Oregon 2013 Pinot Noirs.

I have a very small, teensy, miniscule wine label. I made two Pinot Noirs in 2013- one from Yamhill-Carlton Oregon and one in the Columbia Gorge.

I was wondering if any Oregon winemakers on here would be open to sharing their thoughts on their wines…?

My Yamhill-Carlton wine is light in color and low in tannin, but has bright acidity and is actually pretty supple on the palate. No greenness or harsh edges. Very red fruited and not showing typical Yamhill-Carlton fruit profiles, but I did not do anything to alter or change the wine other than a small acid add and some sulfur at destemming and post malo.

Being a spoiled CA grower, I feel for you guys with what happened in '13.

I think our 2011 was similar to your 2013, and I think Casey would agree that in 2010 and 2011 here in AV(Baja OR) pre and post rain wines were dramatically different in quality. At least from that perspective I can give a point of view. There are a lot of things you can do, however for me it most would have had to be done in the fermentor/press. When talking about pinot noir you have berry size and skin thickness to deal with as it changes every year. Large berries with thin skins will make low tannin low color wines which is what happened to us in 2011. Like many vintages picking before the rains helped a lot in my opinion. Did you pick before Sept 22nd? If not did you sort like crazy? If any mold made it into the fermentor that can also strip color.

I wish the stems were riper so I could have used more to get more tannin in the wine but that was not the case. We did more punchdowns in '11 than in other years to try and extract more from the thin skins. I also pressed a litter harder in my wooden slatted basket press than normal as when tasting the press cuts as there just was not a lot of tannin. We also bumped up our new oak regime a little to try and get a little more barrel tannin into the wines. I did not rack the wine but to the bottling tank, they were light and fragile and I wanted to move them as little as possible and integrate a little for fine sediment into the wines to help with mouthfeel as our wines are unfiltered.

We were nervous about the color but after releasing the wine a few weeks ago we have only been getting great feed back from the press and consumers. A different vintage yes, but its always more enjoyable for me to make above average wines from below average vintages.

From here on out I would not rack or filter (if the wine is double dry and clean on scorpions/plating) to put all the vintage gave you in the bottle. Then give it time to come around and sell the hell out of it. Best of luck!

Did you pick before, during, or after the rains. I think that might end up being an important factor in how the 2013’s turn out. So far, ours (all Y-C) are tasting quite nice, with good concentration and lovely aromatics. They’re not done with MLF though, so I hesitate to put out any tasting notes.