Rusty Gaffney M.D., the Prince of Pinot, dropped in to sample Bells Up’s wines in late July 2016; we were featured in his September 17, 2016 newsletter, the PinotFile.
Back at the end of July 2016, Dave and Sara were visited by Rusty Gaffney M.D., also known as The Prince of Pinot and author of the PinotFile newsletter. The Prince has been reviewing Pinot noir since retiring from his ophthalmology practice in 2001. We discovered he had written about us in late October 2015, and invited him to taste our wines at his convenience.
We had a lot of fun hanging out with Rusty, sharing our full lineup and even previewing a sample of the 2015 Pinots for him. Although Rusty’s palate tends to be more drawn to the more fruit-forward Pinots of the warmer years, we were positively tickled with his reviews of our wines, published in the September 17, 2016 issue of the PinotFile.
Although he’s slightly misstated our history (Dave and Sara actually started dabbling in winemaking as a hobby back in 2006), here’s a sampling of what he said about some of the wines:
- 2013 Titan Willamette Valley Pinot Noir: Light reddish purple color in the glass. Earth-kissed aromas of cherry and orange pekoe tea. Elegant, with a “crunchy” texture, featuring cherry and spiced plum flavors, and a juicy finish.
- 2014 Titan Willamette Valley Pinot Noir: Light reddish purple color in the glass. Decanted before tasting, but still shy, offering aromas and flavors of dark cherry, plum, spice and toast. Well-balanced, with a modest but satisfying finish.
- 2014 Villanelle Tonnelier Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton Reserve Pinot Noir: Light reddish purple color in the glass. Inviting complexity in this wine sporting aromas of black cherry, dark raspberry, spice and tobacco, and flavors of black cherry, orange pekoe tea and spice. Plenty of fruit driven power to please, but easy to cozy up to with suede-like tannins and an energetic finish.
Read the full article, here.
Bells Up Winery featured on the PinotFile, a newsletter from The Prince of Pinot.
