Newsletter


Story Teller Wine Company
The other night I was sitting in a school bus, eating the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life. The bus is parked on a corner lot in NE Portland and it is the official dining room of the Grilled Cheese Grill, a food cart devoted to creating sandwiches that are a satori-like step toward melted cheese nirvana. As I tore into a BABS (bacon, apple, blue cheese and swiss cheese on rye) my wife looked up from her cup of spicy tomato soup and said, “we are so lucky to be living in a crazy city like this.” I had to agree, because wherever you are in Portland, if you look closely enough, you will find whacked out treasures like the Grilled Cheese Grill. I’m also really lucky to be living in a city near wine country. Because of my location I’m able to participate in a wine tasting group that features lots of young, “up and coming” winemakers. Some of them you have never heard of, others are attached to some pretty famous wineries. They are all very serious about their craft and I’m pretty sure they will all end up garnering recognition by Pinot Noir lovers everywhere. One of those tasting group members, Marcus Goodfellow, just had a wine register a very large blip on the old Pinot Noir radar. I wasn’t going to write about this wine until next week, but as you are about to see, my hand has been prematurely forced. 2008 Matello Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (19.95) Marcus Goodfellow is an earnest, serious guy. So when he told his co-workers he was thinking about becoming a winemaker, one of them called him “a little fool.” Instead of questioning his sanity, the doubters made him more determined than ever to make wine. Marcus even went so far as to name his winery Matello, a rough translation of “little fool” in certain parts of Italy. The pencil sketch of a scraggly court jester on the label is now instantly recognizable on store shelves around Portland. Marcus was born and raised in tiny Silverton, Oregon but eventually escaped to Los Angeles where he ended up working in a wine store. The appreciation of the liquid arts, in addition to a bit of homesickness, eventually brought Marcus back to Portland. After several years of pouring wines and mixing cocktails at the Heathman Hotel Marcus caught the winemaking bug, which led him to stints at Westrey, Evesham Wood and Bishop Creek. Marcus’ appreciation of the lighter, elegant style of Russ Raney (Evesham Wood) and Amy Wesselman and David Autrey (Westrey) is quite evident in everything he makes. As a result, Marcus’ wines emphasize minimal manipulation and minimal use of new oak. Marcus dropped off a bottle of his 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir at the store last Friday. We opened it up, shared it with a few customers, I placed an order and Marcus was on his merry way. The 2008 is a blend of fruit from Winter’s Hill, Whistling Ridge, Bishop Creek and Cherry Grove vineyards and it is really, really good. Now maybe Marcus didn’t realize his wine was about to be reviewed in the Sunday Oregonian by wine critic Matt Kramer. Which is a great thing for Marcus, but it also means that the whopping 300 or so cases Marcus made of this wine are going to disappear quickly. I thought the 2008 Matello Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was just about the best wine of Marcus’ I have tasted so far. I guess Kramer felt the same way, as he wrote: “A beautifully made wine with a lovely mid-palate density with a core of wild cherry and berry fruits, Matello “Willamette Valley” Pinot Noir 2008 shows just what the 2008 pinots are all about. Dense yet balanced, with supple tannins and ideal acidity, it’s also still pretty tightly coiled. What you taste today is only a hint of what will emerge if the wine is given additional aging in a cool space. At $19.95, it’s a standout deal in terrific 2008 Oregon pinot noir. Oh, by the way, only 336 were produced. Get it while you’re here — and while you can. I tasted the wine after it had been open for a day, so the tight coil Kramer talks about had unfurled a bit. I thought the nose was classic Oregon, with dusty notes of dark cherries, a bit of salty sea breeze and a touch of chalk. The palate showed good structure and some very juicy acidity. And talk about a wine being “seamless.” The whole time I was sipping this wine I could hear the Allman Brothers’ “Jessica” playing in my head. Now that’s seamless! And the fruit qualities of 2008 are well represented here, with lots of juicy cherries and maybe a bit of tart red raspberry on the finish. This is just a really well-made wine for this price range. As my friend Andy Pates of Chicago’s Cream Wine Company put it, “saying you like a 2008 Oregon pinot under $20 is like saying you like oxygen.” In honor of Marcus’ well-deserved recognition, you may indeed purchase the 2008 Matello Willamette Valley Pinot Noir for less than twenty bucks. Or you can drive the price down further by buying a six-pack for 110.00 or a case of twelve bottles for 209.00. I don’t like trotting out the old “back up the truck” chestnut, but I will advise you, if you love Oregon Pinot Noir, to get as much of the Matello as your vehicle’s U-joint can handle. If you would like to snag some of this wine, please respond to this email as soon as you are able because I don’t think Marcus’ supply will last longer than a week thanks to that Kramer review. And believe me, you won’t find this on the shelves of your neighborhood store unless you live in Oregon. Friday Night Wine Tasting, January 29, 2009, 6:00-9:00PM: Reininger Winery Join us Friday evening as we welcome the good folks from Reininger Winery in Walla Walla, Washington. We will be pouring samples of their Reininger wines as well as a few wines from their Helix label. Everything from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to Sangiovese and Carmenere will be on tap. I can’t think of a better way to cut through the cold and rain of a January evening in Portland! I hope you can drop by for the fun. Best of all, there will be no charge for this tasting. Saturday Wine Tasting, January 30, 12:00-5:00PM: New Arrivals from Cameron, Honig Schlucht and Matello! In addition to the 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir from Matello, we’ll be cracking open the newly released Willamette Valley Chardonnay from John Paul and the boys up at Cameron. A Cameron Chardonnay that is made with Abbey Ridge fruit for 14.00. Nor that’s a good find! Too bad they only made 100 cases. I just tried it the other day and it is tangy and excellent. Another recent discovery is the Pinot Meunier from a new Oregon winery, Honig Schlucht. It’s nice and peppery and it’s under twenty bucks a bottle. You will be reading more about this wine in the next newsletter! Drop by on Saturday to try them all for no charge. Cheers, Michael Alberty Head Storyteller PS 2008 Mania I knew the 2008 vintage of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was going to receive a lot of hype, but I have been a bit startled and surprised by the number of emails and phone calls I’m fielding about these wines. Perhaps it is because of quotes like this one from Veronique Drouhin-Boss of Domaine Drouhin Oregon: “As always with great vintages, we only wish there was more. Mais, c’est la vie. I can’t think of a vintage in Oregon that I’ve seen like 2008, but in Burgundy, it might be similar to 1978. These wines were and still are delicious today, if you can find them.” Is it 1999 in Oregon all over again? Is it like 1978 in Burgundy? Given the early release “entry level” wines I have been tasting from bottle lately, I’m beginning to think it may be so. So until all the 2008s are gone, at the bottom of each Storyteller newsletter there will be a 2008 Hit List. After all, I only write about two wines a week, but there are so many more that cross the Storyteller threshold. And given the quality of the 2008 vintage, I wouldn’t want you to miss out on anything. The 2008 Hit List will begin with the next newsletter. Also, if you have a favorite Oregon producer and you would like to get their 2008s, just drop me an email or a phone call. If we don’t already have it, I’ll do everything in my power to track it down for you and you will probably pay less than you would at other venues. Visit www.StorytellerWine.com >> 5511-B SW Hood Ave, Portland \| (503) 206-7029 \| 1.800.753.2531

