Raptor Ridge Winery

FIRST FLIGHT ~ Chilled Spicy Carrot Soup
2010 Pinot Gris
With a pale yellow tinge, the wine is brilliantly clear with modest levels of dissolved CO2 for freshness. From the glass, aromas of Meyer lemon, tangerine, ruby-red grapefruit and orange blossoms emerge. Flavors of tangerine and sweet lemon along with flint and racy acidity drive this wine with freshness and a long finish. In a word – sleek! The wine should take on a bit of weight in the bottle as it ages throughout 2011 and 2012. We hope you will not let it last that long! Enjoy now.

SECOND FLIGHT ~ Creamed Chicken Livers with Shallots and Marsala over Toast
2007 Willamette Valley Reserve Pinot Noir
This wine achieves the balanced spectrum of color, aroma, taste, structure, mouthfeel, and texture that we were after. The color of this wine is clear bright ruby. The Reserve 2007 is the perfect wine for food pairing. If you are going to spend time on a nuanced meal with spices and layers of flavor, reach for this bottle. Very silky on the front of the palate, this wine is fuller than first expected, with plum and zippy pomegranate. Focus sharpens on the mid palate with hints of soy, tart cranberry and crushed cherries. The wine closes with a long finish of clear bright acidity. The evolution of the wine since its November release is quite remarkable.

2008 Willamette Valley Reserve Pinot Noir
The 2008 Reserve is pleasing to the eye, with saturated crimson and bright purple hues. Brooding aromas of mocha and smoky vanillin of oak mix with ripe blackberry and blueberry fruit. The palate is structured round and full, revealing rich plum and spice cake flavors cloaked in silky yet meaty tannins.

2009 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
The wine is a rich yet brilliant garnet color with a lively display of Bing cherries, Damson plums, sage and crushed leaves on the nose. A lush palate with focused acidity offers soft and supple tannins combined with hints of vanilla, cured meat, cassis and red licorice.

THIRD FLIGHT ~ Roasted Beef Sirloin with Spanish Potato Salad
2009 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir
A vibrant, velvet-red wine with subtle purple hues that reveal dusty crushed rose petal aromas followed by ripe strawberries, red raspberries and fresh-cut sweet clover hay. The palate shows juicy concentrated cherry and pomegranate fruit with earthy tobacco and licorice notes, all held together with lingering, rich, suede-like tannins.

2008 Meredith Mitchell Pinot Noir
Black cherry fruit aromas jump out of the glass with hints of rose petal, earth, dusty cherry and briar notes, vanilla, and wood smoke. Tightly compacted, concentrated Framoise, with raspberry-rubarb pie. Rich, ripe tannins. Finishes with lively acidity. Not a wine for the faint of palate!