Just got an email offer for the four (up from three, IIRC) different Chardonnay offerings from Morgen Long. Given what I’ve heard about early impressions of the 2016 vintage in Oregon, I’m buying. The wines are as follows:
Willamette Valley Chardonnay ‘Loubejac’
Yamhill Vineyards Chardonnay Yamhill-Carlton
Willamette Valley Chardonnay ‘Sandi’
The Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay Dudee Hills (new offering)
Who’s buying?
Would you be so kind to list the prices of each?
And perhaps indicate how many years he’s been making Chardonnay under each label?
Despite loving OR Chard, no buying for me for a variety of reasons - too much wine generally, at my limit for OR Chardonnay producers and price.
But due to his wines having positive reviews, I do hope to try them at some point to determine if they float my boat and are worth the tariff.
$40 (Loubejac) to $80 (Eyrie).
Eryie from David Lett’s original vines.
Good morning everyone. Here is an excerpt from my 2016 release email. Really like the vintage for Willamette Valley Chardonnay and super happy with the four 2016 Chardonnays, which were sourced from three sites in the Willamette Valley:
Loubejac, Willamette Valley AVA $40 Retail, first vintage working with this fruit. No new wood used, picked 9/16/16
Ten-year-old Dijon 76 Chardonnay is farmed organically and without irrigation in Helmick silt loam and Willakenzie silty clay loam soils near Monmouth. Sitting around 330’, it’s exposure and proximity to the cool Van Duzer corridor allows for high acidity in ripe fruit.
Yamhill Vineyards, Yamhill Carlton AVA $50 Retail, third vintage working with this fruit, this cuvée is maybe 10-15% new wood, fruit picked 9/10/16.
I am grateful to continue sourcing sustainably farmed 1984/85-planted Wente selection Chardonnay from Ralph Stein at Yamhill Vineyards. The non-irrigated vines grow on own roots in sandy, marine sediment WillaKenzie soils at 400-500’.
The Eyrie Vineyards, Dundee Hills AVA $80 Retail, first vintage working with this fruit, I used a once filled barrel, picked 9/20/16
This site is quite special. Eyrie’s Original Vines were the first vines planted in the Willamette Valley in 1966 by David Lett in the volcanic basalt and clay Jory soils. The 50±year-old vines Draper selection Chardonnay vines are own-rooted, and organically farmed without irrigated, facing south at 345’.
In addition to three single vineyard designate wines, there is a cuvée composed of 57% Yamhill Vineyards Chardonnay, 33% Loubejac Chardonnay, 10% The Eyrie Vineyards Original Vines Chardonnay, named after my late mother, Sandi:
Willamette Valley Sandi $70 Retail second vintage to offer a cuvée with a higher percentage of new French oak 45%, and a denser, more powerful expression of Willamette Valley Chardonnay
The 2016 Willamette Valley Chardonnay Sandi is a blend selected for its pedigree. It coalesces the best elements of each single vineyard, featuring the highest total acidity, lowest alcohol and greatest presence of new French Oak
Winemaking is simple: fruit is picked at “peak” aromatic and flavor intensity with an eye to natural acidity, and is pressed long/hard and briefly settled. Sulfured juice is transferred to French oak barrels with evenly distributed lees. Indigenous yeasts take care of primary fermentation and full malolactic without additions or much in the way of lees stirring. After 11 months in wood, the wines were racked to stainless steel to spend a second winter on lighter lees. They were racked off of lees to bottle after 17 months without fining or filtration.
Thanks, Seth, very informative (and thanks for doing the work that Scott requested for me).
Folks, I have no iron in this fire, but these Chardonnays (the '14 and '15 vintages, at least) are exceptional and, IMO, unique in Oregon. While I haven’t had the breadth of exposure that many of you have to Oregon Chardonnay, I have had many from Belle Pente, Big Table Farm, Domaine Drouhin, Eyrie, Goodfellow, Cameron, etc. They have a fruit intensity matched with a vibrancy that I think is special.
Glad to hear from you Seth!
