2013 Evesham Wood Pinot Noir Le Puits Sec Willamette

As I’ve mentioned many times, 2013 was a fairly enigmatic harvest. The growing season started off quite warm and came to a dramatic halt in early August when the weather got significantly colder, particularly the nights and continued that way until we started picking in early September. In barrel the wines were a bit elusive and I even asked Russ to come over and taste the LPS barrels. His response at first taste was “Burgundy”, which certainly calmed any concerns I had. While they were still a bit hard to figure out in barrel each time I tasted them they became more clear. Now in bottle this vintage is going down as one of my favorites. There are some clear signs of a warm growing season with some dark fruit and plump texture, but most notable are the cooler growing season notes, bright, electrifying acidity and focus with red fruits and earth. The wine starts with cherry, violet and damp leaves moving to tart cherry in the mid-palate and finishing with black cherry and fine tannins.