Michele Francisco and Matt Talbot — Pacific Northwest wine experts and reviewers — produce Winerabble, an online resource covering all things wine with an extremely accessible, unpretentious approach. Both have backgrounds in wine buying, marketing, tasting, reviewing and judging. They’ve translated their endless curiosity about regional wines and the people who produce them into easy to understand, educational gems ideal for the wine connoisseur and newbie alike.
Michele has long been highly complimentary of our Titan Pinot Noir, having reviewed the 2013 and 2014 vintage. It had been too long since she’d sampled our latest, so when she asked to review the 2019 Titan, we couldn’t wait to find out what she and Matt thought. Here’s their review:
Like a symphony with several musical instruments, this wine combines three clones of Pinot noir grapes from two vineyards, and the resulting sum is greater than the individual parts. Owner/winemaker Dave Specter blended younger Pommard grapes from the Bells Up estate vineyard with clones 115 and 777 from Yamhill-Carton’s Tonnelier Vineyard.
The result? Named for Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan,” is a unique representation of a Willamette Valley Pinot noir. Mouthwatering with notes of earth, spice and red fruit, this wine was also spicy on its first day open. It’s not often I get to use aleppo pepper in my tasting notes! Prominent tannins mellowed with oxygen exposure. A full mouthfeel and long finish previewed what could be.
If I can tempt you to leave half the bottle until day two, you’ll be rewarded with a peek into how this wine will age. Cat tongue tannins aligned, spicy notes dropped into the background and a wonderful elegance emerged. Do your future self a favor and stock your cellar to enjoy a few years down the road. (In fact, do this with all the 2019 Willamette Valley Pinots you can!)
The pair also described 2019 Titan’s color as “bing cherry red” and shared their multi-sensory bouquet/palate descriptors that include visual icons!
On the nose they detected cedar, red cherry, black pepper, black raspberry, baking spices, and blackberry. On the palate they found cranberry, raspberry, rose hips, red cherry, Aleppo pepper, and cat tongue tannins (the BEST descriptor, EVER. CAT-TONGUE TANNINS PEOPLE!)
They even suggested three food pairings: Hasselback Chicken Cordon Bleu, Falafel Burgers, and Apple Spice Pork Chops. Sounds good to us.
