course jumped at the opportunity. Since our time was short we concentrated on their red wines in barrel from the 2004 vintage. We started out with tasting some Pinot Noir in the first warehouse and worked our way through the second warehouse that stored various red varietals from several vineyards. Since none of the blending of the finished wines had taken place yet we tasted single varietals. This gave us a chance to experience the different characteristics of the vineyards. It was especially apparent in the Pinot Noir we tasted. The difference between the Dijon and Pommard clones were striking with the Pommard clone reflecting darker fruits and full bodied while the Dijon clone showed bright cherry characteristics and lighter bodied.

Barrel tasting notes:

2004 Pinot Noir - Casablanca Vineyard: Pommard Clone
This Pommard Clone has been released as a single vineyard designate for their 2001 Casa Blanca Pinot Noir, blended with Dijon Clone 115. Most recently this Pommard Clone has been used in their O'Reilly's and Sharecropper's Pinot Noir. This Jory soil fruit was bright, showing raspberry, but with a slightly muted finish due to its youth. This vineyard is a proven winner for Owen Roe. Their 2001 Casablanca Pinot Noir received a 92 point score from Wine Spectator and is one of our favorite wines. We take this with us to restaurants for our anniversary and other special occasions.

Below are some selected Wine Spectator ratings for Owen Roe wines from the 2002 and 2003 vintage

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Tim Sinniger

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