Medium amber-garnet.  Big fat earthy moss.  Wet basket, burnt rubber–hell, burnt CLUTCH–fresh asphalt and poultry farm.  Each of these I have criticized in various quantities in other Pinots–ESPECIALLY Oregon–but here they are contained in a nice package, bundled in balanced perfection.  Fruit is impossible to ignore, dusty dry and ripe.  Fruit Roll-Up Cherry, with a grainy acrid visible.  In the mouth, the fruit translates perfectly across the palate–everything promised in the nose.  A health-food-store version of Fruit Roll-Ups–rife with acid, raw and natural, and cross the middle all the barnyard earth-tones dance with the still-vibrant fruit.

Is this dangling on a decade-old?  Not much sign of it here, honestly.  Nothing’s going anywhere.  No toasted almond or burnt over-cooked bullshit typical of aged poorly-made Pinot.  And again–I hate to keep bringing this up, but–Oregon has been my biggest culprit of the mentioned aged-ills.  This one thins out a bit in the finish, but nothing off or out-of-place.  Rich, round and rather voluptuous.

2007 MONK’S GATE Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Oregon  13.5

www.monksgate.com