ROCO Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay 2012
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Wine Spectator
Bright and tangy, with lemon and grapefruit vitality against hints of pear and apple as the finish persists with refinement and depth.
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Wine Enthusiast
Still young and tight, this terroir-driven Chardonnay needs further cellaring to show its best. Woody scents top off crisp, persistent tree fruits, with lemony acids propping up flavors. It’s dense, compact and unyielding, but clearly the raw materials for ageworthiness are there.
ROCO represents the finest in Oregon winemaking with storied bottles and humbling accolades. It’s a 30-year history of devotion to craft. In 1987, Rollin Soles purchased a breathtaking hillside property down a gravel road in the Chehalem Mountain Range. The property’s perfect combination of elevation, soil type, natural springs, and geological aspect were the seed of a dream that would eventually become ROCO Winery.
ROCO (Named for ROllin and COrby Soles) For nearly fifteen years, the Soles’ property remained a mostly wild landscape used for a variety of farming endeavors. Rollin was making wine at Argyle, his previous venture, and Corby was busy serving in a number of executive positions in the Oregon wine industry. But as the years wore on, the property’s southwestern exposure and diverse soils begged for the Soles to realize their dream: a vineyard of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sloping toward the creek below, the Chehalem Valley beyond, and Oregon’s Coast Range in the distance.
In 2001, Rollin and Corby planted Wits’ End Vineyard and began bringing the idea of ROCO to fruition. Two years later, they produced their first vintage of Private Stash Pinot Noir—showcasing the very best of Rollin’s small-lot winemaking skills in a bottle that was eventually served in the White House. Building on their success, in 2009, the Soles built ROCO its own winery and added a tasting room in 2012. In 2013, Rollin expanded Wits’ End Vineyard and transitioned to full-time focus on ROCO to keep pace with its growing prestige and demand. Today, Wits’ End Vineyard remains the heart and soul of ROCO wines. ROCO Private Stash and Wits’ End Vineyard Pinot Noirs derive exclusively from these vines—and serve as Rollin and Corby’s testament to the beauty of place, their devotion to family and friends, and their commitment to Oregon winemaking at its finest.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.