Wine due late autumn 2023

It has been two years coming, but we finally have some Thomas Pinot on the horizon. After the terrible fires that devastated the Willamette Valley right at harvest time, winemakers throughout the Valley scrambled to come up with a plan. Some tried various tricks to try and mitigate the effects of the smoke, some relatively successful and some not so. Some declassified their high-end wines, or invented “one off cuvees” to use what they could salvage. Others still, including John Thomas, decided to write off the entire vintage as a loss. Almost immediately, John decided to make a small test batch of wine to see where things stood. As it turned out, that carboy was the only wine he made that vintage, as he immediately determined that it would never be up to his very high standards. Fortunately, 2021 was a completely different story, and the wines are turning out to be exceptional. First and foremost would be the 2021 Thomas.

On July 3rd, after finishing up at Cameron assembling our Cuvee L&E and Le Blanc, we headed up Warden Hill Road to pay John a visit. After a nice tour of the vineyards, and great conversations about deer, neighbors, and the virtues of vinyl records and Punk Rock in the Midwest, we headed into the cellar for a taste of the 2021 Pinot. To say we were blown away is a vast understatement. The 2021 Thomas is one of the most pristine Oregon Pinots we have ever tasted. It is, to use a quote often attributed to great Chambolle-Musigny and Volnay, an iron fist in a velvet glove. At once vibrant, lively, and impossibly elegant, yet carrying a power and intensity that seems to come out of nowhere. Bright raspberry, pie cherry and rhubarb, with subtle hints of blood orange, cinnamon, savory herbs and an incredibly transparent reflection of wet stones and Dundee soil. The tannins are there, but they are so well integrated that you never really realize that they are. This is classic Thomas. It is utterly delicious now but will likely have a lock down period before reemerging on the other side to give us a whole new adventure. We, for one, cannot wait to see what that adventure will be, and we hope you will be there with us for the ride.

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