Winemaker Notes
Grapes were hand-picked and brought directly to the winery in 1/2-ton totes in perfect condition. They were then put onto a belted incline, and destemmed into two-ton, open-top, stainless steel fermenters. The must was cold-soaked for five days. Fermentation was complete in 10 days, then the wine was pressed back into two-ton tanks, settled overnight and racked into French oak barrels. The wine aged in French oak for 16 months, racked into neutral French oak after 10 months. It was then bottled unfiltered and unfined and bottle-aged for a minimum of 12 months before release.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This young wine shows plenty of grip and a core of mixed black fruits. Seams of coffee and root beer run through it, and the tannins have a lightly chalky quality. A touch of lemon verbena brings an herbal note as well.
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.”
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.