The 2012 Pinot Noir Cuvee J has a "sedate" nose with macerated dark cherries and bilberry scents. The palate is sweet on the entry with candied dark cherries and boysenberry jam, a dash of white pepper and quite a dense, but silky finish. Fine.

Consisting as usual of six ostensibly superior barrels (two new) from the estate vineyard – all in this instance from the same relatively elevated sector of what is throughout a gently sloping site – the Evesham Wood 2011 Pinot Noir Cuvee J projects high-toned red raspberry and cherry shadowed by their distilled counterparts, volatile to the point of nasal prickle, which some tasters will deem over-the-line. Fresh ginger, new leather, smoky black tea, smoldering incense and punk add pungent allure while reinforcing the sense of oxidative development. Between the effects of what by estate standards is relatively elevated new wood (besides drying tannins, those effects include a hint of caramel), and the tactile counterpart to the wine’s volatile elements, this is invigorating but a bit rustic. The same can be said for the tartness of fruit acids on display: they are invigorating but some tasters will find them grating or even slightly screeching. Is this simply one that – perhaps literally as well as figuratively – got away from Nuccio? It was due to be released shortly after this report goes into print and perhaps will have settled down by then; and will definitely prove fascinating short-term, not to mention deserve another look. Erin Nuccio – for more about whose 2010 acquisition of Evesham Wood from Russ Raney, as well as about the latter’s style and vineyard sources, consult my Issue 202 report – is finding his footing and increasingly setting his mark on the wines at this venerable address. That said, the delicacy of touch both in the cellar and eventually on your palate , the sense of elegant dynamic, and the very restrained use of new wood – as well as Raney’s signature yeast culture, spawned many years ago from a spent bottle of Henri Jayer Pinot – still characterize Evesham Wood Pinots. Nuccio hasn’t done anything to improve on this winery’s pricing – or, to be more precise, on his own bottom line – because they are almost ludicrously underpriced, making these consistently among the finest wine values anywhere in the U.S. much less the Willamette Valley. Too bad that – as Nuccio and Raney suspected already before the estate changed hands – some of its old vines are now cursed with phylloxera. There is no Temperance Hill Pinot this year, and it would be sad if that historic not to mention synergistic association with Evesham Wood were to go the way of Seven Springs, which was this estate’s other primary outside source of fruit until the purchase of that vineyard for Evening Land. But it appears that there’s no turning back the phylloxera in Evesham Wood’s traditional block at Temperance Hill either. Tel. (503) 371-8478

Constituting a marriage of six ostensibly superior barrels from the estate vineyard (two of them new but discreetly-integrated), the Evesham Wood 2010 Pinot Noir Cuvee J smells alluringly of rose petal, red licorice, smoky black tea, and dark berries, all of which reconvene on a tenderly-textured palate and lead to a finish of impressively juicy and subtly interactive length. I suspect this at once soothing, stimulating beauty will be well worth following for at least a dozen years. In July, 2010, after 24 years building his estate’s reputation, founder Russ Raney sold Evesham Wood and its attendant Le Puits Sec vineyard to his assistant of several years, Erin Nuccio, a plan the latter says he initially rejected but that grew on him in the course of a year’s cogitation. Inspired by time spent in the 1990s working for DC-area retailer Ann Bertha, Nuccio had gone on to briefly acquire some winemaking skills in Northern California while his wife pursued her career in veterinary medicine, but ultimately (“after a spell of rain in Berkeley as bad as any in northern Oregon,” he jokes) he convinced her that as no other place would enable his dream, they should move to the (as she envisioned it) notoriously well-watered Willamette Valley. “Retiring early,” as Raney puts it, signals a confidence in Nuccio that – on the evidence of my recent conversations and tasting – seems entirely well-placed. There will naturally be changes – including, for starters, a bit more barrel rotation and a move toward spontaneous fermentation (whereas Raney had always sworn by a yeast strain he succeeded in culturing from a bottle of one of Henri Jayer’s 1985s!) – but the understated, typically bright, finely-etched and always unabashedly Burgundy-inspired style that Raney so successfully cultivated is clearly in no danger of dying out at his former address. Nuccio said that already (this was June!) fellow winemakers were calling and teasing him about an allegedly impending harvest: “ ‘So, are you going to pick early like Russ did?’ they ask me, and I say ‘No, I’m going to pick on time like Russ did’!” (Nuncio’s existing label, Haden Fig – profiled in the on-line supplement to this report – will continue in a distinctive style.) Tel. (503) 371-8478

The 2008 Pinot Noir Cuvee J, so-named because Rainey developed a yeast strain derived from a bottle of Henri Jayer Burgundy (and he continues to note the late Jayer as one of his major influences on his website), is a selection of the best barrels in the cellar. On this unusual day it was merely pleasant with an enticing nose of spicy red fruits, medium body, savory flavors, and good balance. It can be enjoyed over the next 6-8 years. Russ Rainey began making wine in the Eola-Amity Hills region in 1986 but that is coming to an end. On the day I arrived to taste, the moving van had arrived and Rainey and his family were in the process of leaving their family home located above the winery. They have purchased a home in the south of France and sold the winery to Haden Fig who was present for our tasting. Rainey will be consulting for a while but his active involvement ends with the current harvest. Conditions in the cellar were a bit chaotic, certainly less than optimal for tasting, so these notes should be taken with a measure of caution. www.eveshamwood.com