Pinot Noir and Copper River Salmon - Part 1 WillaKenzie Estate is named for the sedimentary soil on which the estate is planted which in turn is a tribute to the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers of western Oregon. The winery is a popular tourist stop for wine lovers keen to enjoy fine Pinot Noir, a picnic or even a game of Pétanque! Look for ripe strawberry and raspberry on the nose with hints of blood orange and forest floor. The juicy palate offers good balance and acidity for pairing with salmon from the grill.

Favorite Oregon Pinot Noir Bottles from Jackson Family Wines Winemaker Erik Kramer does a great job of making wines with beautiful savory notes, which we love. This single-vineyard wine is no exception. From a fairly new estate, this vintage has a balanced dry and fresh fruit nose with a gorgeous, long finish. It’s a wine that instantly made our mouth water for a tomato or mushroom pasta. If you can find it, search out a bottle of the 2008 Emery Pinot Noir from WillaKenzie. More complex with notes of umami, this is one of Erik’s favorites.

Wines for Thanksgiving The WillaKenzie Estate winery Gisele Pinot Noir is crafted from selected lots from the estate and aged for 10 months in French oak, 20% new. Look for aromas and flavors of bright red fruits with tangy notes of cola, herbs, barrel toast and cocoa. Good acidity makes it a natural to pair with your Thanksgiving feast.

Wines of the Week The WillaKenzie Estate winery is in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Their Gisele Pinot Noir is crafted from selected lots from the estate and aged for 10 months in French oak, 20% new. Look for aromas and flavors of bright red fruits with tangy notes of cola, herbs, barrel toast and cocoa. Good acidity makes it a natural to pair with salmon.

DIY Four-Course Dinner Paired with Oregon Pinot Noir For our second course, I went straight for the pasta – Gnocchi with Frizzled Prosciutto & Blue Cheese. It’s salty, rich and creamy, all the qualities you’d look for in a “dive-right-in” pasta dish. You’ll be drawn in by the aroma of the blue cheese, but you’ll be hooked on the crispy frizzled prosciutto that tops this dish. This gnocchi was just begging for an Oregon Pinot Noir with a good amount of acidity to it, to counteract it’s unctuousness. The 2015 Pierre Leon Pinot Noir ($55) from WillaKenzie which really complimented the funky blue cheese and salty prosciutto nicely.

Pine Wine: Oregon and its wine regions Also, the winery’s 2015 Pinot Noir “Pierre Léon, Yamhill-Carlton” has the tannins to be a red-meat wine plus superb fruit, engaging complexity and great length.

A winery flagship, this one smells a bit smoky and like cherries. With flavors of raspberry and plum, it’s juicy, acidic and spicy, with a velvety finish.

Aromatic, classic Pinot Noir aromas of ripe black cherry and fresh violet petals are clean and warmly inviting. In the mouth this is full, round and plummy with dark fruit notes of black cherry and black currant, an earthy streak running through to the finish where a tart bit of acidity paired with oak spice trails off into warmth.

Wines of the Week WillaKenzie Estate is named for the sedimentary soil on which the estate is planted, soil which in turn is a named as a tribute to the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers of western Oregon. The winery is a popular tourist stop for wine lovers keen to enjoy fine Pinot Noir, a picnic or even a game of Pétanque! The Gisele Pinot Noir bursts with red fruits and spice, perfectly balanced on the palate to accompany cuisine of all types.

Here’s a low-ball price from another lovely Pinot from the Willamette Valley. Ruby red and purple with a juicy raspberry flavor. Should even get better with some age. Pairs great with salmon and roasted poultry.

The wine showed a medium ruby color with garnet hues. Cherry, raspberry, vanilla, cranberry, oak and whiffs of tobacco leaf all arrived on the nose with a smoky, vegetal edge. Cherry, raspberry, cranberry, currant, oak, vanilla, smoke and hints of tobacco followed on the palate. The wine exhibited great structure and good length, along with well-integrated tannins. This wine would pair well with grilled filet of salmon.

WillaKenzie's Oregon wines are all about the soils, which were named for Oregon's two major rivers, the Willamette and McKenzie. Each of the estate's seven vineyards has a different terroir based on the soil type, climate, elevation and other factors. Grape clone selections also play a role in the wine's flavor, and the varying pinot noir clones, many derived from Burgundian strains, were developed to prevent disease and promote earlier ripening and smaller berries. Fruit for this wine was sourced from Yamhill-Carlton and Dundee Hills. Following harvest, the grapes went through cold-soak maceration, fermented for 20 days in stainless steel tanks and matured in French oak barrels. In the glass, the wine offers aromas of cherry and hints of vanilla and baking spices. On the palate, taste black raspberry, cranberry, earth notes and silky tannins.

2000 Verité ''Le Désir,'' Sonoma County (cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, merlot): cedar aromas; flavors of black cherries and black coffee; medium body; complex; shifting flavors; hugely rich; $150.

Le nez est épicé, avec de la réglisse, du fruit noir. La bouche a du volume, une bonne concentration et des tannins arrondis … Finit poivré sur des notes fumées. (Spicy aromas with licorice & black berry notes. The mouth shows great volume and concentration with soft round tannins. Spice and smoke on the finish.)

