Torii Mor 2007 Pinot Noir

The Winery:  Torii Mor
The Wine:  2007 Pinot Noir
The Price:  $19.99 at Metropolitan Market (marked down from $29.99).

There are a few reasons that I decided to review this wine.  First, it's the first time I've seen Torii Mor for sale in Washington.  Second, I visited the Torii Mor tasting room about two years ago, and was pretty disappointed.  I was pretty harsh on my review of their tasting room, and I thought they were due a wine review.  The third reason that I wanted to review this wine is that they recently started following me on Twitter, so they were at the fore of my mind. 

The wine was stopped with a natural cork, always a plus in my book.  It was decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine is deep red in color, and has aromas of cherry, tobacco, mint and moss.  The wine has flavors of cherry and oak, with a very subtle pepper finish.  It's a fairly good Pinot Noir.  But I am much more enthusiastic about it at $20 than I would be at $30.  I think it's a bit thin and missing a the depth of flavor to compete in the $30 price range.  That said, I think that this wine compares quite favorably against the $30 Pinot Noirs I've sampled from California. 

This wine is far better than I recall the last wine I sampled from Torii Mor, so I'm glad that I was able to review it.  As I said in my write up of their tasting room, I really liked their Port a lot.  It's good to see that they're making strides with their Pinot Noir.  Oregon is the quintessential Pinot Noir producing state, so the bar is fairly high.  By comparison, I find this wine to be far superior to Cloud Line, and a couple of notches below Sokol Blosser.  Not a bad position to be in.  Given their improvements over the last two years, I can see them becoming one of the premier Oregon Pinot Noir producers in the near future.

Argyle 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

The Winery:  Argyle
The Wine:  2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
The Price: $21.99 at Safeway

Argyle is one of the many wineries in Oregon's Willamette Valley.  Argyle was founded in 1987 by Rollin Soles.  Argyle specializes in Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and sparkling wine. 

The wine was stopped with a screw cap and was decanted an hour before tasting.

The Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is red in color, and far less dark than I am accustomed to seeing in Pinot Noirs from Oregon. 

The wine has aromas of cherry, raspberry and pepper.  The wine has a bright, almost tart cherry flavor, blended with berry.  This is a good Pinot Noir.  It's not my personal favorite, but it's a good wine and priced appropriately in the mid-range of Pinot Noirs. 

Spellbound 2007 Petite Sirah

The Winery:  Spellbound
The Wine:  2007 Petite Sirah
The Price:  $10.99 at QFC (marked down from $15.99)

Spellbound is a partnership between Robert and Lydia Mondavi, Patti Romano and Geoff Whitman. The partners also own Medusa Wines.  Robert is the grandson of the Robert Mondavi who founded Robert Mondavi Wines, so he is no stranger to the industy.

The Spellbound Petite Sirah is made from 98% Petite Sirah and 2% "Other Red" grapes.  The bottle was stopped with a synthetic cork, and decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine is dark purple in color and has aromas of prune, blackberry, vanilla and pepper.  This is a big, bold, fruity wine with a mild pepper finish.  It has flavors of strawberry jam, raspberry and vanilla, with just that hint of pepper.  This is a pretty incredible Petite Sirah, espcially given the price.  I highly recommend this one!