90 pts for L&S SINGLE VINEYARD 2014 Temperance Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir

Just a single barrel of this designate was bottled—too bad, as it's a tasty wine with bold fruit flavors of cranberry and cherry. Baking spices and a streak of cola come through also, and this should drink nicely into the mid-2020s.

PRICE $52,  Buy Now
DESIGNATION Temperance Hill Vineyard
VARIETY Pinot Noir
APPELLATION Eola-Amity Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon, US
WINERY love & squalor
Print a Shelf Talker Label
ALCOHOL 13.5%
BOTTLE SIZE 750 ml
CATEGORY Red
DATE PUBLISHED 4/1/2017

source: http://www.winemag.com/buying-guide/love-squalor-2014-temperance-hill-vineyard-pinot-noir-eola-amity-hills

Interview with the winemaker Matt Berson talking about the single vineyards wines can be seen here

Portland Wine Examiner

Why Wine? An interview with Matt Berson of the Portland Wine Company

December 23, 2014 12:15 PM MST

Michele Francisco

Portland Wine Examiner

This is part of a series introducing you to interesting people in the wine industry. For many, the journey into wine is not only intriguing but often quite an adventure. These talented individuals are what make the wine industry what it is today so follow this series to meet this group of passionate people who have dedicated their lives to wine.

Why Wine? An interview with Matt Berson of the Portland Wine Company and Love & Squalor Wines

Examiner: Was there a specific wine, moment or place that unlocked your passion?

Matt Berson: I was definitely excited when I first tasted the Oregon Rieslings from Ransom and Brooks, and Patty Green’s Pinots. But I just wanted to drink them and meet the people who made them, not make my own. Then fate intervened and I was hanging out with those same winemakers and cleaning their barrels and washing tanks and I was bit with the bug and was in the perfect place to pursue my new passion.

A lot of winemakers have an “aha” wine. Interestingly, it is usually a style or varietal that they are no longer fond of. Mine was a right bank Bordeaux that some tech guys brought into one of the restaurants I worked at and they shared with me. I had never had a merlot like that before. It was delicious and intriguing. I wish I could say it was a Dagueneau or Nuits St. George, but in any case it did the trick.

What did you study in school and what were you doing before you started in the wine industry?

I was a restaurant manager. I came up in the San Francisco food scene of the 90’s. My degree in Modern American Culture from UC Berkeley and my thesis on The History of Disco did little to prepare me for the vinous life. However, my food service experience has been crucial to my success.

How has being in the wine industry changed you?

I always wear grubby clothes and rarely comb my hair. Really it’s made me more connected to the world. At least to the cycles of nature, and to the experiential world. To go from the mud of a vineyard to a consumer drinking and talking about the wine - usually all in the course of one day - is a very full and connected thing.

What’s your favorite part of being in the wine industry?

My favorite part of making wine, and owning my own business, is the continual learning and growth. Rarely a day goes by that I don’t learn something new. My favorite part of being a winemaker is the response I get when someone at a party asks me “ So, what do you do?”

Looking back, was there something in your past that led you to wine?

There is no doubt that growing up with a wide variety of foods on our table, and a mom who loves to cook, and seeing wine on the table too, and travel, lots of travel, and foreign foods. And the VW camper bus breaking down in Bordeaux and then breaking down once again in Champagne. It may all be coincidence, but here I am.

http://www.examiner.com/article/why-wine-an-interview-with-matt-berson-of-the-portland-wine-company

Portland Monthly: "Oregon's 50 Best Wines" 2014

THE GRAPEVINE

Oregon's 50 Best Wines 2014

It takes a village to taste and rank more than a thousand bottles of wine. Luckily, we’ve got lots of friends.

Published Sep 26, 2014, 8:04am

Edited by Allison Jones

Gone are the days of the wine critic’s monopoly on taste. Here in Oregon, nuance is king, oddball wines are winning, and old-school winemakers are defying expectations with lighter, more eclectic styles. For this year’s annual blind tasting of Oregon’s wide world of wine, we rallied 13 of our favorite grape-stained wretches to uncork more than a thousand bottles. The results were clear: great wine is great wine, regardless of hue, price, or region. We were so pleased and surprised with our final ranking that this year we decided not to divide our list by category, but by ranking alone. So in celebration of Oregon’s new era of grape diversity, we raise a glass to 17 varietals from around the state in a single list, allowing the pinot noir to entwine with the pinot blanc, the Riesling with the tempranillo, the merlot with the Melon de Bourgogne. It is a true democracy of wine, and it’s time you added your palate to the chorus

29. Love & Squalor
2011 Pinot Noir
Willamette Valley, $24 

97 Food-friendly and easy-drinking, this fresh, vibrant bottle is your go-to for a weeknight dinner with friends.

“What I love about Matt Berson’s wines are their simplicity. He works with the varietals he loves, and he’s consistent. That’s the trick in my book, and that’s what makes his wines so versatile.”—Sarah Egeland (sommelier, Smallwares)

Vinography Review

08.04.2014

Coastal Diamonds: The Rieslings of Oregon

About every two years, I get an invite to attend the International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The event continues to be one of the best run and highest quality wine events in the country, with a fantastic combination of excellent wine and equally fantastic food. More about Pinot Noir in a day or two. In addition to attending one of the best wine parties around, IPNC also gives me (and a number of other wine writers) the excuse to do something slightly less expected: taste a lot of Oregon Riesling. Each year following IPNC, the Oregon Riesling Alliance holds a tasting of a recent vintage.  Most people still have no idea that Oregon even grows Riesling, yet amidst the crowded hills of Pinot Noir, there lie an increasing number of Riesling vineyards. So many, in fact that continuing to describe these growers as experimental is as inaccurate as it is unfair.

Riesling has actually been planted in Oregon since the very first days of Oregon viticulture. Pioneering vintner Richard Sommer, whose 1960's Hillcrest Vineyards winery was one of the state's earliest forays into wine, included Riesling as part of his plantings. By 1980 Riesling actually accounted for 25% of the state's plantings. But then Pinot Noir came along and as often happens when a region discovers a gold mine, Riesling all but disappeared.

Today Oregon has close to 800 acres of Riesling, spread across the Umpqua Valley, the Rogue Valley, the Colombia River Valley, and of course, the Willamette Valley. From the perspective of broad climate measures, Oregon fits nicely in the known range for growing Riesling, which likes a cooler climate, known as Region 1 to climate scientists. Other winegrowing areas in Region 1 include Burgundy and Germany's Rhine region.

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9
2011 Love & Squalor "Antsy Pants" Riesling $28
Pale gold in color, this wine smells of mandarin oranges, pink grapefruit, and a hint of candle wax. In the mouth, juicy mandarin zest, pink grapefruit flesh, and lemon pith are beautifully balanced and fresh, with bright, mouthwatering acidity. Very pretty. 54 cases produced.

WINES WITH A SCORE BETWEEN 8.5 AND 9
2012 Love & Squalor Riesling, Willamette Valley $18
Palest greenish gold in color, this wine has a very distinctive nose of ripe pear and ripe papaya aromas. In the mouth, bright tropical fruits, including papaya, mix with pink grapefruit and delicate acidity that has a nice balance to it. Quite distinctive and interesting. Dry. 440 cases produced.

http://www.vinography.com/archives/2014/08/coastal_diamonds_the_rieslings.html