Winemaker Notes
The fruit is picked before sunrise to ensure cooler crush temperatures and pressed with a soft touch. The wine is fermented in 50% stainless steel and 50% neutral French oak. It rests on the lees for 5 months to build textural layers. The lees are gently stirred to extract complexity and texture before finally allowing the wine to settle naturally prior to bottling.
Some do not see how the use of draft horses, grazing livestock and poultry in the vineyard, or infinite hours of meticulous hand labor can create a wine that is more unique, intense and full of life. Stephen doesn't understand how it couldn't.
Stephen often says his wines are made cluster by cluster. Growing wine one cluster at a time is a mentality, and a different one at that. It means starting small and staying small. It means countless hours of work that can only be done by hand. Going slower. It means that many times a season he personally touches, inspects, admires and yes, loves every single beautiful cluster. It means rigid culling without regard to my pocketbook.
This attention to detail is inspired by love for his life's work. Stephen is not a landowner overseeing the operations of a vineyard. He is the operations and a part of Antiquum Farm.
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.
This “white” variety is actually born out of a mutation of Pinot Noir and shows a unique rosy, purplish hue upon full ripeness. The grape boasts two versions of its name and two generally distinct styles: the crisp, Italian Pinot Grigio and the softer French Pinot Gris. Somm Secret—Given the color of its berries and aromatic potential, Pinot Grigio is commonly used to make "orange wines." An orange wine is a white wine made with fermentation on its skins (similar to red wine making), leading to n orange hued wine with ephemeral aromas and extra complexity.