Had some life changes that put a pinch on buying, but I’ll be in again this year
Best wishes
Peter
Hi Brandon,
I know Seth and I support him in joining the group of high quality Oregon Chardonnay producers. I havent had a chance to try the wines, so perhaps you can elucidate on what you feel the nature of Big Table Farm, Belle Pente, Eyrie, Dom. Drouhin, Cameon(hallelujah brother!) and my wines are vis a vis the Morgan Long Wines?
Honestly, I find Jason Lett’s wines at Eyrie to be extraordinary in their expression, linear, mineral, often tinged with tangerine aromatics. I only find this consistently in Eyrie and Haden Fig wines. Those wines are closer to weightless, and while barrel fermented, there is little intimation of lees contact or Dijon Clone richness/ripeness in these wines.
That’s quite different than Cameron’s current Chardonnays(except for the complete eschewing of Dijon fruit) where there is friendly, happy Dundee Hills bottling backed up by a layered, entertaining yet intellectual bottling in Abbey Ridge(think of a cross between Robert Oppenheimer Jr. and a geisha), and the crown jewel of Oregon Chardonnay…Cameron Clos Electrique. Old vines, mixed clone, and a winemaker with 32+ years of experience
with the vineyard. A brilliant marriage of reductive winemaking and world class fruit. IMO the best Chardonnay and in a class by iitself in the $70/btl single vineyard offerings.
The Big Table Farm and Belle Pente Chardonnays seem to scratch the itch of the traditional Chardonnay drinker? A touch bigger, rarely carrying much savory reduction, they seem to be a richer, silkier style that highlights the previous influences pf the winemakers(Brian Marcy worked with Helen Turley in Napa before he and Clare relocated to Oregon from Napa).
I notice you omitted Walter Scott and Crowley from your list, and would offer that both of these produxers are at the cutting edge of Willamette Valley Chardonnay.
Ken Pahlow and Erica Landon are absolutely killing it with Chardonnay, and their Reserve bottling of Cuvee Anne is one of my very favorite WV Chardonnays at $40. The Ex Novo bottling from Craig Williams experimental vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has 15 clones and is farmed a la Lalou Bize Leroy(this is my understanding at least) produces my favorite of their wines and is a must for anyone interested in exploring Willamette Valley Chardonnay($65).
Crowley Four Winds Vineyard is another absolute must. Old vine Heirloom clone, isolated site, this is one of my favorite Oregon Chardonnay vineyards($45). And in the hands of another Cameron disciple and great guy, Tyson Crowley.
My own wines are very different, either older vines at Durant Vineyard(volcanic soils and $36) with a distinct style reminiscent of Meursault(clean, tranquil, salty, line flowers and almonds, richly textured from 21 months on the lees)
and Whistling Ridge, another mixed clonal vineyard that also is ridge top and gains intesity and minerality from extraordinarily shallow soils and regular breeze. The Richard’s Cuvee, when it’s on form, is an Oregon version of Puligny Montrachet. All salty, sunny power and acidity($45) For those bot willing to break the bank to explore Oregon Chardonnay, I also highly recommend a few of the Willamette Valley bottlings: Cameron Dundee Hills, Goodfellow WV (declassified barrels of Durant and Whistling Ridge), Westrey, Vincent, Walter Scott » La Combe Vert, and Grochau Cellars. All are mid-$20s. (And that Jim Anderson guy is making chardonnay again.-dont miss it.)
To circle back around Brandon, or Seth, I would really love to know a little bit more about the wines, and how you would describe them specifically? Do they lean towards a personality or style specifically, and if so what is it? Ehen were these wines bottled? What would you describe the wines as(or fruit if you helped out)?
Thanks for your insight,
Marcus
Great wines. Have been good from the initial vintage!
Seth,
How long do you think these are capable of aging with proper storage? These sound great. Tks Cary
Marcus, I appreciate your questions and respect your perspective on all of this. I’d be happy to taste these 2016’s with you, and taste your 2016’s, perhaps in a month or so. They were bottled unfined and unfiltered on 2/7/18, after about a year in wood and a half year in steel on lees.
