Although it’s not decorous to say so, one of the attractions of wine is the sheer pleasure of buying it. I’ve yet to meet an avid wine lover who doesn’t also display some other sort of consumer greed: cars, clothes, compact discs, you name it.

Like everything else material, your state of frenzy is directly proportional to your pocketbook – or at least your credit line. The madness knows no limits. I know several guys (they’re always guys, by the way) who have wine cellars exceeding 20,000 bottles. And they’re still on the prowl for more.

Sometimes quantity isn’t enough. One acquaintance, big Silicon Valley money, specializes exclusively in very old Burgundies and Bordeaux. He’s got two centuries’ worth of Chateau d’Yquem, for example. Dinner just isn’t dinner at his house unless it’s washed down with $10,000 worth of wine. I’m not kidding.

For the rest of us, the wine frenzy is more a matter of timing – getting in line for the kill, as it were. I confess to being susceptible to this myself. I’ve often said, only half-jokingly, that the best-tasting wines I’ve ever had are the ones I’ve bought on futures that haven’t arrived yet. I can taste them in my mind with near-erotic fantasies of delight that, of course, are never as good in real life as in anticipation.

The wines recommended this week are just such anticipatory delights. Happily, the wait will be only a few days, at most. These two wines are so new to the New York market that no retailer yet has them and they’re only just now arriving at their respective distributors. Their quality is exceptional, and the prices flat-out cheap considering their goodness, so they should find shelf space soon, especially if you put in a request to your retailer.

HERE’S THE DEAL

EVESHAM WOOD “WILLAMETTE VALLEY” PINOT NOIR 2004 Oregon pinot noir gets a surprising amount of ink considering the variability of the wines and the relatively small scale of Oregon’s wine industry. For example, about three-quarters of Oregon’s 200-plus wineries produce fewer than 5,000 cases a year. By Napa Valley standards, a small winery would be three times that size.

So why does Oregon pinot noir get so much attention? Partly it’s because Oregon’s vineyard acreage is heavily skewed toward pinot noir, with more than half of its 13,400 acres of vines devoted to that variety. And partly it’s because when the weather is right – and the winemaking is good – Oregon can really deliver the goods. Delicious proof is found with this brand-new 2004 pinot noir from tiny (3,600 cases total) Evesham Wood winery.

The 2004 vintage in Oregon’s Willamette Valley was one of those roller-coaster years that turned out beautifully in the end, although not without adding a few gray hairs to winegrowers’ heads. A wet spring reduced the vineyard yields, sometimes dramatically so, by hindering pollination. (No pollinated flower, no grape berry.) Summer was warm and pleasant.

But September, normally a dry, lovely month with warm days and cool nights, turned rainy. Rain so close to harvest is treacherous: Grapes can soak up water; skins can crack; molds move in. As in a good fairy-tale ending, sunshine returned along with cool, drying breezes. The harvest proceeded without a hitch, although quantities were much reduced thanks to that wet spring.

Evesham Wood winery is one of Oregon’s very best producers. You won’t find any flamboyant oakiness or flashy fruitiness designed to stand out in big tastings. Owner-winemaker Russ Raney is a serious sort. His wines age beautifully, better than most other Oregon pinot noirs. And he refuses to jack up prices. Really, he’s almost too good to be true.

Evesham Wood’s 2004 “Willamette Valley” just-released pinot noir is extraordinary wine. This is pinot noir as it should and too rarely is, with mid-palate density (a sign of low yields), a pure, berryish fruit, and the kind of perfuminess that makes pinot noir a wine apart. The price is a flat-out steal: $16.50 a bottle. Get it while you can. (The distributor is Martin-Scott Wines.)

SOUTHERN SISTERS RIESLING RESERVE “CLARE VALLEY” 2004, HEATH WINES Where Oregon sets its cap for pinot noir, Australia’s Clare Valley has pledged its troth for riesling. You might say they’re nuts except for one thing: Clare Valley grows incredible riesling. Not good riesling. Not fine riesling. I mean, incredible Riesling.

Everyone who tries a good example of a Clare Valley riesling is bowled over by the purity, depth, intensity, and sheer quality of the stuff. And even though Clare Valley’s growers know full well that dry riesling is a tough sell everywhere (including Australia), they know that what they’ve got is too good to let go. They’re right.

Southern Sisters Riesling Reserve “Clare Valley” 2004 from Heath Wines proves the point. It is an exemplar of what Clare Valley can do. Completely dry, buoyed by refreshing acidity and enhanced by a dazzling lemon yellow hue with glints of green (think chablis), this is riesling as it ought to be, with resonant hints of apricot, lime, and wild herbs.

By the way, this bottle is finished with a screw cap. All Clare Valley rieslings use screw caps, as the growers there are unanimous in their conviction that screw caps preserve the integrity and freshness of wines better than any other closure. I think they’re right.

If you try only one dry riesling this year, I suggest this one. It’s truly memorable. $18.95. (The distributor is Pelloneda Select Fine Wine Estates.)