Monday, December 12, 2011

Winter Wine Tasting at Pashal-Tenuta Winery and Vineyard - Talent, Oregon



After visiting Roxyann Winery my next stop was a little further south of Medford in Talent Oregon. The name of the winery confused me a little when I arrived for I knew that there was also a winery in Livermore California, not far from where I live, that is named Tenuta Winery.



“Are they related? Do they belong to the same people?” I wondered.



When I asked the server in the winery she acted like she was unaware of any winery with the same name, but later a local at another winery informed me that Ron Tenuta had founded Tenuta Winery in Livermore with his first wife Nancy. 


They then got divorced and Nancy kept the winery in Livermore and the name. Then Ron and his second wife Donna purchased Paschal Winery and Vineyard in Oregon and added “Tenuta” to the name. Sadly Ron Tenuta then passed away on Saturday, August 13, 2011 at the age of 68, leaving the winery with his name to his second wife. It has been reported that the second wife Donna intends to sell the winery and its eleven-acres of vineyards. But this has not been confirmed.



The winery tasting room has a beautiful view of the vineyards below (though this time of year they are barren and not much to look at) and the mountains and valley with a small pond where geese stop in for a visit, a definite plus for attracting tourists. 


If I were in the market for buying a winery in Oregon these visual factors would be two if its strengths. However, there are a number of things I would immediately change both in their wine production and the manner in which they are served. 


The stemware that they use is outdated - cheap miniscule narrow rimmed glasses that exaggerate certain aspects of a wine rather than display them in a complimentary fashion. To my nose and palate all the red wines seemed overly oaked, but was this due to the nature of wine glasses? Or do they need to back off the oak treatment so their wines don’t taste like they are made by Chateau Two-By-Four?



While visiting I tasted 3 white wines:



Served ice-cold, the first pour was the 2009 Pinot Gris - a simple wine, somewhat tart flavors of grapefruit and followed by slightly nutty undertones and a long citrus finish. A palatable wine but I wouldn’t pay $24 for it. The tasting room was really cold and the wine was served chilled. They would be better off serving them room temperature for I had to cup the glass for a lengthy time to coax any aroma out of it.



The second white was the 2009 Chardonnay. Aged in 75% in second year French Oak and 25% in new Hungarian oak and aged sur lie. On the nose and plate I picked up dried peaches, baked apple and pie crust and a slight nutty finish. A narrow fluted wine glass is the worst possible type of stemware to serve this type of wine so had to use my imagination to anticipate what it might be like if served properly. It sells for $22 and to be fair I would need to re-taste the wine under better circumstances to give it an accurate assessment.



The third white wine was the 2009 “Indulgence,” a blend of Muscat and Riesling. On the nose I picked up oranges, white flowers, honey. On the palate it has good viscosity and it is only semi-sweet but lacks crispness. It might be better appreciated on a hot summer day than in the late fall in a chilly tasting room. This wine also sells for $22 a bottle.



I then sampled the following red wines:



My first red wine was the 2007 Civita (pronounced “Chivita”). A unique blend of Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Dolcetto and Syrah. This is a very earthy wine with heavy oaky wine and cedar tones followed by dried cherries and tobacco leaves. It sells for $26 a bottle.



My second red wine sample was the 2006 Sangiovese-Dolcetto. Another earthy-oaky wine with notes of beef-jerky and cherries and a slight nutty finish. It sells for $25 a bottle.



My third wine was the 2009 Estate Pinot Noir. This wine should have been served BEFORE the previous red wines and sadly I didn’t have my Pinot Noir stemware with me. The server gave me another glass that was only slightly better than the narrow fluted one, but it didn’t help much. This wine sells for $35 and there are many in the $10-$15 range that faire just as well.



My fourth red wine was the 2006 Syrah. On the nose and palate it has WAYYYYY too much oak. I did pick up some blackberries, beef-jerky and a little pepper and some vanilla on the finish but it was difficult to get pass the oak. This wine sells for $25.



My final wine was the 2007 Rouge Melange, a Bordeaux blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Malbec, and 17% Merlot and it was aged in 18 months in New French Oak. Another overly oaked wine that might benefit by being served in a Bordeaux Reidel glass (or its facsimile). I have tasted wines that seemed overly oaked that came into balance which served in better stemware so I hate to judge this wine “as served” but I don’t have any other choice. This wine sells for $35.



Overall, this winery could benefit from a tasting room manager who will change the stemware and make the tasting room environment more comfortable in the winter. If after doing so the wine still seems overly oaked, then the wine maker needs to back off the oak treatment.



If you visit (or have visited) this winery and have a different experience, I would appreciate hearing about it in the comment section of this blog. The next time I am passing through this region I may bring my own stemware and re-taste some of the reds.



To visit or for more information:



Pashal-Tenuta Winery and Vineyard

1122 Suncrest Road

Talent, Oregon 97540-9642

Phone: 1-541-535-7957


 

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