Torii Mor, Pinot Noir, 2006
Torii Mor is tucked into the Dundee Hills, right at the epicenter of Pinot-dom. They're right by Cameron and Domaine Drouhin -- to name a couple. As the name implies, Torii Mor is sort of like a slice of Japan transplanted to Oregon -- bamboo and various Asian motifs. It's a nice place to visit if you're in Dundee and venturing about. Anyway, on to the wine ...
The nose was, and I hate to say this: Cherry jolly rancher. We've used that recently on a wine we didn't like. And we certainly liked this one. But that's what it was. Sort of a cherry medicine smell. Additionally, there was the smell of stems (subtle), violet, hyacinth, vanilla (only after it warmed up a bit), nutmeg, maybe some clove, and cinnamon. And right in the vein of Asian, honestly, there was ginger. Seriously. The taste was definitely cherry and raspberry. There was also that -- subtle -- vanilla sweetness (not literally sweet, of course). I think there was a bit of strawberry in there too. It finished with cherry cough syrup when it was cold (but not in a bad way if you can imagine that). As it warmed up, the finish was just slightly bitter (but not overly so). Definitely vegetable: green bean, asparagus, and zucchini.
This wine was light- to medium body, and was very smooth. And later after the wine opened up -- and that cough syrup dissipated -- it turned out to be strongly floral and perfume. It was also full of spice, but the floral/perfume was stronger. Denise -- who has been a bit tired of Pinots lately -- really liked this one. She said that was a very good wine, and that it "tastes really good". She added that she was "not expecting a meat and potatoes wine" and that was instead a "danty" wine, which was done very well. Kudos Torii Mor.
Cost:
($26)Rating:
8.0