Chehalem Reserve Pinot Noir (Screwcap) 2015

This wine will blow your socks off. Not only was it a fabulous vintage to begin with, a bit of hail in the Spring on Ribbon Ridge clipped this crop short and helped to concentrate this wine even more. Red-to-black velour in color, so deep you can barely see through it, with a bounty of dark fruit (think huckleberries and tiny soft blackberries), so concentrated and filled with sweet fruit. The flavors and aromas keep changing in the glass, but the complexity reaches out with vanilla, crème de cassis, Rosé hips, tamarind, tobacco, blackberry seed, warm oak, and bing cherry. Tremendous depth and density, serious tannin, juiciness, a big, lingering finish, but it’s still lively and vibrant, and it’s got ageability for the ages. Phew.