What I Drank With Dinner (WIDWD)

This Oregon pinot noir started out well, then took a bit of slump during our meal, before recovering the next day. On the eyes, the Chehalem 2005 3 Vineyards Pinot Noir (13.2%) was a translucent garnet color. On the nose, it offered red berry fruits including strawberry and raspberry with slight hints of earth and dusty dirt. On the palate, there was cherry and strawberry with balanced acidity.

With dinner, the Chehalem 3 Vineyards pinot evolved to show sweet, candied cherry flavors. Kari thought it tasted a bit metallic, almost tinny. On the nose, I noticed it exhibited sour cherry notes, more like under-ripe strawberries. Granted, these flavors may have been accentuated by our meal or it could have been that the wine was going through a phase as it opened up.

The next day, the Chehalem was back to its original self, with the candied cherry notes absent, replaced with nice fruit, acid, and smooth tannins. Overall, it was much more balanced after being open for two days. What an interesting evolution this Oregon pinot noir went through over a 24 plus hour period.

Beyond what was inside the bottle, I really liked what the folks at Chehalem put on the outside:

Chehalem (Chuh-hay-lum), a local Native American word freshly translated "valley of flowers," captures a reverance for Oregon land, which we share. This wine is a blend of our three estate vineyards: Ridgecrest, Stoller, and Corral Creek, reflecting a synergy of flavors. Our 3 Vineyard Pinot Noir is always the first released Pinot Noir of the vintage and is typically fully ripe and complex by virtue of blending diverse lots. Complete tasting notes are available on our web site.

And going to their web site, one finds very detailed tasting notes, broken out by vintage for each year the 3 Vineyards Pinot Noir has been crafted. I encourage you to check out the Chehalem tasting notes, for these offer a very comprehensive overview of the people, places, and period going into this wine.

I purchased this wine at retail for $30 and would probably try another bottle just to see how it would evolve over time. In addition, I am finding that the 2005 vintage of Oregon pinot noir is one of my favorites, especially when compared with 2004 and 2006.