With this wine, part of the problem was me. I opened it too early. I do this for you, by the way - do you feel the love? If I waited to review the wine once it was ready to drink, you’d have a hard time finding the 2003 vintage in, say, 2008.

As the wine sat around for a few days it began to approximate what would happen with a little bottle age, and it rocks. All those flavors that acted like strangers on a bus (I’ll sit next to you, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna talk to you or like you) turned into band mates on a tour bus: so tight and tied together that they’re sharing groupies.

What I’m trying to say is that the oak, spice, cherry, plum, berry and earth all became so integrated that it became hard to tell where one ended and another began. That’s what you want in a wine! It’s very Gestalt, or very Van Halen, if you prefer.

This is a great bottle to share with a sweetie, former groupie or band mate in two or three years. And you could do worse for musical accompaniment than blasting Van Halen’s first album. Sit back, reminisce and be thankful that at least one thing has aged gracefully.

Cheers,
TSW

* - WoW's Splurge Wine designation is given to those bottles that cost more than our self-imposed $20 ceiling, but are just too good to not grab. Sometimes that's easier said than done, but almost all of us spring for a nice bottle once in a while. If you have something to celebrate, WoW's Splurge Wines are a great buy (and still a great value).

If “Orogeny” sounds dirty, that’s only because it is. Kind of.

Pinot noir is a sexy-ass wine, and our friends at Chalone Wine Group simply believe in truth in advertising. While this Orogeny refers to a geological shift that created the Green Valley in Northern California, a good pinot can make the earth move for you, too!

Orogeny is a fairly new winery from the newer-named Green Valley AVA (that’s American Viticultural Area) in Sonoma County. It’s a sub-region of the Russian River Valley. A big reason why it was identified as its own private Idaho is because of its unique fog patterns that come in and cool off the grapes. This helps them to not bake on the vine, ripen slowly and - the idea is - ripen more evenly and completely (physiological ripeness and the right sweetness).

What it means for Orogeny is a lovely wine gets to call a place home. Fine. Whoopie. Whatever.

Actually, it is kind of cool (fog pun intended) because it means we can hopefully taste the differences in place, even when those places are right next door, side by side.

This is a funky pinot that, at its young age, needed three days to come into its own.

First opened, it shows an earthiness, lots of cherry, plum, a rack of spices and a not-so-subtle dose of oak. The problem was, they stood at arms-length of one another.

But, I’m one to give wine a second (and third) chance, because it so often pays off.