WWD: Erath Vineyards

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We’re trying to decide which wine to have with our steak dinner tonight. (WWD means wine with dinner, if you’re a new reader of this blog. And welcome!)

We brought home two fabulous bottles of Pinots from our December visit to the tasting room of Erath Vineyards, southwest of Portland. I hope that by writing about both of them, the choice will become easier.

Erath’s 2005 Pinot Noir Prince Hill is a very limited selection from the vineyard’s Prince Hill reserve block. Owner and Oregon wine pioneer Dick Erath lives above the Prince Hill Vineyard, where the first Pinot Noir vines were planted in 1983. The ten best barrels were chosen for this single vineyard bottling.

Erath’s 2005 Pinot Noir Leland is from the four-acre Leland Vineyard–Erath has contracted Leland’s entire Pinot Noir crop since 1987.

Pinot Noir Prince Hill has rich, weighty and firm tannins while Pinot Noir Leland’s tannins finish soft, smooth and supple. Prince Hill is powerful and elegant with hints of marionberry. Leland also is powerful  and intense, with aromas of black cherry and a dark fruit finish.

No wonder why we can’t make up our minds!

Both wines can be opened in 2008 or cellared through 2018. And it is indeed 2008! Maybe we’ll drink both tonight?

Cheers!

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About Margot

Margot started writing about wine decades ago as a national journalist in Canada and the U.S. She and Dave created this website in 2007. Originally, the website introduced people to wines in Washington state, the second-largest wine region in the U.S. But over the years, the site expanded to feature other wine regions in the U.S., Canada, and in the world. If you like to read about standout wine and winery stories, then Write for Wine is for you.