Story Teller Wine Company

The other night I was sitting in a school bus, eating the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life. The bus is parked on a corner lot in NE Portland and it is the official dining room of the Grilled Cheese Grill, a food cart devoted to creating sandwiches that are a satori-like step toward melted cheese nirvana. As I tore into a BABS (bacon, apple, blue cheese and swiss cheese on rye) my wife looked up from her cup of spicy tomato soup and said, “we are so lucky to be living in a crazy city like this.” I had to agree, because wherever you are in Portland, if you look closely enough, you will find whacked out treasures like the Grilled Cheese Grill.

I’m also really lucky to be living in a city near wine country. Because of my location I’m able to participate in a wine tasting group that features lots of young, “up and coming” winemakers. Some of them you have never heard of, others are attached to some pretty famous wineries. They are all very serious about their craft and I’m pretty sure they will all end up garnering recognition by Pinot Noir lovers everywhere. One of those tasting group members, Marcus Goodfellow, just had a wine register a very large blip on the old Pinot Noir radar. I wasn’t going to write about this wine until next week, but as you are about to see, my hand has been prematurely forced.

2008 Matello Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (19.95)

Marcus Goodfellow is an earnest, serious guy. So when he told his co-workers he was thinking about becoming a winemaker, one of them called him “a little fool.” Instead of questioning his sanity, the doubters made him more determined than ever to make wine. Marcus even went so far as to name his winery Matello, a rough translation of “little fool” in certain parts of Italy. The pencil sketch of a scraggly court jester on the label is now instantly recognizable on store shelves around Portland.

Marcus was born and raised in tiny Silverton, Oregon but eventually escaped to Los Angeles where he ended up working in a wine store. The appreciation of the liquid arts, in addition to a bit of homesickness, eventually brought Marcus back to Portland. After several years of pouring wines and mixing cocktails at the Heathman Hotel Marcus caught the winemaking bug, which led him to stints at Westrey, Evesham Wood and Bishop Creek. Marcus’ appreciation of the lighter, elegant style of Russ Raney (Evesham Wood) and Amy Wesselman and David Autrey (Westrey) is quite evident in everything he makes. As a result, Marcus’ wines emphasize minimal manipulation and minimal use of new oak.

