The first time I was introduced to Owen Roe wines I was struck by two things.The first were the labels. Definitely some of the most interesting I'd ever seen, ranging from very small labels, displaying only the name of the wine, to labels with headstones and castles and detached hands and so on. This is clearly a winery that cares about its packaging. Not that that creates a great wine by any means, but I, like a lot of other folks (just admit it) are suckers for a cool label and Owen Roe knows that and capitalizes on it nicely.
From there, I picked up the bottle with the most minimal label (and I believe the lowest price, but can't remember) called Ex Umbris Syrah. Cool name, cool label, from a cool family of wines. I believe it was a 2004 and, well, that wine spoke to me. It’s a Syrah in the tradition of most good Northwestern Syrah - juicy fruit and spice, with just the right amount of earth, not anything like it's commercial cousin way down south, otherwise known as Shiraz and tending towards the “super-fruity”. Needless to say, the Ex Umbris has been a staple in my wine cellar ever since.
So, I naturally extended my affinity with Ex Umbris out to a bigger idea – I mean if I like the Ex Umbris this much, then maybe I should dive a lot deeper into their whole line. And that’s what this three-part post is all about – some more info on Owen Roe and a random sampling of their wines.
The two wines I’ll be starting with are the Ex Umbris and the Pinot Noir Eola – Amity Hills.
2007 Owen Roe Ex Umbris Syrah Columbia Valley
As I mentioned above, this is the Owen Roe that started it all for me. I still remember that first bottle and the impression it left. For the price (I think it was around $15), it was dense and rich and incredibly well balanced. The nose was full of life and every sip took me back to my Northwest roots. A little dramatic you say? Well, wine does that to people and attaching wines to good memories is what it's all about.The 2007 is equally as good. The richness is still there, like I remember. The nose is aromatic, with dark berry fruit, chocolate, spice and smoke that transforms into blueberries, chocolate and coffee in the mouth. The finish was a little lighter than I remember and left me yearning for more, but overall this is still a very nice wine, particularly for the price of under $20.
What you should do: Buy it. It's a great introduction to Owen Roe wines, but is also a solid, stand-alone Northwest Syrah. It's an easy drinker and seems to me to be a wine that will appeal to most palettes - a good one to have on hand for entertaining family and friends.
My rating: 88
2007 Owen Roe Pinot Noir Eola - Amity Hills Williamette Valley
You gotta give Owen Roe credit for the having the moxie to put a headstone on this label. Sets the expectation high. But, in the end, it doesn't really live up to that kind of pressure.This one was tricky for me. I'm a big fan of Pinot Noir, particularly Pinot from Williamette Valley, but this offering just felt off to me. Not off like it had gone bad, more like it didn’t really strike me as a Pinot Noir. It’s smokey, chocolaty, spicy with a good strong finish, but it never really landed as a Pinot Noir like I expected. There were moments when it came through, but it went back and forth between being a relatively light, fruity Pinot, to a blended red table wine, then to a mellow Meritage and on and on. Very odd. Never could get my arms around it. Overall, not a bad wine, but when I open a vineyard-designate Pinot Noir, I expect two things – the varietal it claims to be and something unique that represents the vineyard and the grapes from that vineyard. It’s still a bit weird to me, but I couldn’t really nail down either in this case.
What you should do: I’d skip this one. I’ve heard from a few others that the Owen Roe Pinot Noirs are hit or miss and this one definitely fits in the miss category for me. At about $42, it’s also priced way too high.
My rating: 83
Gadget
Great blog. Not to hate on California, but most of these wines coming out of California at this quality level are twice as expensive...It might be worth your while to try the Abbot's Table Wine. That's by far my favorite wine from Owen Roe (well at least the 20$ish ones). It's a "kitchen-sink" blend of about 10 different grapes. Ex Umbris is great too. You didn't mention it, but that vineyard almost got burned down in a forest fire, which apparently is why the wine has so many smokey characteristics.
thanks jeff for the extra information. didn't know that about the vineyard burning down. i love the abbott's table but decided not include in my tasting this time around because i wanted to touch on some owen roe wines that i haven't tried before.
and no doubt california wines are more expensive, although washington definitely seems to be catching up. i lived in washington for 20 years and it's amazing how much the wine prices have increase in the northwest even in the last 5 years.
cheers!
Sounds like you are already versed on Abbot's Table, I was coming to second Jeff's opinion. Either of you had any of the Sharecropper wines? Almost meant to try those but yet to get around to it...
yep, have had both the abbott's table and the sharecropper and really like them both. i'm not including them in this series because i wanted to dig a littler deeper into their other wines, but with both of you guys asking about it, i may extend my posts from 3 to 4 to include both the abott's table and sharecropper.
have a few owen roe's coming up that i've heard great things about, but will keep that a surprise for now.
The Sharecropper Cab is pretty good at around 20$. Sinister Hand reminds me of a Chateauneuf; it's good too. I know that they have a few other blends that are supposed to be good, but I haven't had them for whatever reason. Probably becuase they are getting up in the 40$ plus range.
seems like the owen roe stable of wines is endless. they can get pretty pricey, but i'm drinking a santa rosa syrah tonight that is out of this world...really beautiful washington syrah, that represents all the best things about syrah, not the fruit bomb that some are used to in a shiraz. more to come on that...