Shea Wine Cellars "Homer" Pinot noir 2004 $67.45/$74.95

Shea Wine Cellars’ “Homer” Pinot noir is an homage to baseball, a "Home Run" of a wine. Homer, each year, is Shea’s blend of their very best grapes, usually from Blocks 25 and their Oak Block. A vintage of the Shea Homer has been made every year since the 2001 vintage, and each year it has scored the highest of all Shea Pinots. It is Shea's most "in demand" Pinot, made to represent the very best that the Shea Vineyard has produced in each vintage.

The origin of the name "Homer" is an interesting story- Patty Green made the 2001 Shea Pinots. She and business partner Jim Anderson named the special section of their winery where the Shea wines were stored "Shea Stadium". Additional baseball references kept coming to mind, and they playfully labelled a barrel of Shea's very best Pinot "Homer", helping them to remember that particular barrel's location. Dick and Deirdre saw the name scrawled on the barrel, liked it, and Shea's "Homer" was born.

Making the "Homer" Pinot noir

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What makes the Homer so special? Think about it- Shea is one of the best vineyards in the US- some of the best wineries in Oregon and California purchase the grapes. Dick Shea owns the vineyard, and over the years, leases have lapsed on some of the very best Blocks, rallowing him to reserve them for Shea Wine Cellars' wines. Within those best blocks, Dick and Chris select the very, very best few rows of grapes from the best blocks. So Homer is made from the "creme de la creme" of the Shea grapes.

The Homer sees some highly labor intensive winemaking practices too expensive to use for many wines. A great deal of careful "hand crafting" goes into all the Shea wines, especially the Homer.

One of the secrets that makes the Homer so special is that part of each vintage of the Homer Pinot noir is fermented in oak rather than stainless steel, a practice brought to Shea by Sam Tannahill, Shea's consulting winemaker for the 2004 vintage. Sam first used the technique at Archery Summit, where he made wine with Gary Andrus.

The benefits of wood fermentation include a more uniform thermal fermentation profile (less temperature fluctuation) that results in “beautiful, really rich tannins” and a more natural expression of the character of the fruit—and a better match for the mature Shea grapes. " Fermenting in oak adds a richness to the wine", according to owner Dick Shea. Several other Shea wines use small amounts of wine partially fermented in oak, but with the Homer, great attention is paid to the additional complexity and texture that arises from wood fermentation.

The Shea Homer 04 wine was aged in 60% new French oak (Francois Freres) and 40% previously used Burgundian barrels. Hints of smoke and pie spices in the nose might come from Shea's barrel toast and oak flavors, but the fruit is squarely front and center in this wine, with oak contributing subtle, if any, overt flavors.

All of Shea's wines are gently handled with gravity used as much as possible when moving the wine. The wine is stored in barrel in caves at Adelsheim Winery, where Shea has leased space for several years. A new winery is now under construction at the Shea Vineyard site, and will be used for the 2006 harvest, with luck. If construction takes longer than planned, 2006 will be made at Adelsheim with the first vintage at the new facility in August, 2007. 

About the Homer 04

Recently retasted (March 2006), the 2004 Shea Wine Cellars Homer Pinot noir $67.45/$74.95 has blossomed and balanced since first tasted, when it showed a restrained nose (tasted it in barrel, just before bottling in August, 2005). At that time, the scent of rose petals commingled with cranberry and red cherry notes as the wine opened in the glass. Hints of minerals, violets, Chinese Five Spice, and vanilla intermingled with the dominant scent of red fruit.

In March 2006, seven months later, (seven months cellared in bottle), the nose has developed a heady, rich and complex quality, perfumed with the scent of candied violets, rose petals, lavender, cinnamon, anise, raspberry, cherry, and hints of fresh turned earth, flint, and jasmine. The flavors have exploded with layers of savory blackberry, black raspberry, blueberry, huckleberry, loganberry, and pie cherry, co-mingling with creamy strawberry and raspberry in the mid-palate. The wine has a hint of meatiness, with touches of cedar and smoke, and that unusual hint of molasses that some of the Shea fruit possesses.. Very balanced, no one component of the flavor stands out, although all show well - there's an intense acidity, balanced by saturated, opulent fruit, and medium grained tannins that hold the wine together for cellaring without being intrusive.

The 2004 Homer is a bit more structured than the intensely sweet and ripe flavors of 2003. That hot year created a wine easy to drink young, while the 2004 is a wine with a multiplicity of layered, nuanced flavors, balanced acidity and tannins, and the potential for aging 10-12 years.  The 2003 was multilayered and incredibly deep and rich, but the 2004 adds a maturity of structure – the wine has a seamless integration of fruit, tannin, and acidity through which an array of taste sensations can be perceived. The wine is sappier and more concentrated than many Pinots, with an exquisitely drawn out, complex and seamless finish.

Marcus Looze, Avalon's Manager, recently posted his tasting notes on the Shea Homer 04. Here they are:

"Aromas of fresh, sweet rose petals mingling with dried flowers. Subtle hints of incense spice--particularly sandalwood--and star
anise with a lovely red raspberry perfume. Layers and layers of fruit--red cherry, raspberry, and a smidgen of creamy strawberry--and darker fruit that appears with time. A rich, silky mouthfeel, with subtle yet spicy dark cocoa on the graceful finish.

The Homer is the last of the 2004 Shea wines I've tried and it is fascinating to see how the best barrels of different blocks and clones were perfectly blended to create Shea's flagship wine."

