Last Friday morning I jumped in the car about 5.15am and headed down I-5 toward Portland, OR and after making a few wrong turns finally found my way to Dundee, OR where we’re making our Celilo Vineyard Pinot Gris, MEADOW and Lachini Vineyard Pinot Noir, the newest member of the RA family.
I pulled a couple tank samples for Erin and me to try at the tasting room that afternoon. Here are our thoughts:
2009 Celilo Vineyard Pinot Gris:
Still nicely fermenting and sitting somewhere around 2 brix (or roughly 2% sugar). We’ll be stopping fermentation on this in the next couple of days, depending on how things progress. With all the CO2 in the wine, it’s pretty difficult to accurately assess just how sweet the wine really is, but looking past that, there is a wonderful weight and flavor of this wine, akin to the 2007. Fermentation can give off some crazy, interesting and funky aromas and we’re getting all of those at this point: white pomegranate, grapefruit and fresh soap (the bar type). While I really like where this wine is going, I saved about half the bottle in the fridge to see how it would change overnight. 18 hours later the soapy aroma has totally blown off and what remains is signature Celilo: Bosc pear, ginger, lemon and a dash of mineral. The palate is right at home with orange peel, grapefruit and wet slate. I love how much more expressive it is day two. Additionally, with the CO2 blown off, the sweetness is much more clear and present. While I thought we were close to stopping fermentation, this morning’s tasting suggests that we have at least another week if not two. We’re not looking to craft a totally dry wine, but we don’t want it sweet either. By leaving just a hint of residual sugar (rs), it gives the wine extra dimension, weight and complexity on the palate. And given the brighter acidity associated with this vineyard and variety, the wine will come across even less sweet. Thankfully we will have slightly more of this wine than we did of the 2008, so for those of you that loved the 2007, stay tuned…
2009 Pinot Noir
What am I thinking making a Pinot Noir?! I’ve asked myself this question a number of times, but after tasting the sample fresh out of tank yesterday afternoon I knew we’d made the right decision. The wine will be sent to barrel this morning, so what we tasted was pure, unadulterated Pinot Noir. I loved it. It was what I expect Pinot Noir to be like: bramble fruit, fresh cigar box and black current. There is also a hint of Black Tea on the nose. The palate had great texture and length for not having any oak at this point. The acidity is bright, but balanced. We’ll be ageing this in 50% used oak (from the 2007 vintage) and 50% new burgundy barrels from Seguin Moreau which we’ve tried on our Boushey Vineyard Syrah with great success. We’re looking to preserve what the vineyard gave us and not slather it with oak; our barrel selection should do just that. Over the next year we’ll develop more aromatic complexity and weight on the palate. We’ll update you with tasting notes on this wine in the coming months, and will release it either Spring or Fall of 2011.
