Mr. Pencil and I are members of the Ponzi wine club, which means we get quarterly shipments of two bottles. Mr. usually drives out there and picks them up–in fact, he picked up our two fall bottles yesterday, which were, somewhat disappointingly, a reserve Chardonnay and a Nebbiolo.

Wine Spectator (subscription) just published a front-page piece that is all about 2004 and 2005 Oregon Pinot noirs. Shame. They rated two Ponzis right at the top of the list: two Pinot noirs that we, as club members, don’t get. Nope. The club gives you the mid-range stuff. Wish we’d known about the WS scores yesterday when David drove all the way out there (it was a very frustrating, rush-hour cold, long motorcycle ride for him, too). We would have known to pick up a bottle or two. Lame. Now we’ll probably never get our hands on them. Seems like it makes being in a wine club kind of silly.

The two highly-rated wines are:

• PONZI Abetina Willamette Valley 2005 (92) $100
• PONZI Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Reserve 2005 (92) $60