2010 Big Table Farm Pinot Noir Cattrall Brothers Vineyard

Big Table’s 2010 Pinot Noir Cattrall Vineyard comes from what’s said to be the oldest continuously organically farmed vineyard in Oregon. (For more examples of what Cattrall can do, consult my notes in the accompanying report under Ransom Wines.) There is a reductive aspect to this coming out inter alia in the form of pork rinds. (OK, so some of you now know this will or won’t be for you, while others might need to pick up a bag – it’s lots less expensive than a bottle of Pinot – to find out what they smell like ;-). Fresh plum tinged with carob and sage emerges as this opens. It’s a bit stiff on the palate compared with the other Pinots in the present collection, but strong fruit skin and savory carnal elements already insure a stimulating finish. A husband and wife team runs Big Table Farm as a sustainable operation raising diverse livestock, and makes modest amounts of wine from contract fruit while dreaming of the day when the hillside above their pasture can be turned into a vineyard. (Meantime, as I discovered while traversing the steep, wooded, unpaved terrain in this sector of the northwestern Willamette, a vineyard called Gregory Ranch has recently been planted practically next door – with no remotely near vineyard neighbors – and if you want to know what that’s about, check out my report on this site’s spectacular debut at Bergstrom, for whom it was planted.) Clare Carver is an artist transplanted from the East who now designs labels for a considerable number of excellent wineries. Brian Marcy is a protege of Ehren Jordan, through whom he had opportunities straight out of Davis to work at some of Napa Valley’s most prestigious wineries. If you’re getting the impression, though, that these two authors of wine will both take their bearings from fashion, and their product oh-so seriously, think again. These are two manifestly extremely hard working and resourceful individuals, but who approach their wines in an experimental, innovative and whimsical fashion. If there’s one thing that does somewhat unfortunately follow fashion, it’s their choice and newness of barriques which overwhelms a few of the wines and does little to flatter some others that, happily, can stand quite well on their own. Each release – generally of between 100-200 cases – sports its own unique, one-off art label and often a one-time cuvee name to fit both wine and graphic. Tel. (503) 662-3129