Previous Vintage tasting Notes
Shea "Homer" Pinot noir

Chris Matzepink, showing how much (very little) Homer there is

Shea Wine Cellars Homer  03

Homer 2003 Winery notes: Homer is our finest Pinot noir blend. The fruit came from our oldest, own-rooted vines with a small amount of our new Dijon Clone 115 grapes to add structure. This wine is a huge Pinot that is dark colored and quite intense. Dark berry flavors are balanced by violets, mushroom and earthy tones. A wonderfully complex wine that should be our longest lived wine of the vintage.

Pinot Report 94 points
Medium-deep ruby purple color; slightly closed but there's definitely evidence of complex black cherry, spice and earthy aromas; very deep and rich, lots of black cherry flavors, complex spicy/earthy notes, sweet oak; great structure and balance; long finish. Incredibly deep and rich, this Pinot has a ways to go to continue to develop fully.
 
Shea WIne Cellars Homer 03 Wine Spectator 91
“Firm in texture, generous in flavor, this lush mouthful of currant and spice lingers enticingly, picking up a violet note as it stays on the palate. Needs time to soften. Best from 2007 through 2013.”  -H.S.

Shea Homer 2002

Review from Avalon: The Shea "Homer" 2002 $60, is nothing short of remarkable. A dark black purple garnet color is coupled with a nose full of black cherry, jammy blackberry, cassis, Asian spices, complex spice and floral notes, violet, rose, a long, textured finish with creaminess and body. Opulent, yet with good acidity for cellaring, and the constantly changing, highly pleasant sensation of different scents and flavors that lingers in the finish. Yow! Just a wonderful wine.

Shea Wine Cellars Homer 2002

Wine Spectator rating 91 points:
“Smooth in texture, lively and generous with its cinnamon-scented cherry and tobacco flavors, finishing open and impressively persistent. Has grace and style. Drink now through 2009. 145 cases made.” (HS)

Winery notes: Super saturated purple from center to the rim. Crafted from the best of the cellar, this wine is the quintessence of Shea Vineyard. Intense and exceptionally complex aromatics of ripe black raspberry, cherry, crystallized violets, flint, minerals and cassis fill the glass. With aeration sweet earth, smoke, blueberry and huckleberry aromatics all make an appearance. The attack is sweet and expands rapidly to fill the mouth. Large scaled and rich, the mid-palate leads to an unbelievably long finish. This wine has the structure, depth and intensity to push it to be the best wine from Shea Wine Cellars in a superlative year. The 2002 Homer sill certainly deepen and complex into a tremendous wine over the next fifteen years. 143 cases made.

Shea Homer 01

Shea Wine Cellars Homer 2001 -- Wine Spectator 92 points: 
Firm in texture, with brilliant blackberry, currant and black pepper flavors, fine but hard-edged tannins and a juiciness that just won't quit. Best from 2004 through 2010. 140 cases made. (HS)

Release Date October 2006,
Here's a preview of the Shea 2004 Wadenswil

Shea Wine Cellars Wadenswil Pinot noir 04 $43.16/$47.95 is new, and it's an exciting change in Shea Wine Cellars' lineup this year. Blocks 25 and 28, previously purchased by California’s Sin Qua Non Winery, have been used by Sam Tannahill to make Shea Wine Cellars’ “Wadenswil” 2004. And the grapes from Block 32, previously made into their own Block designate wine, are combined into this Wadenswil designate in 2004.

This wine is potentially the longest lived Shea Pinot noir this year, and will not be released until May 2006. The winemaker, in conjunction with owner Dick Shea and his distributors, have decided that the wine needs more time in bottle before release. This wine is also potentially “THE” wine of Shea’s 2004 releases, with high hopes and lots of buzz among industry members who’ve had a chance to try it.

The wine has an intense nose. Scents of mellow pie spice, toasted coffee bean, brown sugar and molasses are entwined with a note of fresh turned earth and lots of blueberry fruit in the nose. The nose is BIG – very appealing and quite interesting.

In the mouth, a creamy quality pervades flavors of classic Wadenswil blueberry fruit, but no one-note wine here- blue plum,  red plum, blackberry, and black currant meld into an exotic mélange of Pinot noir, with polished and silky tannins finishing off the long finish.

The Shea Wine Cellars Wadenswil Pinot noir 04 is a heck of a memorable wine – and I have to admit, I was skeptical. The Wadenswil Clone has shown up as the primary or exclusive clone of Pinot noir in a number of wines in the past, and frankly, they have not been my favorites. They tend to “sing one note” – blueberries- and that’s about it. Somewhat harsh and tannic blueberries, as a matter of fact.

So when I tasted this Pinot, I was already somewhat prejudiced – until it hit my mouth. This is just about the most satisfying Pinot noir I’ve ever had. It has such a range of scents and flavors, different and yet totally true to the essence of what Pinot noir is. I can see how the Sin Qua Non wines made from these grapes got such high ratings (96 points from Parker). Yow. I’m starting a vertical of this wine in my cellar, and hope that Shea continues to make a Block designate from these grapes as the years go on. 300 cases made, and it’s really too young to drink now.

If you'd like to read about the bottling of the 2004 Shea Wine Cellars wines, try

Shea Wine Cellars- Bottling the 2004 Vintage, From Barrel to Bottle to You

or take a tour of Shea Vineyards:

"A Tour of Shea Vineyards"