Shea Vineyard Homer Pinot noir 05

Shea Vineyard Homer Pinot noir 05
$67.45 - Case price (any 12 or more bottles) Price: $74.95 Shea Vineyard Homer Pinot noir 05: Wine Spectator 95 points for 2004 vintage. 2004 Vintage Wine Spectator 95 points. Winemaker Chris Mazepink says: "We go through a lot of different combinations—a barrel of this, a barrel of that—we even get into doing a half barrel of this and a half barrel of that. With Homer, for instance, the finished wine we settled on—I must have looked at about seventy different possible combinations before we settled on that one." The Shea Homer, named in honor of the winning hit in one of Dick Shea’s favorite sports, is designed to be, Mazepink said, “the darkest, most concentrated, and most robust Pinot we make. Homer has always been about the best barrels in the cellar.” Avalon tasting notes: Viewing the wine in glass, it is an intense black purple garnet color. The scents are of cherry cream, cherry liqueur, black cherry, black raspberry, white pepper, sweet violets, hints of vanilla, and soft toast. Flavors are of gushingly sweet black cherry, red pie cherry, Rainier cherry, Queen Ann cherry, and white pepper. The texture of the wine in the mouth is velvety and lush. There's a very complex floral perfume component to the wine's flavor that doesn't show as violets or roses or white flowers but is a combination of many floral fragrances. The word "voluminous" comes to mind in describing the finish of this wine. It's a powerful wine, with uplifting acidity adding an effect of transparency and layering, opening the palate to layers and layers of fruit, exotic perfume, hints of sweet toast, spices, and vanilla in the finish. The tannins are present, perfectly balanced, they simply don't intrude but contribute a generous structure for aging. Drink now if you have to, but this wine can be cellared through 2015. Not currently available to order. May be out of stock or sold out. Inquire at 541-752-7418 or store@avalonwine.com

Detailed Info, Previous Vintage Notes, Reviews:

Avalon 2004 Tasting notes:

The 2004 Homer is a bit more structured than the intensely sweet and ripe flavors of 2003. That hot year created a wine easy to drink young, while the 2004 is a wine with a multiplicity of layered, nuanced flavors, balanced acidity and tannins, and the potential for aging 10-12 years.

While the 2003 was multilayered and incredibly deep and rich, the 2004 adds a maturity of structure - the wine has a seamless integration of fruit, tannin, and acidity through which an array of taste sensations can be perceived. If you enjoy Pinots noirs with an intricate and extraordinary range of flavors, you'll find flint, fresh turned earth, violets, roses, jasmine, smoke, an array of berry notes - blueberries, huckleberries, blackberries, loganberry, black raspberry, red raspberry, black cherry, tart pie cherry, and spices including cinnamon, clove, Five Spice Blend, white pepper, minerals, and that unusual note of molasses.

The wine is sappier and more concentrated than many Pinots, with an exquisitely drawn out, complex and seamless finish.

Shea Wine Cellars' "Homer" Pinot noir is an homage to baseball (hitting a home run with this wine each year). Whatever the name, Homer, each year, is Shea's blend of their very best grapes from Blocks 25 and the Oak Block.

While Homer has always been the favorite of Shea Wine Cellars' Pinots with our customers, the East Block, Wadenswil, and Block 23 2004 Pinots give it a run for its money in 2004. Don't get me wrong, the Homer is as exciting as ever, but the wines of Shea, overall, have risen in quality and consistency to the point where one can no longer call the Homer their "best". It's an enviable situation for the winery.

Homer is fermented in oak rather than stainless steel, a practice of Sam Tannahill that he first used at Archery Summit, where he made wine with Gary Andrus. The wine is fermented with about 12% whole clusters, the rest destemmed, with a high percentage of whole berries. The wine was aged in 60% new French oak (Francois Freres) and 40% previously used Burgundian barrels.

Perhaps the new level of excellence experienced in all of the Shea 2004s, particularly in the Homer, is the result of a combination of the maturity of the vineyard, a year that produced near perfect fruit, and winemaker Sam Tannahill's several years of experience with the winery and its fruit. The 2004 Shea Pinots have reached a new level of excellence, and at their Memorial Day 2005 Barrel Tasting, customers noticed it also, snapping up 40% more 2004's than the precious 2003 vintage. With a total of 2400 cases of five different Pinots, Shea's wines are collectable, noteworthy, and wonderfully satisfying, promising rewarding experiences across their 10-12 year life.

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2003 Reviews:
From the winery: Homer is our finest Pinot noir blend. The fruit came from our oldest, own-rooted vines with a small amount of our new Dijon Clone 115 grapes to add structure. This wine is a huge Pinot that is dark colored and quite intense. Dark berry flavors are balanced by violets, mushroom and earthy tones. A wonderfully complex wine that should be our longest lived wine of the vintage.

2003 Shea Wine Cellars, Shea Vineyard, Homer Pinot Report 94 point rating
Medium-deep ruby purple color; slightly closed but there's definitely evidence of complex black cherry, spice and earthy aromas; very deep and rich, lots of black cherry flavors, complex spicy/earthy notes, sweet oak; great structure and balance; long finish. Incredibly deep and rich, this Pinot has a ways to go to continue to develop fully.

Wine Spectator 91
"Firm in texture, generous in flavor, this lush mouthful of currant and spice lingers enticingly, picking up a violet note as it stays on the palate. Needs time to soften. Best from 2007 through 2013." -H.S.

2002 Reviews:
Top rated, nothing short of remarkable. A dark black purple garnet color is coupled with a nose full of black cherry, jammy blackberry, cassis, Asian spices, complex spice and floral notes, violet, rose, a long, textured finish with creaminess and body. Opulent, yet with good acidity for cellaring, and the constantly changing, highly pleasant sensation of different scents and flavors that lingers in the finish. Yow! Just a wonderful wine.

2002 rating: "Wine Spectator rating 91 points: "Smooth in texture, lively and generous with its cinnamon-scented cherry and tobacco flavors, finishing open and impressively persistent. Has grace and style. Drink now through 2009. 145 cases made." (HS)

2002: "Super saturated purple from center to the rim. Crafted from the best of the cellar, this wine is the quintessence of Shea Vineyard. Intense and exceptionally complex aromatics of ripe black raspberry, cherry, crystallized violets, flint, minerals and cassis fill the glass. With aeration sweet earth, smoke, blueberry and huckleberry aromatics all make an appearance. The attack is sweet and expands rapidly to fill the mouth. Large scaled and rich, the mid-palate leads to an unbelievably long finish. This wine has the structure, depth and intensity to push it to be the best wine from Shea Wine Cellars in a superlative year. The 2002 Homer sill certainly deepen and complex into a tremendous wine over the next fifteen years. 143 cases made."

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