Wine critic Steven Baker follows the cool climate back roads of Oregon Pinot noir country and shares his journal. His business, Authentica Wines, is a membership based wine club.

~ November 2010

Formula for success: Combine a top Burgundy producer with one of Oregon's fabled vineyards and you get the highest rated Willamette Valley Pinot Noir yet.

Seven Springs vineyard in the Eola Hills appellation just northwest of Salem, is one of the oldest and most respected wine growing sites in the Willamette Valley. When it went on the market a few years ago, an uncomfortable murmur went through the community of long time Oregon pinot noir followers. Who would end up with this incredible site? Would they know just what they had? Would it be sold to some California Bozo who would ruin it?

Well, its now clear that not only did the new owners know what they had, in many ways they took this special vineyard to a level that even the former owners had not foreseen.

What better way to demonstrate your commitment than by seeking out one of the world's top pinot noir producers and hiring him as consulting winemaker? Dominique Lafon makes incredible Burgundy - both white and red - and his wines sell for $100 to $250 a bottle - if you can get on the waiting list. His trademark is fanatical vineyard management with parsimonious yields, rejuvenation of soils through biodynamic viticulture, and an ability to translate a site into the wine like few others. While profound, his wines are also ebullient in ther charm, intensely attractive, and just plain delicious.

I sold the 2007 vintage of these wines and recommended them highly - the 2007 La Source is a special wine that showed the promise of things to come. Now that the 2008 has been released and the reviews are rolling in, the pressure for this wine is unprecedented and deservedly so.

~ Steve Baker

Evening Land
La Source, Eola Hills, 2008
Release Price: $60.00

Pinot Underground Recent Columns

January, 2010 ~ Crowley
February, 2010 ~ Evesham Wood
March, 2010 ~ Westrey
May, 2010 ~ Evening Land
June, 2010 ~ Iota
July, 2010 ~ Crowley (part2)
Aug / Sept 2010~ Ayres
October 2010 ~ Eyrie