2000 was generally a good and somewhat varied year between producers in Oregon. Most produced big and somewhat showy wines from a long and average heat growing year. A few, with higher elevation vineyards like ourselves, were able to retain acid and incorporate it with that long grape hang time in order to get complex and somewhat nervy wines that will age.

Isabella 2000 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
This wine is named in honor of Jim Prosser's niece who arrived in this world on the same day as the Stony Mountain Vineyard fruit. The wine carries brilliant clarity with color tones of dense black cherry and boudoir red. The nose is rich, exhibiting cedar, earth, rose petal, and coffee. On the palate it's brooding and dark, wound and wound again. Fresh berries and pepper pop from the folds of a rich blanket of dried cherries. Smoke ascends, caramel tails out, and fruit lingers. A substantial matrix of acid and tannin rounded by lush viscosity carry the fruit to yield balance and elegance. 42 cases. $65, Wine Spectator: 90. Sold out.

2000 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
Serious, elegant, lively. A black tie Pinot Noir that resonates like a bell on a cold blue sky morning. A brilliant ruby with an effusive nose of red berry, cherry, flowers and cedar resin. The mouth is bright and vibrant, slinging a vortex of pomegranate, cherry and pepper along its high sidewalls and eventually spilling out into a long juicy finish. The key to the 2000 is its lively acid/tannin composition, a complex structure that, well cellared, will help it to soothe away an inordinate number of years. 740 cases. $36. Wine Spectator: 89. Sold out.