Back Up the Truck! Purist's Willamette Pinot
2006 Amalie Robert Pinot Noir Dijon Clones
"Wines true to the soil and true to the vintage."
Sounds downright Burgundian to us...
...but the motto actually doesn't belong to any producer in Burgundy. Instead, we find ourselves in Oregon with the soil- and vintage-signed wines of Dena Drews and Ernie Pink at the Amalie Robert Estate. These have been some of our favorite Willamette Pinots for over three years.
They are understated wines, graceful Pinots with beautiful, delineated red berry fruit, a sheer line of minerals and earth tones.
For those of you all too familiar with the heavily spiced pools of sap and fruit that have come to classify woefully too many New World Pinots, rest assured that the Amalie Robert Dijon clones bottling has finesse, even while the presence of ripe, wild strawberries and raspberries on the palate is coating. Darker, damp forest floor and soft cocoa notes are there, too, lending depth and personality to the wine. (The Burghound review is below.)
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This is about as Burgundian as the West Coast gets. Fans of Rhys, Clos Saron, Ayres and Belle Pente (to name a few) are strongly encouraged to try a bottle.
Honestly, today's offer is about as good a Pinot Noir deal as we've seen in many, many months.
The explanation for the deal revolves around a mundane detail: a distributor switch. With a new partner taking over, the old distributor is simply getting rid of its stock at a silly price.
Yes, we took as much quantity as we could - hopefully enough that our first "Back Up the Truck!" email for 2011 won't sell out today... though we make no guarantees.
Oregon's Willamette Valley is now widely regarded as one of the very best regions in the world outside of Burgundy for growing characterful Pinot Noir. While plenty of U.S. producers spout off about terroir, Amalie Robert's motto of "wines true to the soil and true to the vintage" does hold true here. The domaine breaks their 29 acres into 34 sites that each capture a unique micro-climate and soil expression. In this bottling, grapes from five different "Dijon clones" (Pinot vines originally from Burgundy) in seven different plots are fermented separately in the estate's gravity-flow winery, then blended and aged in French oak.
As our snowy winter drones on outside, this is the perfect bottle to pop any night when the sloppy trudge home from work or the long dark days start to overwhelm - there's enough weight on the palate to pair with a rich coq au vin, but there's also a brightness and fresh berry notes to remind you of a sunnier spring.
We'd have no reservations about opening this as soon as this weekend (the wine is in stock!), though my estimate is that this also has another good five years on it with proper cellaring.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
NET | No further discount