Twelve Estate White 2012
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Our first vintage was 2003, and to date all Twelve wines have been ‘estate’, i.e. made only from the fruit of our own vineyard. Our 12.5 acre vineyard is LIVE-certified and part of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. It includes blocks of the Pommard, Wadenswil and 115 clones of Pinot Noir. We also have a small block of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris which forms our Estate White bottling. Our vines range in age from 13 to 27 years old.
We are the kind of winery that’s on the more informal side of the scale. We love wine and we love talking to people about what we do. Wine and learning about wine should never be intimidating.
People do want to know where the name came from. It all started with the discovery that everything other name we liked proved to be already taken – in English, French, Spanish and Italian. After we bottled the 2003 vintage into shiners (bottles with no labels), the pressure became acute to find a name. We started drinking and finally decided on numbers as a direction, eventually winnowing the possibilities down to ‘eleven’ and ‘twelve’. Somewhere close to the end of the second bottle of wine, John remembered one of his favorite movie scenes – the ‘it goes to eleven’ scene from ‘This is Spinal Tap’ (type ‘goes to eleven’ into YouTube if you’d like to see it). We decided that our wine had to go one number higher than Nigel’s special amplifier, hence ‘twelve’.
Approachable, aromatic and pleasantly plush on the palate, Pinot Blanc is a white grape variety most associated with the Alsace region of France. Although its heritage is Burgundian, today it is rarely found there and instead thrives throughout central Europe, namely Germany and Austria, where it is known as Weissburgunder and Alto Adige where it is called Pinot Bianco. Interestingly, Pinot Blanc was born out of a mutation of the pink-skinned Pinot Gris. Somm Secret—Chardonnay fans looking to try something new would benefit from giving Pinot Blanc a try.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.