I also quite enjoyed tasting your '15 Richard’s at the Chardonnay Celebration: great tension and clarity riding that edge of reduction. I was impressed by the number of bottlings at that event which I found to be dynamic and engaging expressions of Willamette Valley Chardonnay.The standouts from the Grand Tasting, in alphabetical order: 00, Bergstrom, Brickhouse, Crowley, Divio, Domaine Roy, Evening Land, Eyrie, Goodfellow, Gran Moraine, Lingua Franca, Rex Hill, Twill, Westrey. Some of the other producers whom I think are making superlative Chardonnay from the Valley are Arterberry Maresh, Walter Scott, Hayden Fig, Cameron, Chad Stock, and I’m sure I am forgetting a few folks. I also don’t get out to taste much these days, so I am grateful for events like the Oregon Chardonnay Celebration.
I moved to the Willamette Valley when I was 9 years old. I wasn’t born into wine, I chose it. Over the last decade, I have been selling wines for other folks (which I continue to do now) as well as writing, reading voraciously, studying wine history/culture/viti/vini, drinking wines I love and tasting wines I need to learn from. Before I started my own project in 2014, I worked a number vintages in Oregon ('09, '10, '11) California ('11), New Zealand ('11) and a couple consecutively in Meursault ('12 and '13).
What and where my style and personality is now, grew from the seed of all of this, and is informed as much by the culture here in the Willamette Valley as by what I found most engaging out in the world from asking lots of questions, walking vineyards, reading and writing, from tasting a lot of wines and drinking lots of wines which I love and inspire me, and from organizing and coalescing what I envision for Willamette Valley Chardonnay. I do all of the work myself and follow each barrel, each wine, keeping in mind the vintage and the place where the fruit grew. I don’t own vineyards or farm, yet. I am buying fruit from sites throughout the Willamette Valley and am thankful for opportunities to extend the great effort put into in farming vines into wines that I hope speak for themselves and of the grape, time and place.
What I am looking for on the vines as I make picking decisions is high aromatic and flavor intensity with vibrant acidity. Picking decisions are super important to me. I appreciate the importance of taking into consideration physiological ripeness AND grape chemistry. It is also essential to be aware of climate and weather forecasts and carefully plan facility logistics, transportation, etc. Once the fruit is in the winery, it is all about details, follow through, and balancing order and chaos.
My winemaking philosophy is being refined as I go. Generally, I press long and hard, adding sulfur to early fractions of juice and oxidizing later fractions: I like to brown the juice early, and then work to increase the reductive potential of the wine. I settle briefly and rack the juice to barrel with evenly distributed lees. I am mostly working with 228L French oak barrels, and thus far, fermentations have also proceeded without any additives of yeast, food etc, or much in the way of stirring. Full malo takes place. Wine is in barrel for one year and just before the following vintage, I rack with lees to steel for a second winter. With my smaller level of production, I have been more inclined to bottle unfined and unfiltered, though as my production grows, I will likely be looking into light fining and filtration, as needed. I don’t shy away from adequate levels of free SO2, and I am beginning to track dissolved oxygen and CO2 levels. Yeasting and feeding, as well as adjustments, may come into the picture as well. I am taking note that many of the best Willamette Valley Chardonnays are made with some cultured yeasts to ensure dryness. I am also learning how paying attention to nutrient levels is, and how feeding, regardless of an inoculum or not, is a great tool. All in all, I am fascinated by learning winemaking and love how important every single detail is to a chameleon variety like Chardonnay.
The 2016 Willamette Valley Chardonnays are my third bottling, and mark my 10th vintage making wines. I find these Chardonnays to be vibrant, engaging expressions of the places where the grapes grow, in a vintage that I think is perfect for Willamette Valley Chardonnay. I know that the wines are enjoyable to drink and believe they are as age-worthy as many others. My greater hope is that I keep learning, improving, having fun and can be a contribution to the evolving narrative of Willamette Valley Chardonnay specifically, and to Oregon wine in general.
The 2016 Loubejac Chardonnay is energetic and flinty with cool minerality. It is less chalky and sinewy than Yamhill Vineyards, and less dense and enveloping than Eyrie, somewhat precocious coming from young vine Dijon clone growing in sedimentary soils southwest of Salem. The vines are dry farmed with organic leanings, as explained to me by Laurent Montalieu and Bruno Corneaux, both of whom I like and respect. There is a touch of reduction, which like, and plenty of white/green citrus, wet minerals, and only subtle wood. I am totally impressed with the high dimensionality of acidity in this site. The flavors are ripe enough for me and there is great aromatic and flavor intensity. This wine is convincing me that young vine Dijon clones can make serious Willamette Valley Chardonnay.
