WineLovers Discussion Group

2004 St. Innocent pinot noir, Temperance Hill vineyard
Willamette, Oregon

The Temperance Hill is, within the stable of St. Innocent pinots, considered an early drinking pinot. By reputation: easy, affable, and not particularly ageable. But I hadn't tasted a Temperance Hill in years, so I was surprised when I opened this one and found a wine that was neither easy nor affable, and which IMO needs a lot of time. Dense purple color. Typical Oregon nose of black cherries, plums and violets with some green, herbaceous edges and astringent tannins. Similar on the palate with improvement over 24 hours--the astringency backed down a bit and the fruit tasted riper--but it's rather on the big and chewy side for a St. Innocent and needs another year or three in bottle to calm down.

Note to self.. hold on to this one, per Jenise..

Thanx for the info... My source tells me the only approachable of the SIs now is the Shea.. of course you don't have any of that to try, so I guess I'll have to let YOU know....

Jenise, your notes actually aren't that far removed from what Mark Vlossak has to say about the wine on the St. Innocent website:

"Tasting Notes
The 2004 Temperance Hill is a deep ruby red. It has lush and very attractive aromas of black cherries and dried, chocolate covered cherries. Red and black fruits dominated the palate with hints of sage and tarragon. Well structured, with ample ripe tannin and significant concentration, this Temperance Hill will open significantly over the next six months and should evolve over 6-10 years.

I believe that this wine represents one of, if not the, finest wines I have made from this site. When I fire up the barbecue, this is the wine I serve. It matches perfectly with grilled meats, vegies and potato salad (my favorite summer meal)."

Mark Willstatter wrote:Jenise, your notes actually aren't that far removed from what Mark Vlossak has to say about the wine

Wow, not removed at all. In fact, we said almost the identical things, just in a different way. I'm glad to have his confirmation, though, that this wine needs a lot of time.

Speaking of which I'm getting impatient waiting for the 99's and 00's to come around. I just counted and I have 69 bottles of St. Inno Pinot from nine vintages (long time fan, here) but only about three bottles are ready to drink.

Jenise, one inconsistency I noticed on the website: what appear to be the label notes (you'd have to look since I haven't seen the label) say "up to five years" for projected longevity while the tasting notes quote six to ten, as you saw. I was struck by how similar your evaluation of the wine was to Mr. Vlossak's, though, even including your year (his six months) to settle down.

Just happened to see this in a shop today. Sounds like it might be worth a try ...in a year.
Is this closed with cork?

Bill--I'm so glad you mentioned the cork, because I meant to mention that he uses one of the plastic corks on this wine where he uses real cork on his other pinots. Again, that's because this wine traditionally isn't a keeper--you definitely get that message the second you remove the foil.