Archery Summit Cave Cuvee Pinot Noir (Willamette Barrel Auction) 2018
Product Details
Winemaker Notes
This small wine lot was chosen from a unique selection of barrels in our quarter-mile-long underground cave and represents a beautifully rare representation of our Red Hills Vineyard. This wine has approximately 30% new French oak and 30% whole-cluster inclusion to showcase the briny and rusty, red fruited characteristics of our Red Hills Vineyard site.
Since Gary Andrus launched Archery Summit in 1993, our estate's affinity for whole-cluster fermentations has only grown. We feel like the red fruit character of Pinot noir wines from the Dundee Hills work very well with the nuances whole-cluster fermentations give our wines. With mindful extraction of whole cluster in our small batch ferments, we strive to make wines that showcase subtle spice, a lovely textured palate and longevity in the bottle.
In 1993, Archery Summit set its sights on creating wines of real purpose in the Willamette Valley. Since, the Dundee Hills winery has helped establish the region as the cradle of cooler-climate American wine. Winemaker Ian Burch and his team achieve bar-raising wines by way of earned instincts—the familiarity gained from many shared vintages, tending sites they know personally.
As responsible stewards of the land, Archery Summit engages in minimal-impact agriculture. Sustainability is a dynamic and vital part of growing wine, a practice that ensures both the industry’s future and the overall health of the trade. They practice sustainability wherever possible, from responsible farming in the vineyard to energy-sensitive approaches in the cellar.
Many of the vineyard sites are LIVE (Low Input Viticulture & Enology) certified, meaning they adhere to an internationally-acclaimed set of sustainability standards. These guidelines are site-specific and look to strengthen the well-being of the vineyard through minimal spraying, careful clone selection, heightened biodiversity, and more. Archery Summit endeavors to ensure that the soils and biodiversity of each site are as healthy and vibrant as they were when they found them.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.