2014 Andrew Rich Wines Leah's Cuvee Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

“Leah’s Cuvée” Pinot Noir — Seemingly Sweet, but BONE-Dry

In a great vintage, Oregon’s Willamette Valley is the world's best answer to Premier Cru Côte de Nuits. In an opinion we share with Robert Parker, Steve Tanzer, and Wine Spectator, 2014 is just such a vintage. That was obvious to all who had tasted the Pinot Noirs in barrel. But we still weren’t prepared for the frenzy we found at the “Willamette” wine auction in early April.

After a week spent cellar-hopping with old friends and business partners across the valley, we thought we knew what to expect. But then we sat down amongst distributors, retailers, and collectors from across the country bidding upwards of $2,000/case for lots of Bergström, Penner-Ash, and Bethel Heights. It took all of 20 minutes to realize we were woefully undercapitalized. Some of the 5- and 10-case lots we most coveted — from Laurent Montalieu, Lynn Penner-Ash, Josh Bergström, Trisaetum, and Andrew Rich — went for over $1,200/case!

We returned to our rooms at the Allison Hotel and Spa with our tails between our legs.

Twenty-two years ago when we first visited the Willamette Valley, winemaker Andrew Rich had just left Bonny Doon and the Santa Cruz Mountains en route for the Dundee Hills. Tasting with Andrew in the week before the auction, he admitted to us that he had little idea what he was getting into back then.

In those days, for every solid Pinot Noir vintage, Rich said there seemed to be three or four meager ones. While the excellent years buoyed his spirits, low yields and unpredictable weather patterns kept poking holes in tattered P&L statements.

All that changed in 2008, when the valley was blessed with a marvelous Indian summer that gave birth to deep, dark Pinot Noirs of great complexity and precision. Then came 2010, a more elegant but equally enchanting harvest. Finally, with the highly acclaimed 2012 campaign closely followed by the sensational 2014, the Willamette Valley has fully delivered on its promise of the early 1990s.

Andrew Rich is a winemaker on an unprecedented hot streak since 2008; then he ripped the cover off the ball in 2014. Andrew’s 2014 Pinot Noir fetched a small fortune at the “Willamette” auction on April 2nd. His gorgeous 2014 “Leah’s Cuvée” ranks among the five or six most compelling bargains of the year.

The 2014 Andrew Rich “Leah’s Cuvée” Pinot Noir is brilliant dark-ruby, infused with juicy aromas of black cherry, raspberry, and wild strawberry. Rich, juicy, and so concentrated, it seems almost sweet on the mid-palate (the wine is BONE-dry on analysis, however), filled with small-red-berry preserves, black cherry, and cherry pit, finishing with the bracing tension and acidity that has always so typified Oregon’s most Burgundian Pinot Noirs. Drink now-2020.

$35/bottle on release. Only $19 until the last 400 bottles are gone.