6.4g/l TA
3.28 pH
.51 g/l VA
.8 g/L Glu/Fru
12.99%
~45ppm Free SO2
351 bottles and 18 magnums produced
The 2016 Yamhill Vineyards Chardonnay is a bit denser, more chalky than flinty, and with warmer minerality. This is a site with 1984-planted Wente (108b) growing in marine sediments. It is own-rooted, dry-farmed sustainable by the owner Ralph Stein off of Blackburn Road in Yamhill-Carlton. There is a good bit of phylloxera here and the replanting is being done vine by vine with the same plant material on rootstock. It will be interesting to see how the site transforms as older vines are replaced. The 2016 Yamhill Vineyard Chardonnay has a whisper of reduction and 10% new wood, and is pure, precise and structured. There is great acidity in this wine, pushing out the length, plenty of older vine weight and depth to the yellow citrus, ginger, lemon curd and stony aromatics and flavors. This is the first site I started with in 2014, and I think it is my favorite wine I’ve made from these vines. I like the 2014 quite a bit, it is a touch bigger, and broader, but still with great acidity. The wines from 2015 might be my weakest thus far, the warm vintage was more challenging to my personal predilections of flavors, ripeness, acidity, etc…
6.3g/l TA
3.28 pH
.42 g/l VA
1.3 g/L Glu/Fru
13.05%
~50ppm Free SO2
756 bottles and 30 magnums produced
The 2016 Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay is a humbling wine for me. Jason Lett sold me a ½ ton of the Original Vine Draper, and it is my hope and thought, that this wine honors the character of Eyrie and the iron-rich clay basalt soils it grows in. It is really an honor to work with old-vine, non-irrigated fruit from the first planting of Willamette Valley Chardonnay. Before I sent in my labels I made sure to invite Jason to the winery to taste this wine (and the young 2017 in barrel). It was important that he feel good about me bottling this wine as “The Eyrie Vineyards”, and thankfully he thought the wine expressed the site and the vintage. He may have wished that I chose a different barrel, but I am happy that I chose a once-filled Gauthier for the elevage. There is wood spice, especially when compared with Eyrie’s Eyrie, but I feel it is well integrated into the overall complexion of the wine, which I find to be quite complex and autumnal. Eyrie offers more density and depth in the aromatic and flavor intensity than either Loubejac or Yamhill. There is warmer minerality and a richer level of reduction, with yellow stone fruits and orange citrus, ginger musk, red honey, mixed florals. Acidity is ever so slightly softer in the Eyrie than Loubejac or Yamhill; there is a silkiness, it is regal and enveloping.
5.8g/l TA
3.38 pH
.48 g/l VA
0.3 g/L Glu/Fru
13.06%
~55ppm Free SO2
318 bottles and 12 magnums produced
The 2016 Willamette Valley Chardonnay Sandi is a blend of all three sites – just over half from Yamhill, a third Loubejac and a small percentage of Eyrie - and for me, it is the most complete wine. While each vineyard designate has its unique character, this blend is compelling in its elucidation that, sometimes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The aromatic and flavor intensity is elevated by 45% new French oak and is both extended out with slightly higher total acidity and made lighter with slightly lower alcohol. It’s the polarity of this wine that I love (more new wood, higher perception of acidity, lower alcohol) and the synergy of the elements which just seem to fit better together than they did making a bit more of each vineyard designate. There is richness that isn’t heavy or overdone, there is a touch of reduction and plenty of structure and density from integrated wood which frames the bright fruit and cool minerality.
6.5g/l TA
3.28 pH
0.50 g/l VA
1.2 g/L Glu/Fru
12.89%
~50ppm Free SO2
450 bottles and 18 magnums produced
Thanks Noah!
Hi Cary, thanks. I’m also intrigued to see my wines evolve, and have “built” them with the intention for improvement with aging. I bottled the 2014’s and 2015’s with 49mm DIAM 10’s with 30-50ppm free SO2 and the 2016’s with 54mm DIAM 10’s with 40-55ppm free SO2. Last time I check on a 2014 a couple months back, it seemed more youthful than the first year it was in bottle. Time will tell!
