Today we welcome Master Sommelier Matt Stamp to kick off our “Satellite Sommelier” series—in which we invite some of the top talents in wine to present one of our daily offers. Matt is a close friend and a fellow-traveler through the MS program whose skills as a sommelier are complimented by his serious talent as a writer (check out this piece he wrote for the GuildSomm website). Matt has come onboard as a regular SommSelect contributor as he prepares to open his downtown Napa wine bar, Compline, this September. He makes his debut with a stellar Oregon Pinot Noir from an exciting new partnership called Nicolas-Jay, yet another Willamette Valley wine crafted by a high-profile Burgundian talent (in this case, Jean-Nicolas Méo of the legendary Méo-Camuzet of Vosne-Romanée). At $35, the price-to-quality of this wine is extraordinary—something that has become a Willamette Valley signature. We loved it, and so did Matt, so please check it out!  — Ian Cauble

On to Matt's story:

So it’s late, and I’m listening to R.E.M.’s cover of “King of the Road” from their “Dead Letter Office” album. It’s a meandering interpretation, purportedly recorded while the band was drunk, but holds intact some original fiber of expression. “Dead Letter Office” was the first CD I bought, at the age of 10. Someone’s older brother, the kind with an arsenal of rebel wisdom, dog-eared Playboys, and lots of rock-n-roll, kept it on repeat in the basement. It was the birth of some kind of 10-year-old cool. And now I’m drinking “Red Vinyl” 2015 Willamette Pinot Noir from Nicolas-Jay, and hitting that same kind of luminous intoxication that Michael Stipe had to break through to channel Roger Miller, and thinking about how older brothers guide a kid’s formative years, and how the Burgundy vignerons are just killing it with Pinot Noir in Oregon these days. Nicolas-Jay is yet another validation, of sorts, of Willamette Valley as a Pinot Noir terroir: It’s the American wine region of choice for wanderlusting Burgundians (in this case Jean-Nicolas Méo, the ‘Nicolas’ in Nicolas-Jay) looking for another outlet for their passion. They craft Pinot Noirs that combine youthful, New World exuberance with the refinement and soil expression of their Old World predecessors—Burgundy “covers” that channel the original but chart their own stylistic course. This is a gently priced example that genuinely rocks.

All this music analogizing is not accidental: The ‘Jay’ in Nicolas-Jay is Jay Boberg, who founded IRS records, R.E.M.’s early home. Méo, of course, is the current steward of Méo-Camuzet, one of Burgundy’s star domaines. Together they launched Nicolas-Jay in 2011—an “older brother” from the birthplace of Pinot Noir and an American more used to smashing convention than framing it. The best producers in Burgundy have been snooping around Willamette Valley since Véronique Drouhin arrived in the late 1980s; what was a trickle is now a torrent, demanding serious consideration for Willamette Valley as America’s foremost Pinot Noir country. Jean-Nicolas Méo found his inspiration in the valley’s northern reaches: a high-elevation spot in Eola-Amity Hills, a McMinnville vineyard under the full gale-force of the Pacific, and Yamhill-Carlton’s Bishop Creek. With the purchase of the 15-acre Bishop Creek Vineyard, located on the valley’s prized Willakenzie marine sedimentary soils, the new project became a young domaine.