Winemaker's Notes

We have been honing our whole cluster fermentation skills for the last few years and the 2008 Whole Cluster Pinot Noir is a perfect way for us to share this extraordinary style of wine with you.

These grapes do not get de-stemmed, the fruit is left on the stems, and the whole clusters are layered into 1 ton fermenters with dry ice. We then step on the fruit with bare feet (truly) twice a day for 7 days. The temperature was raised to 60 degrees and allowed to ferment with wild yeast.

The wood program was 1/3 new, 1/3 once fills and 1/3 twice fills using a blend of five French cooperages with all medium plus toast.

The wine was stirred on the lees every 2 weeks. The whole cluster barrels showed so well in the blending trials we decided to produce this small unique blend using 100% Whole Cluster Fermented Pinot Noir.

160 cases produced.

The 2008 vintage is being hailed by many as Oregon’s best vintage to date.

It was exceptional for us in multiple ways. All five of our estate vineyard Pinot noir clones are mature and producing amazing fruit: 114, 115, 667, 777, and Pommard. The crop was huge and we dropped fruit like mad and yet ended up with almost 3 tons per acre.

The summer was exceptional to say the least. With the heavy yield the tannins were soft, fine grained and mature; shedding the youthful qualities the fruit had shown before.

Harvest occurred the in mid October, taking advantage of the long summer. The brix ranged from 25.3-26.2 with TA’s hovering around 0.55.