Lisa (loving wife and fellow wine afficianado) and I recently shared a bottle of “Presidential” pinot crafted by Pfeiffer Vineyards. Pfeiffer is a wonderful little winery located well off of the beaten path in Junction City, Oregon (www.pfeiffervineyards.com). It is well worth the back-country drive.

Wine lover and friend Carl Shawber led us to Robin and Danuta Pfeiffer’s little chateau in the Willamette Valley, where we found the tasting room closed but the front door of the couple’s beautiful home open. In the gracious, warm Pfeiffer home, we experienced a variety of wonderful red and white wines. It was the best stop of the day, a tour that included dinner at Eugene’s scenic King Estate winery.

But it was the $120 pinot that we couldn’t taste that intrigued us. The “Presidential” wine, served at the Obama-Bidden Innauguration was just too interesting to pass up. Now I won’t blend politics with wine tasting, so you’ll never know how I voted in last year’s election, but the idea of owning one of the 20 or so bottles left (at least those that were for sale) was too good to pass up. Apparently, the Pfeiffers were able to get the wine on the Innauguration menu through a connection with Craig Robinson, Oregon State Basketball Coach and President Obama’s brother-in-law. 

Back to the magnetic bottle. Its navy blue label reads, “With this limited edition of our best 2007 pinot noir, we toast President Barack Obama.” That may be hard for some to swallow, but Lisa and I looked forward to drinking the wine… and we did! Its pull was too much to resist.

Call us impatient, and you will be right. We uncorked the ”Presidential” at a special Pinot and Pork dinner at Gracie’s in Portland (in the haute Hotel Deluxe). In retrospect, the wine wasn’t any better than anything else that we tasted during our Pfeiffer visit or at the Gracie’s dinner that evening. As I maneuvered the wine from the roof of my mouth, then side-to-side and under my tongue, it tasted like a decent Oregon pinot and nothing more (no hints of wild berries etc. worth noting). That said, I’m pretty sure that Robin and Danuta would scold me for uncorking their product way too early.

Obviously, we paid a premium for the notoriety of the bottle. Our tablemates at the Cellar Door-sponsored dinner seemed to appreciate the fact that they were tasting the same wine that was served in the District on January 20, 2009. But no one raved about the wine itself (and I know that there were enthusiastic card-carrying Dems sitting at the table). In truth, it turned out to be no more than an expensive novelty. In fact, the Obama-Bidden bottle didn’t even generate buzz beyond our little restaurant alcove, an interesting aside from my journalist’s/marketer’s perspective.

Oh well. Chalk the whole experience up as a lesson learned for me. One of my wine advisors, the bargain-hunting millionaire Mike Rooney, would be appalled that his nephew spent more than $10 on a bottle of wine. That is part of the reason that he is wealthy, and I’m not. Still, knowing my curious nature, I’d probably do it again. The diffence is that, like my viewpoint of our new President, I’ll give the wine a little more time to mature and postpone judgement for awhile.

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