RS left in on purpose?
Also, I encourage you to sign up as a Berserker Biz.
No, certainly not left in on purpose. I haven’t been inoculating nor feeding indigenous yeasts, which would probably be the best bet for getting 0.0g/l in Chardonnay. And these wines are pretty dry at 0.3-1.3g/l.
Seth, I really appreciate you joining in the discussion and allowing insight into your winemaking philosophy and techniques. ![[thankyou.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/df165fe9c1593d19166ae7e1ffe5e272089cc07b.gif "thankyou"){kind=small}
Cool, Olivier Humbrecht is on the same page. I had once written him regarding RS in Riesling and he was fine with where they is finished was how they finished.
Seth, thanks very much for the detailed, and extemely interesting response.
I would love to taste the wines, and am happy to taste 2016s with you at the cellar. They’re still a few months from bottling, but are showing what a lovely vintage 2016 was in the Willamette Valley.
Your expression of what your winemaking means to you is as eloquent and well put as I have seen or read. And it covers in an extremely truthful way what drives all of my favorite producers. Being in the vineyard, learning the nature of the place, seeing the weather as it occurs, knowing the fruit through repetition of tasting and process, dry farming done well, and becoming intimate with how the fruit reacts with our ever evolving process.
I hope you don’t mind if I borrow bits of that(with credit of course).
A couple of questions:
I am guessing you are a fan of Roulot? What other non-Oregon Chardonnays do you find inspiring?
for the new wood, are you using any cooper or forest specifically? And what do you enjoy about it? (I’m asking this based upon the percentage in the Sandhi)
AVA on the Loubejac vineyard? (And does Bruno work with the cineyard for Dom. Divio as well? Very solid wines there, and a great guy)
The Chardonnay Symposium is a great event, and your list of top wines and mine overlap a lot. I didn’t taste the 00, and I would add the 38 case bottling that Shane did for Grand Moraine and the Division “Deux” to the list of top wines.
Thanks Dennis, quite kind of you.
Olivier is a very sharp winemaker/MW. Riesling can deftly handle RS in so many more ways than Chardonnay can. My hope and intention is that sugars are always below 2g/l for Chardonnay going into bottle.
Thanks Marcus, I really appreciate that and look forward to finding time that works for both of us before too long. I bet you nailed 2016, seems like a great vintage for what I can tell of your predilections.
I definitely appreciate both Jean-Marc’s wines, and how welcoming and generous he has been on the few occasions I have visited Roulot. His deep understanding of the unique terroirs of Meursault is astounding and absolutely a piece of what inspires my singular intention to explore the ‘terroir’ of Willamette Valley Chardonnay.
And while I am definitely obsessed with white Burgundy and Chablis, I think there are tremendous Chardonnays coming from California, especially from John Raytek of Ceritas. I have enjoyed a few bottlings from Arnot-Roberts and appreciate what the team at Rhys is up to. I am also hearing good things about Chardonnay from both Enfield and Kutch. As far as white Burgs/Chablis, the most inspiring wines for me come from Roulot, Ente, Lafon, PYCM, Boisson Vadot, Coche, Dancer, Leroy, Raveneau, Dauvissat, Piuze, Pattes Loup.
I’m still feeling things out, though definitely have a strong preference for Damy. Through 2016, I had bought Damy, Gauthier and Toutant, and each year I find myself drawn back to Damy. There seemed to be a gentile elegance to the wood impact with Damy, structured enough but not overbearingly blocky, with white and savory, rather than sweat, smoky spice. It is the best parts of wood, though less overtly wooden. It does well for my Chardonnay, thus far, being in 228L for one year and then integrating seamlessly with a second winter on lees in steel. I started with 2-year air dried AML and loved the snappy/sappy freshness. I appreciated the richness and density of Gauthier - it worked well with 2015. I like the Toutant as well, it has a understated texture and frame, perhaps a bit more elegant, which suited the 2016’s well. I have since bought 3-year Damy Vosges LL and M, along with Mercurey CLL/CLL+.
Willamette Valley, it is southwest of Salem, near Monmouth. Same Bruno, very affable guy. Great wines.