Hello, and Happy New Year. Welcome to this year’s first dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.
This past week included a couple of nice wines from longtime Oregon producer Argyle, who are known, in particular, for their sparkling wines. This week I opened their “Extended Tirage” Brut which spends 10 years aging on the lees in the bottle before disgorgement and offers lovely mature notes of marzipan and salty apples. Argyle’s Spirithouse Chardonnay and Nuthouse Pinot Noir are also worth looking at, both offering nice expressions of minerality.
While we’re talking about sparkling wine, I also received the latest “1760” rosé from Champagne Lanson, which does what you want a rosé Champagne to do, offering up a blend of berry brightness and nice chalky crispness with a hint of citrus peel.
This week I’m also reviewing a bunch more wines from Ernest Vineyards, which I’ve written about over the last couple weeks of this Unboxed column. This week I’ve got their Trousseau, which used to be bottled under their now-retired Edaphos brand. This wine is a lovely expression of the variety from Alder Springs Vineyard, where they also get fruit for their wonderfully herbal and lean Cabernet Sauvignon. Their Syrah comes from the Palmer Vineyard, a site I’ve never heard of on the Western Sonoma Coast. Finally, I can highly recommend Ernest’s Pinot Noir from the Cleary Ranch. Both the 2021 and 2022 vintages are excellent, but I favor the slightly more sapid 2021.
Last but not least, I’d like to direct your attention to a new wine from Troon Vineyard, whose name appears with some regularity here. Their new bottling of the fairly obscure southern French variety, Negrette, was a lovely surprise, offering a taut, saline berry expression welded to both floral and herbal qualities and some lovely minerality.
Notes on all these below!
Tasting Notes
2013 Argyle “Extended Tirage Brut” Sparkling Wine, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Light gold in the glass with fine bubbles, this wine smells of marzipan and melted butter. A velvety mousse delivers wonderfully salty flavors of sea air, toasted sourdough, candied lemon zest, and baked apple. Bright and juicy with acidity but also creamy at the same time. Very pretty with a faint herbal bitterness that lingers in the finish. A blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay aged for 10 years on the lees before disgorging. 12.5% alcohol. 1500 cases made. Score: around 9. Cost: $85. click to buy.
2022 Argyle “Spirithouse” Chardonnay, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Light greenish gold in the glass, this wine smells of lemon curd and golden apples. Flavors of lemon curd, apple, and a touch of wet pavement have a nice stony quality, and decent acidity that sneakily seems to build in strength over time. 13% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $60. click to buy.
MV Lanson “1760 Le Rosé” Rosé Champagne Blend, Champagne, France
A light to medium orange-pink in color with medium-fine bubbles, this wine smells of rosehips, raspberries, and dried orange peel. A silky mousse delivers flavors of orange peel, hibiscus, dried herbs, and berries across the palate. There’s a crisp chalky quality to the wine, with excellent acidity. A blend of 53% Pinot Noir, 32% Chardonnay, and 15% Pinot Meunier mostly from the 2016 harvest and 50% from Premier and Grand Cru villages mixed with 35% reserve wines, all aged for 4 years in the bottle and disgorged January 2022. Bottled with 8 g/l dosage. 12.5% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $75. click to buy.
2023 Ernest Vineyards “Alder Springs Vineyard” Trousseau, Mendocino County, California
Light ruby in the glass with hints of garnet, this wine smells of mulberries, herbs, and sawdust. Powdery muscular tannins coat…
Source : https://www.vinography.com/2025/01/vinography-unboxed-week-of-1-5-25
