New release November 2007. Small production, highly allocated. Please call to place your request for wine.
JT (John Thomas) makes a very small amount of Estate Pinot noir from his vineyard in the Dundee Hills near Carlton, Oregon. His wines are elegant, with finesse and copmplexity chosen over fruit bomb qualities. He considers his competition to be the better Burgundies of Chambolle-Musigny or Volnay, not CA style Pinots.The 2003 Pinot noir from Thomas Winery has a beautiful nose of Santa Rosa plum, with flavors of red berries and minerals. The wine has wonderful balance, with good acidity and structure. While his lower priced, "Acme" wines show Asian Five Spice in the nose and palate, this wine, picked at perfect physiological maturity, shows pure raspberry and herbal notes.
Tanzer gave the previous vintage of this wine 92 points and said: "Vibrant dark red. Gorgeous floral nose combines raspberry, wild strawberry, perfumed Thai basil, fennel and emphatic mineral tones. The suave palate takes one straight to the high-rent neighborhoods of Chambolle-Musigny or Volnay, offering wonderful balance and finesse to burn. Clean, brisk, energetic finish piles on the red berry and mineral notes. Elegant, captivating and complete pinot noir. This matches up quite well with the many superb Thomas pinots of the past."
Detailed Info, Previous Vintage Notes, Reviews:
JT planted his 4 acre vineyard in 1984 with the densest vine count then existing in the US. Domaine Drouhin followed with similar density in 1989, and actually purchased all of his 1990 harvest, before their vines started producing.
JT is a one man band, doing everything himself, from propogation to planting, pruning, thinning, winemaking, marketing, and of course, lots of tasting.
His wines are made with the better Burgundies of Chambolle-Musigny or Volnay. The emphasis is on finesse, a pure presentation of Pinot noir, carefully picked at the exact peak moment of maturity and aged 20-24 months in 50% bew oak. If you prefer purity to the massive jam bomb styled Pinots, this is a wine for you.
