2002 Archery Summit Premier Cuvee

[oostexan]

Rebounding from last nights over-the-top Cali Syrah, I corked this to go with rosemary grilled pork tenderloin tonight.

Nice nose of strawberry and cherries, more old world on the palate with concentrated flavors of strawberry and dusty cherries followed by earth and mushrooms on the finish. Good weight and nicely structured. Alcohol and fruit are well balanced. Nice juice. Similar to the Loring Naylor Hole I had a couple months back.

Washed down the previously mentioned tenderloin in excellent fashion. Great food wine.

Mark

[winoweenie]

Sounds like me very-own cuppa'. Archery has just begun showing up here in Az. so will look for current releases. Tankee fer the header. WW

[dananne]

This was our favorite wine from our tasting at the winery back in the summer of '05, but we didn't buy any because of the P/Q. At the time, it ran about $15-20 higher than the basic bottlings from other producers, and the quality didn't match the price tag. Of course, with the recent price creep with Oregon Pinot Noir, $45 for the entry wine doesn't seem all that unreasonable. That having been said, IMHO $150 for their Estate wine is thoroughly ridiculous.

The winery is beautiful, and the whole spread is one of the prettiest in the whole valley. The vineyards are standout, and there are gobs of money behind the operation to carefully match clone with site, to plant exclusively on own rootstocks (even if that means replanting due to phylloxera), etc. However, our experience was likely corrupted by an awful tasting room staff who were easily the most haughty and rude I've encountered. I probably shouldn't let that one bad experience keep me from giving their wines another shot, but haven't tried one of their wines since then.

Again, though, we did think this was a very nice wine, and thanks for the notes on how it's evolving. Those Oregon '02s are drinking very well right now.

[wondersofwine]

Oos,
My experience with Archery Summit wines is that they show great quality fruit but are overwhelmed by too much oak. Did you notice oak tannins/flavoring in the wine? Are you pretty tolerant of oaky wines?

[oostexan]

WOW,

I am definitely more tolerant of oak (to a degree) than you and a few others on the board.

However, I felt like the Archer Summit was well balanced with a moderate amount of oak, and a weighty center palate of nice fruit. It is a good drink, and I suspect that a couple years in the cellar helped. I also thought the alcohol was in balance.

All in all, I think it is a solid wine, though a half step below Brian's wines. You can find it at the discount retailers for 35 to 40 if you feel so compelled to try them out. I believe they are owned by Pine Ridge in Napa.