2022 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

2022 WILLAMETTE VALLEY PINOT NOIR

Tasting Notes:
Aromas of black raspberry, cherry and red plum are balanced by notes of thyme, cedar and violets.  The bright acidity and medium tannins contribute to this lively, food friendly wine.

Winemaking Notes:
The fruit was gently de-stemmed by a Euro Select into 1.5-ton fermenters leaving a remarkably high whole berry content. A two-day cold soak preceded inoculation done with a variety of yeasts designed to increase complexity and mouth-feel.  Fermentations were punched down in the morning and pumped over in the evening for eight to nice days with temperatures peaking around 80°F.  The wine was racked via gravity to settling tanks keeping each lot separate and was allowed to settle for two days before being racked to French oak barrels. The skins were shoveled into the press and pressed off to their own settling tank before racking.  Keeping the free run and press wines separate gives us more flexibility come summer when we start blending.  The wines were inoculated for malo-lactic and allowed to age in French Oak for ten months.  The wine was racked from barrel, blended in tank, cross-flow filtered and bottled in Septemeber 2023.

Harvest Notes:
The 2022 growing season started early when a warmish March had us envisioning an early bud break and subsequent harvest.  Then April came and the Willamette Valley was hit by a hard freeze event that threw everything in disarray.  Not every vineyard was affected equally by the freeze with damage ranging from total losses to spotty losses, to no loss at all and, because of the timing, some couldn’t tell if they had been damaged until weeks later.  Our estate Dunn Forest vineyard fell into the latter category and in the end, we were hit hard but it was not a total loss, we still had some fruit.  Summer came in cool and wet and by July the grapes were clean and healthy but weeks behind schedule.  Fortunately, a nice warm August and September, followed by a beautiful October helped the fruit turn the corner just in time for a hurried harvest when the rains began.  

Our estate vineyard, Dunn Forest, is LIVE certified sustainable and Salmon Safe. The vineyard is hand cultivated allowing us to respond to individual vine needs.