Marcus dropped off a bottle of his 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir at the store last Friday. We opened it up, shared it with a few customers, I placed an order and Marcus was on his merry way. The 2008 is a blend of fruit from Winter’s Hill, Whistling Ridge, Bishop Creek and Cherry Grove vineyards and it is really, really good. Now maybe Marcus didn’t realize his wine was about to be reviewed in the Sunday Oregonian by wine critic Matt Kramer. Which is a great thing for Marcus, but it also means that the whopping 300 or so cases Marcus made of this wine are going to disappear quickly.

I thought the 2008 Matello Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was just about the best wine of Marcus’ I have tasted so far. I guess Kramer felt the same way, as he wrote: “A beautifully made wine with a lovely mid-palate density with a core of wild cherry and berry fruits, Matello “Willamette Valley” Pinot Noir 2008 shows just what the 2008 pinots are all about. Dense yet balanced, with supple tannins and ideal acidity, it’s also still pretty tightly coiled. What you taste today is only a hint of what will emerge if the wine is given additional aging in a cool space. At $19.95, it’s a standout deal in terrific 2008 Oregon pinot noir. Oh, by the way, only 336 were produced. Get it while you’re here — and while you can.

I tasted the wine after it had been open for a day, so the tight coil Kramer talks about had unfurled a bit. I thought the nose was classic Oregon, with dusty notes of dark cherries, a bit of salty sea breeze and a touch of chalk. The palate showed good structure and some very juicy acidity. And talk about a wine being “seamless.” The whole time I was sipping this wine I could hear the Allman Brothers’ “Jessica” playing in my head. Now that’s seamless! And the fruit qualities of 2008 are well represented here, with lots of juicy cherries and maybe a bit of tart red raspberry on the finish. This is just a really well-made wine for this price range. As my friend Andy Pates of Chicago’s Cream Wine Company put it, “saying you like a 2008 Oregon pinot under $20 is like saying you like oxygen.”

In honor of Marcus’ well-deserved recognition, you may indeed purchase the 2008 Matello Willamette Valley Pinot Noir for less than twenty bucks. Or you can drive the price down further by buying a six-pack for 110.00 or a case of twelve bottles for 209.00. I don’t like trotting out the old “back up the truck” chestnut, but I will advise you, if you love Oregon Pinot Noir, to get as much of the Matello as your vehicle’s U-joint can handle. If you would like to snag some of this wine, please respond to this email as soon as you are able because I don’t think Marcus’ supply will last longer than a week thanks to that Kramer review. And believe me, you won’t find this on the shelves of your neighborhood store unless you live in Oregon.

Friday Night Wine Tasting, January 29, 2009, 6:00-9:00PM: Reininger Winery

Join us Friday evening as we welcome the good folks from Reininger Winery in Walla Walla, Washington. We will be pouring samples of their Reininger wines as well as a few wines from their Helix label. Everything from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to Sangiovese and Carmenere will be on tap. I can’t think of a better way to cut through the cold and rain of a January evening in Portland! I hope you can drop by for the fun. Best of all, there will be no charge for this tasting.

Saturday Wine Tasting, January 30, 12:00-5:00PM: New Arrivals from Cameron, Honig Schlucht and Matello!

In addition to the 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir from Matello, we’ll be cracking open the newly released Willamette Valley Chardonnay from John Paul and the boys up at Cameron. A Cameron Chardonnay that is made with Abbey Ridge fruit for 14.00. Nor that’s a good find! Too bad they only made 100 cases. I just tried it the other day and it is tangy and excellent. Another recent discovery is the Pinot Meunier from a new Oregon winery, Honig Schlucht. It’s nice and peppery and it’s under twenty bucks a bottle. You will be reading more about this wine in the next newsletter! Drop by on Saturday to try them all for no charge.

Cheers,
Michael Alberty
Head Storyteller

PS 2008 Mania

I knew the 2008 vintage of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was going to receive a lot of hype, but I have been a bit startled and surprised by the number of emails and phone calls I’m fielding about these wines. Perhaps it is because of quotes like this one from Veronique Drouhin-Boss of Domaine Drouhin Oregon: “As always with great vintages, we only wish there was more. Mais, c’est la vie. I can’t think of a vintage in Oregon that I’ve seen like 2008, but in Burgundy, it might be similar to 1978. These wines were and still are delicious today, if you can find them.” Is it 1999 in Oregon all over again? Is it like 1978 in Burgundy? Given the early release “entry level” wines I have been tasting from bottle lately, I’m beginning to think it may be so. So until all the 2008s are gone, at the bottom of each Storyteller newsletter there will be a 2008 Hit List. After all, I only write about two wines a week, but there are so many more that cross the Storyteller threshold. And given the quality of the 2008 vintage, I wouldn’t want you to miss out on anything. The 2008 Hit List will begin with the next newsletter.

Also, if you have a favorite Oregon producer and you would like to get their 2008s, just drop me an email or a phone call. If we don’t already have it, I’ll do everything in my power to track it down for you and you will probably pay less than you would at other venues.

Visit www.StorytellerWine.com >>
5511-B SW Hood Ave, Portland | (503) 206-7029 | 1.800.753.2531

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