St. Innocent Zenith Vineyard Pinot Noir 2014
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The vineyard is a south facing bowl at the west end of and east facing valley in the center of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. This location collects light all day, but is protected from afternoon heat by the harger ridge just to the west. Together it creates a lovely brightness and freshness to St. Innocent's Pinot Noirs.
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Zenith is the winery's estate vineyard, and represents a particularly fine value in a splendid lineup. The ripe, plummy fruit is swathed in rich brown spices, a sweet streak of molasses, and notes of tobacco and black tea. Decant and enjoy immediately, or cellar for another couple of years to let the flavors continue melding.
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There’s a solid, firmly planted quality to this pinot, a caramel streak of oak giving way to a seductively pure shot of cherry flavor. The interplay of fruit and wood gets a jolt of acidity on the palate, leaving a graceful, mouthwatering impression.
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St. Innocent produces small lot, handmade wines: seven single vineyard Pinot noirs and a blended Pinot noir called the Villages Cuvée, two Chardonnay from Dijon clone plantings, two Pinot gris, and a Pinot blanc.
The philosophy behind the winemaking at St Innocent is that the function of wine is to complement and extend the pleasure of a meal. The characteristics of a wine should enhance different food and flavor combinations - this interaction amplifies the pleasure of a meal. To this end, St. Innocent wines tend toward higher acid levels, and more diverse and balanced flavors.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
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.