Scores Aren’t Everything & Best of 2018: Lisa Perrotti-Brown Northern California in 2018 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. My tastings of new releases out of Northern California this year were a tale of two vintages—one of the easiest and most effortless, followed by one of the most extreme and dramatic vintages in the region’s history: 2016 & 2017. Best of Sonoma (Reds) 2016 Verité La Muse – 100 The 2016 La Muse comes strutting out of the glass with flamboyant crème de cassis, ripe plums and black cherries notes followed by nuances of aniseed, chocolate box, wild thyme, violets and chargrill plus a fragrant suggestion of potpourri. Full-bodied, rich and concentrated, the densely packed, perfumed black fruit layers are beautifully framed by perfectly ripe, finely grained tannins and fantastically knit freshness. It finishes long with the most incredible display of mineral sparks.

The Frenchman's Daughter Hélène Seillan Brings a Unique Perspective to New Blends The current release of Vérité is 2015. On the nose, La Muse exudes a delicate floral quality with a complex earthiness beneath; flavors of plump cherries and red berries are edged with spiciness and delivered with soft tannins. La Joie is perfumed, complex, and rich, but elegantly balanced; black fruit is wrapped in aromatic herbs and underlined with a stoniness emphasized by firm tannins. There’s a purity expressed by Le Désir—bright red fruit stands out against smoke and spice, with high-toned notes of violets over a long, silky finish.

The Frenchman's Daughter Hélène Seillan Brings a Unique Perspective to New Blends The current release of Vérité is 2015. On the nose, La Muse exudes a delicate floral quality with a complex earthiness beneath; flavors of plump cherries and red berries are edged with spiciness and delivered with soft tannins. La Joie is perfumed, complex, and rich, but elegantly balanced; black fruit is wrapped in aromatic herbs and underlined with a stoniness emphasized by firm tannins. There’s a purity expressed by Le Désir—bright red fruit stands out against smoke and spice, with high-toned notes of violets over a long, silky finish.

A Veritable Treat These wines, however, are not in the Screaming Eagle mold. Jackson’s original “vision and concept” was for a Merlot as good as Petrus, but while showing his Merlot blend to Jackson, Seillan also produced a Cabernet Sauvignon blend, and now there are three wines: La Muse, which is Merlot with, in 2014, 10% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec; La Joie, 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot in 2014; and Le Désir, 61% Cabernet Franc, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Malbec in 2014. A crucial point is that Seillan eschews acidification, and so the wines have intrinsically better balance as well as a sense of coolness. Alcohol levels are around 14.5%, and about 1,000 to 1,500 cases of each are made each year and sold through the Bordeaux Place, so any wine merchant with connections there should be able to source the wines.

Thick, rich, intense fruit with smoky overlay from toasted oak and very chewy tannin. Very powerful core fruit, yet slightly lighter body than their Joie and Muse cuvées. 17/20

A Veritable Treat These wines, however, are not in the Screaming Eagle mold. Jackson’s original “vision and concept” was for a Merlot as good as Petrus, but while showing his Merlot blend to Jackson, Seillan also produced a Cabernet Sauvignon blend, and now there are three wines: La Muse, which is Merlot with, in 2014, 10% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec; La Joie, 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot in 2014; and Le Désir, 61% Cabernet Franc, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Malbec in 2014. A crucial point is that Seillan eschews acidification, and so the wines have intrinsically better balance as well as a sense of coolness. Alcohol levels are around 14.5%, and about 1,000 to 1,500 cases of each are made each year and sold through the Bordeaux Place, so any wine merchant with connections there should be able to source the wines.

Strong toasty oak on the nose, dense and layered black fruit on the palate. The toasted, burnt spice aroma from oak dominates the palate, but there is delicious fruit succulence too. 17/20

Very fine and floral on the nose, pungent, pure fruit, juicy, licorice root, velvety, fine, elegant tannins, long on the palate, sweet spices, persistent.

What to Drink Now: Cabernet Franc In Sonoma, Tuscany and Bordeaux, celebrated winemaker Pierre Seillan reveals the beauty and structure of the grape while allowing each individual micro-climate to shine...The ultra-premium Verite Le Desir ($400) reveals structure and concentration with dried blueberry, cherry, and toasted spice with a tannic backbone making this a wine that can be enjoyed now after a bit of decanting or held for years.

Escape to Sonoma County This is an ethereal Cabernet Franc with concentrated notes of red fruit, violet, exotic spice, and a savory spine of earthy tobacco running through it. The plush finish goes on and on.

8 Wines to Try Before You Die The late Jess Jackson brought Bordeaux Winemaker Pierre Seillan to Sonoma to produce the Vérité wines and there are three, each priced at $400 a bottle. La Muse is predominately Merlot and the 2013 vintage of the wine earned a perfect 100 points from influential critic Robert M. Parker Jr. It’s broadly flavored and beautifully layered, with lavish oak spice adding to the precise balance and texture.