Experience pays off with 2011 Oregon Pinot

If so, then the best chance at salvation of Oregon's 2011 vintage came from just that - and more often than not, from veteran winemakers who knew how to prepare for the latest, coldest and most drawn-out vintage in the state's history.

[...] in Oregon the wait for ripeness was drawn to an extreme, with Pinot Noir often harvested into November - not to hit the bulky flavors that California hunts but simply for the grapes to mature enough to make a solid wine.

Kendall-Jackson bought 392 acres in Eola-Amity Hills, the biggest bet so far from California on Oregon soil, while the Burgundy house of Louis Jadot bought the 32-acre Resonance vineyard, one of the state's best known, with plans for wine to be made by Jadot cellar mastermind Jacques Lardiere.

2011 Brick House Les Dijonnais Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir ($52, 13% alcohol): Doug Tunnell has been growing Pinot in Oregon for nearly a quarter-century, and a parcel of organically farmed Dijon clones 113, 114 and 115 planted in 1995 are responsible for this bottle.

Spicy and radiant in its flavors, with a bit of coppery bite that marks great Pinot, plus cinnamon, smoky sage and a violet-like perfume to match the ethereal red fruit and impressively fine tannins.

There's a similarly sultry-tangy tension in the 2011 Resonance Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir ($48, 12.9%), with cardamom, pine bark and subtle boysenberry fruit.

2011 Bergstrom Cumberland Reserve Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($42, 13.3%): The blended Cumberland may be Josh Bergstrom's largest production wine, but this is the finest vintage in several years - densely flavored and brooding, full of beetroot and mineral and sweet spice with a tremendous density to the fruit, all plum flesh and cherry skin.

The fruit's taut and tannic, more plum skin and raspberry seed, a style that is perfect for the dinner table.

2011 Willakenzie Estate Cuvee Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir ($30, 13.5%): Having planted vines in 1992, Bernard Lacroute is one of Oregon's relative old hands, and this more entry-level effort shows a talented hand for extraction from winemaker Thibaud Mandet in a vintage that shouldn't have favored it.

Full of dried thyme, mineral and birch bark, with fresh strawberry fruit and a generous, rounded side to its flavors.

2011 Amity Vineyards Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($22, 12.5%): One of the early pioneers in Oregon, Amity has been overshadowed in recent years by newer arrivals, but this blend is a super reminder of the state's classically subtle charms.

2011 Anam Cara Nicholas Estate Chehalem Mountains Pinot Noir ($32, 12.4%): The Nicholases' wines are always delicate, and this blend of their five estate blocks in the Chehalem Mountains walks with very light feet.