Customer Reviews

Pacific Pinot Noir: A Comprehensive Winery Guide for Consumers and Connoisseurs

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I live in Portland and am in the wine business, so of course I own a copy of this book.

The pros:

It does contain a good number of wineries and highlights their history briefly.
The text also contains contact information for a number of wineries, which proves useful.

Cons:

There is a lot of space dedicated to tasting notes on individual wines, my beef with this is that these notes become obsolete quickly. I would have preferred more detail on the history of the individual wineries and producers.

A lot of the information in this book is of use for those looking for a little light reading on NW pinot noir, but it pales in comparison to the amount of information in the Oregon Pinot Camp pamphlet.

If you are a fan of new world Pinot Noir, you will find new producers of interest here, and that makes this volume well worth the price. In this volume, Haeger follows up his benchmark North American Pinot Noir (NAPN) and covers only the Pacific coast region with many more winery profiles, more recent tasting notes, and coverage of almost all of the important players.

Unlike the earlier NAPN, which focused more on history and the story of American PN, the present book is primarily a guide to wineries and their wines. In the introduction, Haeger describes the Pacific region in some detail and develops the "consensus" protocol of winemaking. Following that, most of the volume consists of 2-3 pages on individual wineries, their vineyards and winemaking procedure insofar as they differ from the consensus protocol, and tasting notes on their wines.

The primary limitation of the book is that it was published in 2008 and thus the specific tasting notes are most relevant for vintages up to about 2005. If you have older PN in your cellar, it will be a great companion to them. However, it is still valuable for later vintages, since many of the vineyards, sources, and general tasting profiles are consistent. It is also fascinating to read the stories of the wineries.

Perhaps the best use of the book is to find new producers. Haeger notes his favorites, but even more importantly, the extensive tasting notes will certainly point you to wines and wineries that interest you. It's a great way to find new places to visit or purchase.

Overall, it's slightly dated but well worth the investment if you love California, Oregon, or BC Pinot. Cheers!

I'd seen this book on the shelf at a winery in Oregon. It give some great insight into the who, what, why and how of my favorite wines.

An excellent book. The only problem is that the world of wine changes faster then books can keep up. I live in Paso Robles and this book has very little on the exciting things being done with Pinot Noir here. Both Jack's Creek and Windward were worth inclusion, but were probably just overlooked. Still, it is really essential to have this book if you love good Pinot Noir.

For anyone who likes Pinot Noir, especially from California or Oregon, this book is a must. It provides detailed information on all the major Pinot producers on the West Coast.