Avalon Wine: Oregon and Washington wine specialists since 1988.
Avalon Wine gives you access to rare, unique wines, often before anyone else. We have a twenty year-plus reputation for great customer service and professional business practices.
Highly-rated and rising-star wineries alike seek out Avalon and offer us their wines, because we do a great job of representing them. Wine Club members benefit from our access to special, limited bottlings.
February 2011 Wine Club Selections
February 2011
Oregon Reserve Pinot noir Club Selections
Belle Pente
Estate Reserve 07 $42
Club Price $35.70
The Estate Reserve Pinot represents the “best of the best” from the vineyard, showcasing the purest, most attractive attributes that can be coaxed from the “beautiful slope” each year. It is the epitome of Brian’s winegrowing efforts, and its release – 2 1/2 years after harvest – marks the “official” end of that vintage. Hold for another 3+ years.
Belle Pente
Murto Vineyard 07 $35
Club Price $29.75
After swirling the glass to open the wine, classic Pinot aromas of rosepetal, blackberry and raspberry, plus a whisper of red cherry and currant fill the bowl. Tasting,you are immediately struck by the texture – silky and responsive, playing well with flavors of blackberry, bramble, fresh earth, and subtle spices. Still a bit tight, it opens slowly in the glass and the fresh, lively fruit expands with increasing appeal as tannins recede. There’s enough structure here for cellaring 5-8 years.
Don’t underestimate the subtleties of the best 2007 Pinots. The Murto might not blast your buds the moment it’s open – it’s delicately complex and understated, a wine that lingers in memory, with a character both satisfying and a bit mysterious.
February 2011
Northwest Big Reds Club Selections
Gilbert Cellars
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 07 $42
Club Price $35.70
The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve was chosen from our five favorite barrels of the 2007 vintage. It is a glass-coating opaque purple and displays an expressive aromatic array of pain grille, pencil lead, Asian spices, herbs, black cherry, and blackberry. Rich and succulent on the palate, it has nicely integrated oak, tannin, and alcohol, and a lengthy, pure finish. It will benefit from another 3-4 years of bottle age and will drink well through 2022 if not longer. – the winery
Tyrus Evan
Walla Walla Syrah 08 $38
Club Price $32.30
Similar to the 95 point (Wine Spectator) 2007 vintage, an easy to like Syrah with the plush black fruit and hint of pepper typical of the Northwest. In the nose, you can sense the fragrant herbs of the dry, windy fields around the vineyards. Mingled with the black cherry and plum flavors are hints of cardamon, smoked meat, and peppery spice. The finish has just the right amount of tannin, balancing out the long black fruit finish – it lasts and lasts, and gains complexity as it fades away.
February 2011
Northwest New Discoveries Club Selections
Brigadoon
Lylee Pinot noir 09 $19
Club Price $16.15
A six acre vineyard at the south end of the Willamette Valley provides the fruit for this wine. It’s a family winery, with Chris Shown managing the vineyard, Sheree Shown assisting their son Matt in making the wines, and son Nick working with the farm’s timber and developing the winery’s “farm to table” products. Brigadoon wines are rarely available outside the Corvallis area (where Avalon is located) and are well worth knowing about. The combination of the southern valley’s hotter days and the vineyard elevation’s colder nights both ripen the fruit and stress the vines, resulting
in a complex and satisfying Pinot.
The Lylee name comes from a combination of Chris Lyle Shown and Sheree Lee Shown’s names. The Lylee Pinot noir is their ready to drink wine that they describe as “complementing our daily lives.”
Elemental
Syrah 06 $20
Club Price $17.00
A fascinating, deeply complex Syrah with smoky violets and bacon, mineral, coffee and leather notes with vibrant berry fruit. Unmistakably Syrah – but a different animal than most Northwest Syrahs. 2006 was a perfect vintage for growing Syrah in
Oregon’s Willamette Valley – it was hot a dry and made for an absolutely smoking Syrah. The wine is co-fermented with Viognier, and a hint of floral sweetness announces its presence. Sadly, this is the last vintage of Elemental Syrah.
