2012 Chehalem Pinot Noir Estate Three Vineyard Willamette Valley is sold out.

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2012 Chehalem Pinot Noir Estate Three Vineyard Willamette Valley 750 ml

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  • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

Stephen Tanzer’s Pinot Noir “Vintage for the Record Books”

In July 2014, we flew from JFK to Portland, Oregon, then took that SLOW drive on 99W towards Newberg. The night before the opening ceremonies of Willamette Valley’s International Pinot Noir Celebration, the mood wasn’t so much hopeful as celebratory. On the eve of the release of what many were already suggesting was “Oregon’s first 100-point vintage,” growers were already tallying profits to be reaped at their 2012 Pinot Noir release parties — few more so than the ingenious Harry Pederson-Nedry at Chehalem. Here’s why.

In what Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar would call “a vintage for the record books,” bud-break came late, in the last week of April. As the spring was unusually dry, to be followed by a warm June and July, clusters were tight-fisted, strewn with tiny berries of high skin-to-juice content. Sunshine bathed the manicured rows on Chehalem’s Ridgecrest, Corral Creek, and Stoller vineyards, but there were no significant heat spikes, allowing the small berries to reach physiological maturity levels unlike any vintage in recent memory. Peterson-Nedry’s call to harvest came in the second week of October under “perfect” conditions. Sugars were high, ranging from 23 to 25.5 Brix, even as acids remained firm. Despite the extreme maturity of the fruit, the finished pH of the richest, juiciest “Three Vineyard” ever to come out of Chehalem remained at a vivid 3.55.

Deep, dark ruby to the rim, infused with piercing aromas of black raspberry, blackberry, and red currant, kissed with sweet herbs and classic pine needle. Rich, juicy, and bold on the attack, Chehalem’s 2012 “Three Vineyard” shows off the kind of broadness and density rarely seen in Oregon Pinot Noir. The core is massively concentrated, packed with a sexy mix of crushed red fruit and wild-strawberry preserves, all the natural opulence of this historic vintage buttressed by excellent, high-toned backbone. Forget the proletarian price tag, this wine is a bargain outlier that will age gracefully for nearly a decade. Drink now-2022.