1996 Panther Creek Pinot Noir Freedom Hill

This wine confounded me. I fell in love with its medium-to-dark ruby-colored aromatics at the winery. It revealed perfumed layers of super-ripe cherries, plums, and violets with just a touch of spicy oak. On the palate its seductive personality offered chewy-textured, mouth-coating, and concentrated waves of gorgeously sweet red and black fruits. Revisited three times since, it twice smelled of spicy apple cider, was completely disjointed, and had a hard tannic finish. However, the third time was the charm. It was back to its original state, seducing me with its fresh, sweet, and complex aromatics and flavors. I purchased a case of this wine after my original tasting, and still have high hopes for it. Panther Creek's 1996s were sampled twice, once at the winery and later at a blind tasting in Washington, DC (I retasted the Freedom Hill a third and fourth time at home). At my winery tasting, serious rock and roll was being played in the background. Unbeknownst to Michael Stevenson, Panther Creek's Assistant Winemaker and Head Disc Jockey, he had selected music from my favorite rock group, The Band. As I contemplated the wines I could hear Levon Helm belting out "Don't do it". Want to know what goes great with Pinot Noir? Great rock and roll! The harvest began on the 9th of October, and finished as heavy rains began at 2pm on Saturday, October 12 - "we were luckier than smart" was owner Ron Kaplan's comment. Yields averaged 2 plus tons with a low of 2.01 tons per acre in Freedom Hill and a high of 2.4 tons in Shea (even though the latter vineyard was thinned three times). Kaplan says he is pleased with the vintage, and that "the grapes came in clean, without any traces of rot." He went on to say that the wines had "very pronounced aromatics, atypical for newborn wine." Tel. (503) 472-8080.