Oregon Pinot Noir: The 2013s & 2012 Late Releases

The Challenging 2013 Growing Season

Most of the 2013 growing season in Oregon looked like a virtual carbon copy of the superb, already legendary 2012 vintage. But Mother Nature changed her mind at the last minute, in this case at the very end of September, dumping an epic amount of rain that continued to fall into early October, dashing any hopes for a vintage even close to the quality of 2012. 

The turn in the weather was a real heartbreaker for the industry because the growing season had gotten off to a highly auspicious start, with a moderate, dry winter followed by a severe heat spike (pushing temperatures up to almost 80 degrees) in the last week of March that caused budbreak to occur at the beginning of April. That’s unprecedented here (budbreak occurred in the third week of April in 2012 and during the first week of May in 2011, for comparison) and growers were confident that they might actually enjoy two consecutive superlative vintages, which, again, is a rarity in cooler wine regions like Oregon. The spring remained warm and dry and flowering began in the second week of June. The weather continued to cooperate, and spirits and expectations were running high for an anticipated early September harvest, which, we as now know, sadly wasn’t to be.

The steady rains through September and into October, and the excessive water that accumulated in the vineyards caused many berries, which at the time were almost or even fully ripe, to swell up and split open, bringing on rot, which the humid weather also encouraged. Many damaged grapes, in fact, actually began fermenting on the vine, with resulting acetic acid build-up (read: vinegar) that, needless to say, is about the last thing that winegrowers want to see. Given such conditions, growers had few options by mid-September; start picking then, and do it quickly, followed by a severe selection of the fruit on the sorting table, or try to make an equally severe selection in the vineyards and hope that the weather would stabilize and allow the remaining fruit to reach full maturity. Even then, dramatic culling of grapes in the winery would be a requirement, so there was no getting away from a lot of hard work and loss of crop.

Some Strong Wines, Just Not Much To Go Around 

Whichever harvesting choice growers made, production was off severely in 2013, with a number of producers telling me that they made their most draconian selections ever. Many vineyards that normally produce single-site wines saw their tiny quantities of fruit blended away into regional and even generic Willamette Valley and even Oregon bottlings, either because of questions about quality or simply because there wasn’t enough juice to fill vats or to justify the effort to make microscopic quantities. If there is ever a year to tread carefully and focus one’s wine dollars on the top wineries, it’s 2013. And the best estates often did make strong ‘13s: wines with noteworthy energy and focus and vibrant red fruit and spice character that will typically allow for early drinkability. There are a fair number of ‘13s that I’d happily own and drink over the next decade but the vast majority should be consumed on the early side. Broadly speaking, wine lovers who prefer a richer, heftier, dark-fruited style of Pinot will likely find many of the wines wanting. Conversely, those who think that the wines from warmer vintages can be a bit too much and prefer a racier style will likely find plenty to like from ’13, much as they did from 2011, 2007 and 2005.

Unfair Comparisons and Unreasonable Expectations

Even considering the number of solid and even excellent 2013s that I tasted during my annual trip to Oregon as well as back home in New York, the 2013s will always remain in the long shadow of the 2012s. The 2013s had a very tough act to follow from the get-go and the widely publicized weather difficulties of that year quickly caused many wine lovers and members of the trade to start back-filling with whatever ‘12s were available in the marketplace and to try to push to the front of the line for late-released '12s (many of which are reviewed in this article) while essentially writing off the ‘13s. I’d be the last to claim that many, if any, 2013s are equal or superior to their 2012 siblings but, again, what vintages in memory can compare to 2012 in terms of the sheer number of outstanding wines produced? None that I can think of.