Pale ruby-purple in color, the 2015 Pinot Noir Stermer Vineyard has notes of warm cranberries, rose petals and dusty earth with a raspberry tart undercurrent. Medium to full-bodied, it has a lovely backbone of freshness textured by chewy tannins, finishing with good expression and length.

The 2012 Pinot Noir Stermer Vineyard comes from vines planted in 1997 on Willakenzie sedimentary soils, cropped at two tons per acre, picked October 10 and 13. It spend 14 months in French oak barrels, 32% new. It has a sightly deeper and more floral bouquet compared to Lemelson's other 2012s, tightly wound at first, but gaining intensity in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with thickset tannin, a solid and almost foursquare Pinot Noir with good density, but just a little abrasive toward the finish at the moment. Give this 12-18 months in bottle to mellow out a little and round off the edges.

The 100% Wadenswil Lemelson 2011 Pinot Noir Stermer Vineyard features cassis and blackberry mingled with oak resin. Juniper berry and black pepper serve for tactile incisiveness and intrigue on a firm palate, persisting into a finish in which the sense of berry juiciness is slightly dried by the contribution of oak. As with the corresponding Powell Hill bottling, I can only very tentatively anticipate that this will be best drunk by 2017. Eric Lemelson – about whom, and about whose vineyards, I wrote extensively in issue 202 – testified that his 2011 fruit had thinner skins, less spice, and more prominent acidity (he said “citrus”) than that of 2010. But he claims to have chaptalized “almost not at all” in 2011, while still reaching 13-13.5% alcohol in his finished Pinots, picked in the third week of October. I’m beginning to associate my tepid response to many of Lemelson’s Pinots with the tendency of both youthful gaminess and their typically 50% new wood (the balance often second-fill) to encroach on or slightly dry-out their fruit. Each of the three Pinots here reviewed in their 2011 instantiations is monoclonal; but I certainly wouldn’t suggest that they lack for complexity. Tel. (503) 852-6619

Lemelson and King acknowledge that often “unruly” tannins have been a feature of past vintages of Stermer, but clearly consider their 2010 Pinot Noir Stermer Vineyard – entirely from Wadenswil Selection vines – to have overcome that problem. I wish I could entirely agree. There is impressively sweet, sappy blackberry fruit here along with overtones of sage, lavender, and game that put me in mind of red blends from southern France’s garrigue. But there is also an underlying structural severity exacerbated by resinous and astringent woodiness (reflecting just over half new barrels). Smoky, resinous pungency and paste-like dark berry intensity inform a gripping finish. Since I didn’t taste any of the three older Stermer bottlings sampled on this occasion when they were young, I can only say that if – as reported by King – this 2010 is less tannic today than the corresponding 2008 was at a similar stage (and ditto for evidence of oak in the 2009), then we may have a more refined and better-integrated wine on our hands in a few years. I imagine this will certainly hold together soundly for at least half a dozen years. Although he practiced environmental law for some years, Eric Lemelson was by then already smitten with Pinot and in a position to plant a vineyard in 1995 and build a state-of-the-art winery in time to receive its first harvest. The number of estate vineyards planted by Lemelson now stands at seven, several subjected to dedicated bottlings. Anthony King arrived here as winemaker from California in 2006. Mindful of the tannic proclivities I witnessed in the wines I tasted, King says he is sparing with punch-downs. He also notes that he put his wines to barrel after somewhat less settling in 2010 as his 2009s taste woodier than he had wanted, adding (and echoing many other winemakers I spoke with) that the inexplicable proclivity of Willamette Pinot Noir to reduce is what keeps him from putting wine into barrel “dirty” (i.e. without settling). The percentage of new oak varies from one- to two-thirds, though hearing the names of Lemelson’s favored tonneliers suggested to me one reason for the prevalence of smoky, toasty, and overtly wood resin character whose prominence bothered me in several of their wines. Apropos which, readers will perceive that I’m out-of-step with the generally highly laudatory consensus about these wines among my fellow critics, and I’ll be especially anxious to taste Lemelson releases again next year, having had no time to follow-up on my sole session in July. (Incidentally, this is among the many Willamette Valley wineries to label with that broad appellation, even where a more specific A.V.A. applies.) Tel. (503) 852-6619

There’s a bifurcation of still tart-edged black raspberry fruit and caramelized, toasty wood in the Lemelson 2009 Pinot Noir Stermer Vineyard, though to be sure there is impressive substantiality without heaviness, as well as impressive sheer persistence that incorporates a welcome modicum of primary berry juiciness. King says “The vintage drove me nuts” and that pains were taken to pick at moderate potential alcohol as well as to tame the tannins. I would monitor any I was holding in hope that this knits over the next couple of years, but would otherwise be inclined to drink it up at that point. Although he practiced environmental law for some years, Eric Lemelson was by then already smitten with Pinot and in a position to plant a vineyard in 1995 and build a state-of-the-art winery in time to receive its first harvest. The number of estate vineyards planted by Lemelson now stands at seven, several subjected to dedicated bottlings. Anthony King arrived here as winemaker from California in 2006. Mindful of the tannic proclivities I witnessed in the wines I tasted, King says he is sparing with punch-downs. He also notes that he put his wines to barrel after somewhat less settling in 2010 as his 2009s taste woodier than he had wanted, adding (and echoing many other winemakers I spoke with) that the inexplicable proclivity of Willamette Pinot Noir to reduce is what keeps him from putting wine into barrel “dirty” (i.e. without settling). The percentage of new oak varies from one- to two-thirds, though hearing the names of Lemelson’s favored tonneliers suggested to me one reason for the prevalence of smoky, toasty, and overtly wood resin character whose prominence bothered me in several of their wines. Apropos which, readers will perceive that I’m out-of-step with the generally highly laudatory consensus about these wines among my fellow critics, and I’ll be especially anxious to taste Lemelson releases again next year, having had no time to follow-up on my sole session in July. (Incidentally, this is among the many Willamette Valley wineries to label with that broad appellation, even where a more specific A.V.A. applies.) Tel. (503) 852-6619