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Shea Pinot noir Estate 04
#15 in Wine Spectator Top
100!
New 2005 Estate Released
for Ordering
2004 Shea Estate received 95
points from Wine Spectator and now, it's been
named # 15 of Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines
of the Year. It's recognition that is well
earned and due.
The Shea Estate 2004
that received the great scores above is SOLD
OUT, however,
we are pleased to announce that the new
2005 Shea Estate has been released and will ship
in January. If you'd like some, it's time to
order. We're anticipating the wine selling
out within a month.
About the 2005 Shea Estate
Pinot noir
It's finally here- our first
2005 vintage offering from Shea Vineyards'
own label, Shea
Wine Cellars. Here are tasting
notes for the 2005 Estate, a review of what
happened with the 2004's, and a bit of information
about the rest of the Shea Vineyards 2005 Pinot
noir releases.
Shea Wine Cellars Estate Pinot
noir 05 $40.50/$45.00
Avalon tasting notes:
Very impressive. The
nose offers raspberry, red cherry, black cherry,
black raspberry, toast, and red raspberry jam.
Flavors are of red and black cherry, raspberry,
and sweet rich fruit. The finish is
long and reiterates the flavors, adding a sense
of silky tannins and velvety lushness to the
experience.
 As
the wine opens in the glass, or with decanting,
more dark fruit, intense spice notes, and hints
of a meaty, dark toast emerge. While tasting,
the sense of exotic spices and incense
in the finish increases with
time.
We're even more excited about
the 2005 Estate than we were at this point
with the 2004. There's
less sense of barrel toast and more sense of
integration in the 2005 than there was in the
2004 at this point in its development. A transparency
to the flavors is present, allowing layers
and layers of intriguing fruit and fascinating
spice/incense/perfume notes to show through.
Integration, intensity, and complexity are
all words that come to mind in describing this
wine.
We don't want to confuse the
2004 ratings with our tasting notes for the
2005,
so here's the info on the 2004's, separated
from the 2005 info.
How
the Shea Wine Cellars 2004's Did
If you are not familiar
with the Shea Wine Cellars Pinot noirs, they
might have come to your attention when they
were reviewed by Wine Spectator this fall.
We wrote very extensive, In
depth tasting notes on all of the 2004's.
Watch our emails
and the website as we'll be posting the same
kind of information for this vintage as the2005
wines are released.
The 2004's are completely
sold out.
About the Shea 2005 Releases
 The Shea VIneyards 2005 Pinot
noirs are somewhat different than the 2004
offerings.
There is no
Block 23.
The part of the vineyard called Block 23 is
now so damaged by Phyloxera that it has been
replanted, and will be unavailable for several
years. This reduced the
amount of wine that
Shea made in 2005.
A new blend released. Shea
Pommard Pinot
noir 05 was made, although in very limited
amounts. More was made in 2006. It's a lovely,
very "forward" wine, with the classic
sweet red fruit and berry flavors
that characterize
the Pommard clone.
Slight changes in pricing.
Some prices stayed the same, some went up
a bit.
Release dates are not
set. The Shea Estate 05 is
the only wine that is scheduled, and it's
going to ship after January 1, 2007, except
for members of the Avalon Reserve
Pinot noir Club, who will receive the Shea
Estate 05 as part of the combined November/December
shipment, shipping around December
15th.
We'll be announcing the other wines are the
release dates are set.
The estimates of release
time in the table below is ours, and are not
guaranteed. Dick and Dierdre Shea and winemaker
Chris Mazepink will determine the release
dates. These are just our estimates, given
what they've done in the past, and what we
thought of the wines' status when tasted last
week.
The 2005
Shea Pinot noirs |
| Shea Estate
05 |
$45 |
January 1,
2007 |
| Shea Homer 05 |
$75 |
lovely - Q2 or Q3 2007? |
| Shea East Hill 05 |
$45 |
quite forward- Q1
2007? |
| Shea Wadenswil 05 |
$52 |
still tight - Q3 2007? |
| Shea Pommard 05 |
$48 |
quite forward - Q1-2 2007? |
We'll reserve 2005s
from our allocation for you if you
want to let us know what you'd like to order
upon release. You can let us know the wines
you'd like and we'll take it from there,
making sure you don't miss the release
date. We'll contact you when the wines are close
to release and make arrangements for shipping
or cellaring.
More to Come
Watch the Avalon website, there's
several articles about to be published about
the Shea 2005's and the 2006's as well. If
you have questions, please feel free to call
or email Jean or Marcus. We love to talk about
the Shea wines!
If you're planning to come
to our Annual Wine Club Tasting the day after
Thanksgiving, There's a good chance we'll be
tasting at least one of the 2005's as well
as a 2004 Shea Pinot noir.
If we may help
with an order, please let us know.
We're available by phone at 541-752-7418
from 8 AM Pacific time until 5 PM Pacific
time,
Monday through Saturday,
and we answer email on Sundays.
Thanks for your
support -
we appreciate your orders and your suggestions.
Our customers always give us our best ideas!
Marcus,
Chris, Kevin, and Wendy, and Jean
541-752-7418
Avalon
Wine
201 SW 2nd Street
Corvallis OR 97333
541-752-7418
www.avalonwine.com
store@avalonwine.com
Marcus
Looze
Manager
marcus@avalonwine.com
541-752-7418
Chris
Haggerty
Customer Service
store@avalonwine.com
541-752-7418
Jean
Yates
Owner
jean@avalonwine.com
541-424-8004 (direct line)
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