Tasting Review- Soter Vineyards

Solid lineup of Soter Vineyards Wines

If you are lucky enough to find the Soter Vineyards tasting room (on a day where they forgot to put up the sign), you’ll be greeted by the host at the beautiful tasting room with sparkling wine in hand.  Totally worth the frustration in finding the place, as the taste of the wines are directly proportional to the degree of difficulty in finding the tasting room.

Winegrower Tony Soter is famous in winegrowing circles for his consulting in Napa Valley for over 21 harvests, consulting for big boy wineries like Shafer and Spottswoode among others.  A native of Oregon, Tony Soter moved back to his native land an released his first vintage in Oregon in 1997, a Brut Rose sparkling wine.

The 2006 Beacon Hill Pinot was our favorite, why did you sell it Tony? Say it ain't so!

The Wines:

2005 Brut Rose Sparkling Wine

We were most excited to have this wine prior to the tasting as it was this very wine that motivated us to go to Soter.  Unfortunately, at the tasting it seemed flat (but still “good”).  Last week a good friend shared a bottle with us, and it was crisp, lively, full of life and one of the best sparklers we’ve ever had.

Price: $48-$50
QPR Rating: -$8/90-92
Availability: Whole Foods, Soter Vineyard

2007 North Valley Pinot Noir

Similar to the Brut, we have tasted this wine before, and it proved to be a very consistent and straightforward “slightly better than entry level” Pinot Noir.  Soter’s goal is to make this wine a 100% Oregon product including grapes and barrels.  Strawberry, smoke, and creme brulee are strong on the nose, with a hint of saccharine on the finish.

Price: $27
QPR Rating:  -$7/85-86
Availability: Soter Vineyard

2006 Beacon Hill Pinot Noir

In the April 2008 issue of Food & Wine magazine, Lettie Teague described the 2006 Beacon Hill Pinot as “Tight”.  What a difference two years make, as this wine was clearly our favorite of the day.  We immediately smelled roses, fennel seed and a swimming pool! (Possibly from the minerality in the vineyard?)  Dry, high acids, soft tannins and a long luxurious finish gave us an “Ah-ha” moment of tasting a special wine.  Unfortunately, Tony Soter sold this vineyard in 2005 and this is the last vintage from Beacon Hill.  Hopefully he didn’t sell the wrong vineyard…

Price: $45
QPR Rating: $0/92-94
Availability: Soter Vineyard

2006 Mineral Springs Pinot Noir

Compared to the Beacon Hill, the Mineral Springs is more new world in style, with a meatier (pancetta?), slightly vanilla and spice nose.  Also dry with high acids, it’s bigger on the attack but hollower on the mid-palate.  Also very good, but $15 more expensive than the Beacon Hill.

Price: $60
QPR Rating: -$15/90-91
Availability: Soter Vineyard

2005 Little Creek Proprietary Red

The grapes are listed as from Tony Soter’s personal property in Napa Valley, and it clearly has a Napa bouquet of black cherry candy necklace.  A blend of primarily Cabernet Franc, it tastes like a Cabernet Sauvignon but only has 10% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.  Very good, and probably a fair deal if you are in Napa at $75, but we’re not, so the QPR rating is low.

Price: $75
QPR Rating: -$30/90-91
Availibility: Soter Vineyard

Playing Ball With Mack, House "puppy"

Clearly, Tony Soter is producing world class wines, as all of the wines we tasted were excellent.

Soter Vineyards: www.sotervineyards.com