Yesterday, myself, my boss, M., and Dijon met with our Cutting Edge rep and soul brother TJ Hooker and Lauren Brooke, the new regional sales rep for Evening Land.  Ironically, I get a press release showing the announcement of Lauren Brooke’s new position via Wine Business.com.  In a rather makeshift tasting in M.’s office, LB (as she told me she’s called – giggling at me being dubbed “K2”) rather handily laid out the Evening Land manifesto, despite only being on the job a short while.

The Evening Land portfolio continues to grow, with wines coming from California, Oregon and Burgundy, and TJ and LB brought in 6 of their amazing wines to taste:

Evening Land Pouilly-Fuisse AOC 2010.  Grade=Very Good.  Stunning with its crisp minerality tethered by stone fruit, vanilla bean and shimmering acidity.

Evening Land Chardonnay “Mad Hatter” Willamette Valley 2010.  Grade=Outstanding.  A beautiful homage to white Burgundy, with graceful acidity, wet stones, apples and lemon.

Evening Land Gamay Noir Seven Springs Vineyard 2011.  Grade=Outstanding.  All you’d expect from the grape that gives Beaujolais such elegance, this light-bodied red shows off perfume of violets and rose petals, a slight herbaceous undertone of bergamot and chamomile, and touches of wild berries, white pepper and dried herbs.

Evening Land Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2011.  Grade=Outstanding.  Gorgeous red berry fruits, cinnamon, white pepper, black truffle and cola nut.  Medium-bodied with well-balanced acidity.

Evening Land Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard 2010.  Grade=Amazing.  A remarkable effort, this medium-to-full-bodied red shows off resonating characters of red and black cherries, pomegranate, crushed violets, Darjeeling tea, white truffle and coffee berry.  A beautiful wine.

Evening Land Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills 2010.  Grade=Amazing.  This is quite different than what you’d expect from Santa Rita Hills given the vineyard’s proximity to the coast.  Tiny berry clusters yield a rather robust, dark-fruited wine with hints of espresso, black pepper, cloves and pipe tobacco.  Salty smoky notes creep in and out of its brooding finish.