It’s been a banner couple of months for me and aged Oregon Pinot, and the 2002 Antica Terra Pinot Noir was no exception. It started a little funky at first, but after being open for a while, really hit its stride.
What’s really curious about this wine is that it came in a 500ml bottle. Normally you see 750s and 375s (full and half bottles), but this is a curious size for a bottle. I contacted the winery and got a quick response from Nathaniel Ready:
Thanks for reaching out to us about the 500ml bottle. I wish we could claim credit for this, but we purchased the property from the original owners in 2005 and were not involved in the decision to bottle in 500ml bottles. We bottle in the more traditional 750ml and 1500ml formats… occasionally feel disdain for the rapid disintegration of wines bottled in the frugal 375ml format and admire the avant-garde sensibilities of European producers like Stanko and Sasha Radikon than bottle in 500ml and one liter formats with openings optimized to accept extremely small diameter corks.
Well, I haven’t got to the bottom of it yet, but you have to give props to a guy when he drops Radikon into the discussion. (You can read more about the wines of Radikon, from Italy’s Fruili region, here. They have significant geek factor.)
For more current vintages of Antica Terra Pinot Noir, peruse their website. Thanks to Clive of the Northwest Wine Anthem for hosting this informal, old wine event. He also marinates and grills a mean chicken thigh.
