05 Adelsheim, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

We come back to pinot. After all the experiments. We come back to pinot. And Adelsheim's reminds us why coming back to pinot means coming back to the Willamette Valley. The 2005 is surprisingly rich, balanced by powerful acidity. All I taste are ripe, black Bing cherries and raspberry puree. If there's oak, it isn't noticeable except in how rounded and fluid the wine seems. This is hallmark Oregon pinot, by which I mean "Burgundian" but better--informed by Volnay and Pommard, but fresher in its youth, like a classic Monthelie. The aromatics move in and out of me--first muddied earth, then tar, then eucalyptus and fat. To be fair, the alcohol and acid are a little spikey at the end, minty and anisette at times, raw and peppery at others. But there's a sense of home here. We come back here. As if we might be in the ground ourselves someday--David and Ginny turning the topsoil above us.