1997 Hamacher Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

Nobody cellars Oregon Pinot Noir from 1997. Oregon was still an underdog, the wines went straight into restaurants, and people drank them. Twenty-nine years later there is almost nothing left. Finding one is pretty rare.

Eric Hamacher came out of UC Davis in 1988 with a degree in fermentation science and spent the next seven years chasing harvests around the world. He landed in California and made wine at Mondavi, Chalone, and Etude, which by itself is a Pinot Noir résumé most people never get. Then he moved north in 1995 and started his own winery. This is his third vintage.

He also changed Oregon. At the time, state licensing law made it impossible for multiple wineries to share a production facility. Hamacher lobbied to fix that, then in 2002 he and his wife Luisa Ponzi and the Lumpkins opened Carlton Winemakers Studio, which became the incubator for dozens of small Oregon producers who could never have afforded their own building. That name Ponzi should also be familiar to enthusiasts as Oregon Pinot Royalty.

His philosophy has always been patience. He holds his Pinot Noir eighteen months in barrel and another eighteen in bottle before he will sell it. He has said outright that he ages his wines so people can drink them mature. This is a pretty fantastic example.