2014 Panther Creek Cellars Pinot Noir Lazy River Vineyard 750 ml

Once Every 20 Years in Oregon

Nine years before the 1994 vintage that set Oregon Pinot ablaze on the world stage, Ken Wright drove to the Willamette Valley with 10 barrels of CALIFORNIA red wine, intent to release it under a new label, Panther Creek. The young Wright was unaware that he’d illegally transported wine across state lines, but faced with the prospect of selling the wine or going broke and going home, Wright convinced a federal agent to let him bottle and sell it all.

In the years that followed, Wright earned a reputation for making the impossible happen again and again. Then, in 1994, he turned every head in the nation towards Oregon, crafting a superb crop of wild-berry Pinots that put the Willamette Valley on the map for good.

Two decades later, Oregon was on the brink of another historic vintage — one that Wine Spectator would award with a whopping 94-97 point score. This time, it was Tony Rynders at the helm of Panther Creek. A longtime friend of Wright’s, Rynders had dreamed of working at Panther Creek since that legendary 1994 vintage. After 20 years working at some of the best wineries in Oregon, including a decade at Domaine Serene (where he would turn out a record number of high-scoring wines), Rynders finally got the job he’d been waiting for. In 2014, his first vintage from start to finish, Rynders wasted no time lighting up the scoreboard.

At the Lazy River Vineyard, on the steep south-facing slope of Mt. Richmond in the Willamette’s Yamhill-Carlton sub-appellation, Rynders meticulously tended Pinot Noir planted on Jory soils. Temperatures were even and warm throughout the summer and grapes faced little pressure from rain or heat spikes. Rynders made the call to harvest early, bringing in a near-perfect crop of highly concentrated, small-berry clusters. Colors were striking, and complex flavors — vanilla, potpourri, mocha — were already emerging.

When the critics weighed in on Rynders’ inaugural effort, the praise came early and often. Wine Enthusiast dropped 94 points and an “Editor’s Choice” pick, calling the 2014 Lazy River Pinot a “graceful, precise, and delicious wine.” Antonio Galloni’s Vinous added 93 more, hailing a “complex and deeply perfumed bouquet,” a “juicy, expansive,” palate, and a “strikingly persistent finish.”

As Robert Parker has advised, “Panther Creek wines are Oregon’s most beautifully packaged and also the most concentrated and age worthy wines now being made in Oregon” — never more so than with today’s 2014 Lazy River Vineyard Pinot Noir.

Brilliant ruby-red to the rim, the 2014 shows a wildly aromatic bouquet of raspberry and black cherry accented by cocoa and rose petals. Ripe and juicy on entry, bursting with dark red fruit, but poised and elegant, balanced by lively acidity and silky, fine-grained tannins. Blue fruit and layers of chocolate, allspice, and vanilla emerge on the dazzlingly long finish. Almost irresistible now, but worth cellaring for up to a decade if you have the patience.

$45 on release. Just $29.99 today on WineAccess. 120 cases up for grabs. Act fast, or hang tight for the next 20-year vintage, sometime around 2034. Shipping included on 6.