Winemaker Notes
Bunker Hill is back with the 2019 vintage. The wine is selected from the old vine material in the Salem Hills at an elevation of 650-700ft above sea level, overlooking the Willamette River from the east side. The volcanic soils here are particularly shallow and rocky, making for a sleek wine of mineral brilliance that will evolve for many years.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay Bunker Hill comes from vines planted in 1995 by Joel Myer, who replanted the Seven Springs vineyard that same year. Vines are planted at 600 feet in elevation on a windy, western-facing slope and were in need of rehabbing. A 30-year lease allows Lingua Franca to control all the farming, and with the help of Mimi Casteel, they developed an additional 15 acres around the original vines. "Some people would say rip it out and replant it," winemaker Thomas Savre explains. "My team and I wanted to curate it, bring it back to life. So we said let's do selection massale and replant all the components. We extended the original vineyard with 13 clones of Chardonnay, just randomly planted."
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Wine & Spirits
From a site in the south Salem Hills planted in 1994 to a selection of vine material from Seven Springs, this is a saline, mineral chardonnay, brisk and lemony on the nose with a back note of lees. The flavors fall between apple and citrus, with a texture that’s flinty and elegant, delivered with precision even as its structure feels compact and firm.
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Wine Spectator
This white has a delicate richness and complexity, offering supple Meyer lemon, orange blossom and spicy lees accents that dance on the vibrant finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
The freshness and steely character of this wine epitomizes all the 2019 Chardonnays from Lingua Franca. Young and tight and framed with citrus-skin phenolics, this will require more bottle age to unwrap all its secrets. For the moment it's best to decant it and let it breathe for a good hour or more before drinking it.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
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.