Enobytes

The Stepping Stone line of wines from Cornerstone has provided just what the name infers and that is a bridge from the ultra high quality of the Cornerstone label to the well-made value conscious everyday drinking wines of Stepping Stone. Probably more often than not that bridge works the other way too. In that scenario [...]

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Tasting two 2011 Pinot noirs from different continents was a very revealing experiment. One Pinot was from Marlborough New Zealand and the other from Willamette Valley Oregon. New Zealand’s 2011 vintage was not highly rated but the wine we reviewed from there represented the region and variety well. While it was not the highest rated [...]

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This vintage of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was produced from a very cold season that resulted in some of the lowest producing yields this region has seen in a while. The migratory birds also did a lot of damage subtracting quite a bit more from the final yields. I personally picked fruit at a couple [...]

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In Oregon, there has been an ongoing discussion for several years now about what the definitive style for Willamette Valley Chardonnay should be. Some producers up here gave up on Chardonnay years ago and just replaced it with Pinot Gris or Germanic varietals. Cornerstone has produced a style of wine with this vintage that should [...]

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This wine is a good example of a unique and focused strategy by a winery to improve their product and image while bringing value to the consumers that was not associated with this brand in recent vintages. Van Duzer has been a favorite of mine for almost a couple of decades now, but a few [...]

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A few days ago, Mark Norman interviewed me for his World Wine Marketing Blog Talk Radio about  Oregon’s wineries and the wines. We are all aware of the wonderful Pinot noir’s produced from the Willamette Valley, but many are not familiar with Oregon’s other regions and grapes. We had a lively discussion about the region’s [...]

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