Winemaker Notes
With the 2001 vintage, our Seven Springs Vineyard Pinot noir has changed. Until 2001, St. Innocent was the only winery to produce a Seven Springs Vineyard Pinot noir from both the original lower block of grapes and the upper block planted in 1998. In 2001, the vineyard was legally divided into two separate properties. The upper block will be called Seven Springs and the lower, Anden Vineyard. From what was one wine, there are now two different vineyard designate wines.
The vines are 20 years old, quite old by Oregon standards. Anden Pinot noir is the most intense and concentrated of all the 2001 Pinot noirs. It is also the most layered, complex, and nuanced of the St. Innocent Pinot noirs. This wine will develop dramitically with long term aging - and will still be young and developing after 10 years.
This Pinot noir is endowed with a very deep purple-red hue. Its nose is dominated by wild, black fruits, and has significant hints of pumpkin pie spice and white pepper. At this point, our Anden Vineyard Pinot noir is still very tight with great concentration. I expect it to open significantly by Christmas 2003. This is wine for game and wild mushrooms - those wild and earthy flavors in the food bring out all the layers in this wine.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.