2014 Chad Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

Chad at IPNC: “Oregon’s 2014 Pinot Noirs weren’t ruby; they were BLACK!”

The 2014 growing season in Oregon has been called one for the record books and the “vintage of a lifetime.” A warm, dry spring made for a copious Pinot Noir set. The summer was exceedingly dry. While high temperatures were only slightly greater than the norm, overnight temperatures were unusually mild, reducing vine stress. Harvest was a “cakewalk,” with growers harvesting perfectly ripe small-berry clusters. Sugars were on par with ripe vintages in Russian River Valley, even as acids remained firm.

While quality was sensational, eclipsing even 2012, yields were roughly 50% higher than in 2013 … something that wasn’t lost on Chad.

“To be honest, I’d never been an Oregon Pinot Noir fan,” Chad told us over double cappuccinos at the Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Company in St. Helena. “What can I say? I have a Russian River palate. I like my Pinots dark, ripe, and rich. Rarely do they get that kind of maturity in the Pacific Northwest. But when I did the IPNC last summer and tasted the 2014s, I felt like I was in Occidental, not McMinnville. Oregon’s 2014 Pinot Noirs weren’t ruby; they were black!” Then the guy who hatched the Pinot Noir brand that took Manhattan by storm winked. “Even better, there was more wine than they knew what to do with!”

This is one of those offers that reminds us of the importance of the fluidity of markets. When Napa Valley has a gigantic vintage and wineries have more juice than receptacles to house it, growers take full advantage. They conduct an auction. When the wine is top-notch, there are always more buyers than sellers. The law of supply and demand prevails. As stocks dwindle, prices for unbottled wine climb.

But Oregon is different. Even the largest wineries are small by Napa Valley standards. As Pinot Noir yields are capricious (roughly half those of Napa Valley Cabernet), cash flow is tight. Bumper crop vintages are so rare that few estates are equipped to handle increased production. As Chad explained in St. Helena, nearly every producer at the International Pinot Noir Celebration was ecstatic about quality but concerned about quantity. “The wines were unbelievable but there was just too much of it. So I went to town.”

We’re going to make this one easy for you. If you enjoy big, rich, dark Pinot Noir, break open the kids’ piggy banks and get ready to load up on 2014s. The top single-vineyard wines are some of the finest American Pinot Noirs of the last 15 years. On the other end of the spectrum, there are bargains galore, but none can match the richness, complexity, and wild-berry intensity of the 2014 CHAD.

The 2014 CHAD Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is brilliant black-ruby. Pungent bouquet of ripe red and dark berries, cherry cola, and smoke. Rich, weighty, and sappy on the attack, offering juicy black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors tinged with star anise. Sweet and plush in texture, with smooth tannins and fine persistence.

Compared to $38 under the winery’s label. Just $14.75 this morning.  240 bottles are up for grabs EXCLUSIVELY for Mets and Yankees fans.