The Shea 2003 Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard Block 23 – which originated with 14-year-old, ungrafted, un-irrigated Pommard vines – reflects the heat and drought of that vintage in a remarkable way, though one analogous to certain Burgundy wines that experienced a similarly extreme season. Mint chocolate vividly dominates both on the nose and an expansive, finely tannic palate, along with concentrated dark berry confiture, licorice, leather, sauteed mushrooms, and smoky black tea. There is just enough juiciness to – along with the appeal of enveloping richness and complexity – encourage the next sip ... and the next; and 14.2% alcohol is not in the least obtrusive. As with many successful Burgundies of this vintage, the complete lignification of stems under hot, dehydrating conditions was (wisely, it seems!) taken by then winemaker Sam Tannahill – who was also responsible for Shea Cellar’s 2004s – as an invitation not to de-stem any significant portion of the fruit. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this remain gorgeous for another 3-5 years.
After a decade spent planting and establishing the reputation for their today 200-acre vineyard – located west of Newberg, near to where the current A.V.A.s of Chehalem Mountain, Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton, and Dundee Hills all come to within two miles of touching one another – in 1996, New Yorkers Dick and Deirdre Shea decided to take up year-round Oregon residence and began estate-bottling some of their fruit, relying on support from local enological luminaries, including Ken Wright and Patricia Green, before officially hiring a dedicated winemaker in 2003. Their share of fruit today stands at 25%, with the other three-quarters going to one of the largest – and certainly among the most prestigious – lists of winery clients (in California as well as Oregon) for any vineyard in the U.S. Shea was hit hard in the 1990s by phylloxera, so that the first estate wines coincided with a period of intensive, strategic replanting and grafting. (“Compared with that,” relates Shea, “planting the first time was easy. We just stuck sticks in the ground and walked away, using watering cans on occasion.” And look what quality they got!) Now that the vines planted in that era have begun to reach maturity, there was no winemaker I talked to – whether or not a Shea client – who did not seem to believe that one of the handful of best vineyards in the Willamette Valley has become a yet better source of fruit during the past decade than it had been before. Given the opportunity to cherry-pick their own vineyard, Dick Shea says that “basically we want a little bit of Pommard, some Wadenswil, some Dijon 777,” because the mix is still dominated by Pommard and Wadenswil, or as he put it, by “what came up in the back of a pick-up truck from California to plant the vineyard originally,” with the share of Dijon clones other than 777 being minimal. Since, with few exceptions, the Shea blocks are mono-clonal, it might be suspected or argued that both the estate’s multiple single-block bottlings (this year averaging 250 cases each) and the Shea Vineyard bottlings of those many clients who contract only for blocks or portions of blocks to bottle as “Shea Vineyard,” might sacrifice something in potential complexity. But I found the estate wines to be as good as and in many instances better than the many Shea Vineyard releases I tasted from other wineries, and they confirm the impression I share with Sheas that fruits of Pommard or Wadenswil selections are more than capable of delivering self-sufficient complexity. Drew Voit was responsible for the 2010s – which were, as usual here, bottled already in August following the harvest – as well as for the 2008 and 2009s I tasted, though I did not have chance to discuss them with him. Five weeks before my visit, Voigt had passed the reins to New Zealander Blair Trathen (formerly with Rex Hill) to become a consultant (inter alia to Shea).
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