This week we’re especially lucky to have in stock not just one wine from Cameron Winery, but three. There’s a handful wineries I count as my all-time favourites above all else, and one of those is definitely Cameron Winery in Dundee, Oregon.

At least in North America, I see Cameron as the penultimate winemaker’s winery…a kind of artist’s artist, or musician’s musician. A Townes Van Zant, John Prine, or Robert Johnson figure that the mainstream doesn’t know, but is followed by and has influenced so many other greats. And maybe it’s better that the mainstream doesn’t know, because they make very little wine and if the Kardashian-Jenner crowd started tagging them on Instagram it would become even harder to get any allocations. It may not be a commercial household name, or a 100 point wine, or a Top 100 list wine in the magazines, but that doesn’t matter at ll. Those who know, know. In my experience it’s been mostly other winemakers and the real legit Pinot and Chard geeks that go crazy for Cameron. Not the Belle Glos or Domaine Serene crowds, but the Coche-Dury and Raveneau folks. His wines are not at all showy or ostentatious, but have subtle complexities in a way that’s much more rare these days from new world wines. But I guess that’s a direct result of the dedication to terroir with dry-farming, organic viticulture, wild yeasts, and the traditional Burgundian production techniques used by Cameron founder/winemaker/owner, John Paul.

Visiting with John Paul and tasting some barrels in 2013.

John Paul is a character. I’ve only met him twice while visiting his winery in 2013 and 2017, but I’ve also been following his website and blog posts for as long as I’ve been in the wine industry. They go back to almost as long as I’ve been alive! His opinions on yeasts (wild!), irrigation (don’t do it!) and Pinot Noir (it’s the best!) run deep. He has a great sense of humour, so his wine writing is filled with tongue-in-cheek parody and satire; but it’s not all jokes, he’s extremely dedicated to his craft and can be pointed and critical of charlatans. Check out his website, you’ll see what I mean. Its full of great geeky winemaking and vineyard information and is entertaining to boot.

Regardless of the website or John Paul’s whimsical musings, these are among the most serious wines produced in North America, and very much belong alongside the great wines of Burgundy. When John Paul founded the winery and built the cellar in 1984, he was looking to reproduce the dank and moldy old cellars of some of Burgundy’s top domain’s. When you walk downstairs into his cellar, you can immediately tell you’re dealing with a different beast here than anything else on your Willamette or California vineyard tour. Beyond fostering the microbes and yeast populations that live in the cellar, he also steers clear of using new oak and ages all his wines longer than most—upwards of 2 years in neutral oak barrels. In addition to his organic farming and minimal intervention winemaking, this extended barrel aging really lets the wines sing.

Burgundian-esque entrance to Clos Electrique.

Their small home estate vineyard is called ‘Clos Electrique’ and is approx 6 acres of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Nebbiolo and some Italian white varieties. Even the gate makes it feel like you’re in Burgundy! Cameron works with Abbey Ridge vineyards who are some of the oldest vines in Oregon, dating back to the mid 70’s and is one of the most respected vineyard sites in the state. Both vineyards are farmed organically and dry-farmed with no irrigation.

I need to resist the urge to turn this into a long essay about everything I love about their wines and philosophy, so if you want to know more, go dig around their website and check out this recent article with some great pictures and background information on the winery. And now, this week’s features:

Nebbiolo, Clos Electrique Rouge, Clos Electrique Blanc.

CLOS ELECTRIQUE BLANC 2019
$135 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
I remember Jacques Lardier, longtime winemaker at Maison Louis Jadot in Burgundy, at a tasting one time talking about how great Chardonnay can have a tension to it that is an interplay of acid, minerality, and other things that make it almost electric. In the years since I’ve interpreted this as a deliciously zingy sensation that’s almost like touching your tongue to a 9 volt battery, but in a good way. The vineyard was named for the electric fence around it to protect the grapes from outside animals, so I don’t know if it’s the name that’s giving me the power of suggestion, but this wine is really electric. It’s that sensation of tension that I also know from other really great Chardonnays…mostly from Burgundy (go figure), but this is about as seriously built a Chardonnay you can get. I’m not talking about an overly-oaked, trendy McMansion, I mean a castle with a solid limestone foundation that’s built to last. With 2 years of aging on its lees in neutral oak, it’s been steeping all it’s natural flavours and is now showing a complex array of preserved lemon, honeysuckle, crushed rocks, hints of lightly toasted bread and baked apples. This is close to as good as it gets in Chardonnay for me.

CLOS ELECTRIQUE ROUGE 2019
$135 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
One of the best Clos Electrique’s I’ve ever had from Cameron. Still touches of the hallmark Cameron funk with earth and barnyard characteristics that usually comes from the Clos, but with a more lifted, perfumed nose that is both elegant and rustic at the same time. Balancing the pretty with the earthy is one of the highest pursuits in Pinot Noir and this one has it in spades. It’s the gentleman farmer who can work the fields all day, but still get in a tux for cocktail hour. Planted in 1984, the vines are as old as I am and clearly getting to a really nice place in their life. Look for notes of black cherry, wild strawberry, earth, barnyard, and forest floor and violets all wrapped up in a light silky texture with fresh balanced acidity. A workshop in New World Pinot Noir.

NEBBIOLO 2017
$75 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
I had only tasted this once before, on my 2nd visit to the winery and I remember it being good, but not THIS good. Don’t think Barolo here, think Gattinara. Ever had Gattinara? It is also 100% Nebbiolo from Piedmonte, but from about 90 mins north of Alba, in a cooler climate, at a higher elevation in the dolomite foothills of the Alps. This is dried flowers and fruit, savoury spice, a bit of leather and earth all wrapped up in one delicious package. This begs for a white truffle and mushroom risotto on one of these cold February nights.

We get very small allocations of Cameron wines, and some years we get none at all. So don’t miss your chance to scoop up some of these epic wines. When they’re gone, they may be gone for a while!