In addition to today’s delicious red, I have a part-thrilling, part-humbling story to share. Last month, I spent the better part of an evening alongside one of SommSelect’s most trusted vendors as we engaged in a marathon tasting of elite French and Italian reds. Fourrier “Clos St Jacques” and Chave Hermitage? Check. Soldera Brunello and Montevertine “Le Pergole Torte”? Check. Bottle after bottle, we blind-tasted one another through a “greatest hits” collection of honor roll estates. Still, the evening’s most memorable highlight was the final wine in a 17-bottle, multi-vintage flight of old-vine “Cru” Beaujolais and Premier Cru Volnay and Chambolle.
The first sip of this mystery red immediately transported me to the historic Pinot Noir vineyards of Gevrey-Chambertin. As I searched the second sip for a specific producer and site, the wine ricocheted south into an explosion of rustic, yet soft Gamay fruit and electrifying minerality. I announced confidently that it was either a well-known young gun in Gevrey, or an especially impressive example of top-tier, top-dollar “reserve” Morgon. A Cheshire cat-like grin slowly crept across my tasting companion’s face as he slid off the “brown bag” to reveal today’s 2017 Bow & Arrow “Rhinestones.” I challenge anyone to name a value domestic red that matches this wine’s vivid fruit, shocking purity, and downright deliciousness. I’m confident this will soon become Oregon’s next “it” wine. You will not regret having a few extra bottles in stock when everybody is talking about this wine in the months and years to come!
Scott and Dana Frank live in Portland, Oregon. By day, Scott is a wholesale wine distributor, and by night he is a stay-at-home father. Scott’s wife, Dana, trades off daytime parenting duties for a nighttime career as one of Portland’s most respected sommeliers and restaurateurs. On top of all this, the young family still finds a way to oversee a treasure trove of organically farmed vineyards with which they hand-produce a few barrels of exceptional wine under the label Bow & Arrow. Their single-vineyard Pinot Noirs are reliably outstanding and their Gamay is routinely included in year-end “20-under $20” lists. Still, today’s Pinot Noir/Gamay blend, “Rhinestones” is my personal, perennial favorite. It’s a limited wine—all told, Scott and Dana only bottle a few hundred cases each year. Most stays in Oregon but a fraction is shared with New York, Vermont, and fortunately for all of us, Northern California.
What makes Bow & Arrow truly special is that the wines are in no way reminiscent of typical California or Oregon Pinot Noir. Scott and Dana are working in homage to the fresh, angular, and mouthwatering reds of Loire Valley, but their finest wines give a convincing nod to Burgundy and Cru Beaujolais (hence my blind tasting call!). There is no oak spice or overripe fruit on the nose, alcohol levels are moderate across the board, and the end result is a collection of wines that are as delicious as they are thought-provoking. Scott and Dana achieve this impressive balance and freshness by harvesting their Pinot and Gamay—from some of the best-protected vineyard sites in Oregon—almost a full month earlier than some of their neighbors! Next, they preserve terroir character by treating the wine very gently in the cellar with no excessive technology or addition of sulfites. A small portion of the fruit remains in whole clusters and the focus of the vinification is to accentuate aromatics, minerality, and freshness. As a result, Bow & Arrow’s wines are notably poised and full of life.
The 2017 “Rhinestones” leaps from the glass and yells “BRING IT ON!” Bring on the duck confit and pommes landaises! Bring on the juicy steak with frites! Name any classic bistro dish from central France and, trust me, it will absolutely sing alongside a glass of this wine. There’s just one catch: You must open the bottle hours before drinking it—the vendor waited one full day prior to blind tasting me on it! In order to produce as pure and expressive a wine as is humanly possible, Scott Frank bottles “Rhinestones” relatively early in its evolution. Consequently, there will be a small amount of almost imperceptible CO2 in the wine when you first pull the cork, and that means the wine demands proper rest before truly finding itself. These are not “flaws” or mistakes, they are the results of a skilled winemaker who works without safety nets in the cellar.
So, I know it won’t be easy, but you must wait a full day before ripping into this memorable red (or at the very least pull the cork in the morning and consume for dinner). If you can somehow summon the patience, rest assured you will be rewarded with a bushel of Alpine strawberries, plump black cherries, dew-dappled wildflowers and herbs, and a truly riveting dose of minerality; it convincingly flaunts French-influenced, old-school terroir. Amazingly, the fireworks begin on day two and continue strong well into day four—and I can promise you this bottle, like many similarly styled wines from southern Burgundy, will blow minds for years to come. There are very few domestic reds that possess this remarkable staying power, and I can name zero that so faithfully channel my favorite cutting-edge reds from Beaujolais and Burgundy. Bon appetit!
