2004 Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve

So as I was saying, I’ve been on a bit of a Domaine Serene binge of late.

It hasn’t been all that purposeful, though, more the luck of the draw. It began at a dinner with some friends a month or two ago when they pulled out a bottle of 2004 Evenstad Reserve that was lush and delish and went wonderfully with the just-caught grilled salmon.

No big surprise there. Domaine Serene is unquestionably one of the most visible Oregon Pinot brands (who could miss their full-page advertising in Wine Spectator, not to mention the laudatory feature editorial piece they did earlier this year), with a reputation for top quality wines. Winemaker Tony Rynders is a deftly skilled and consistently reliable maker of richly satisfying wines from the winery’s estate vineyards in the Dundee Hills and Eola Hills area of the Willamette Valley. The Evenstad Reserve is their flagship wine, the embodiment of the winery's style and approach to Oregon pinot.

What did surprise me about the ’04 Domaine Serene Pinot I had that night was its depth and length. I’ve been a contrarian when it comes to the much vaunted 2004 vintage of Oregon Pinot noir. Most critics have lauded the fruit and the balance of the wines, yet I found an almost universal lack of depth (little or no real sense of layers of different flavors developing in the mouth) and length (the wines seemed all up-front and had little lingering flavor sensations).

It is fair to say I’m not a fan of Oregon ’04 Pinot.

But the Evenstad Reserve did have all those qualities I like to see in a top Pinot: the fruitiness had layers of flavors, ranging from a brambly, wild red cherry sort of fruitiness to ripe raspberry and even a touch of softening blueberry lurking in the background. The fruit didn’t all come out gushing forward, the flavors held back and developed, they also stayed in my mouth nicely. The tripartate balance between acidity, tannin, and fruit was wonderfully managed, with no single component outshining the others.

I don’t recall this wine being this way at release; it seems to have matured nicely in the bottle. Perhaps that is what the 2004 vintage requires: a few years of bottle age. If this Evenstad Reserve is an example of a vintage taking on depth and complexity, then it seems I should start pulling out my other 2004 Pinots to try!