Located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, Benza Vineyards crafts red and white wines in the Laurelwood AVA, using grapes from the estate and surrounding areas. We’ve reviewed many of them in the past, and you can read about the some of those here. Their wines have made out Top 25 lists the past two years. Recently we had the chance to try the latest vintages of some of the wines. We’ll review the two reds in this article, and follow up with the whites later.
Benza makes a series of Pinot Noir. including a regional version (Symphony), an estate bottling and a premium option (Three Tuxedos). On top of that are Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and several sparkling wines. They’ve recently planted Pinot Meunier to round out their sparkling wines options. We’ve had some excellent still wines made from Pinot Meunier and maybe they’ll experiment with that as well. One can only hope.
Here are the two latest reds:
2019 Estate Pinot Noir
A blend of Benza’s 5 estate Pinot Noir Clones. It is aged in barrel for 10 months, comprised of 56% new French oak. This is the wine that
represents the character of the overall estate Pinot Noir grapes. What do we think?
The color is a medium to light ruby, with some amber at the edges. The nose has blackberry, earthy tones and prominent oak. Both the earth and the oak are much more forward than in the 2018, and they work beautifully. You get the same on the palate, and it is a rich wine, medium+ in body. Fresh acid keeps it balanced and it finishes very long. This is very Burgundian. 13.8% alcohol. $54 – less for wine club members.
2019 Three Tuxedos Reserve Pinot Noir
This juice is named after their three tuxedo cats— which also is where the bow-tie logo and notched label derives from. It is selected from the best barrels of the vintage and aged in 45% new French oak. Our thoughts:
The color is a dark purple red. At the moment the nose is somewhat restrained, as is the palate. It a bit closed down right now out of
the bottle, which is pretty common in great wines. We’ve opened Bordeaux bottles that were hidden behind a curtain, then enjoyed the same bottle several years later and found it amazing. That’s what is going on here. You can sense all the elements underneath the cloak: cherry fruit, oak, earth, herbal notes and a savory quality. Medium tannins and medium+ body. This is a wine to decant for an hour or two, and when you do that it blooms, deepening into a rich expression of the fruit and earth that marks this vintage. You also get some tobacco. This rewards patience. Really nice, and the Three Tuxedos remains one of our favorite Pinot Noirs. 13.8% alcohol. $68 and less for the wine club.
We continue to be impressed by the wines from Benza Vineyards. The 2019’s bring a bit more earth and oak, where the 2018 versions were more fruit focused. Both are excellent. You can see more about them on their website: https://www.benza.com/. An exciting development is that they are doing an Oregon Syrah, which will be released in 2024. Definitely looking forward to that.
A review of the two latest vintages of the Pinot Gris is coming next.
A votre santé!
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