Thanks for digging for this info Rick. On the 108, I remember Dai saying that it just didn’t ripen at Temperance Hill or their home estate Chard in Wren in the 90s, 2000s (and that was a widespread problem). I believe he grafted over to Dijon clones (and my notes are fuzzy here on which ones). @Marcus_Goodfellow might know more.
1 Like
David,
I would never make a clonal decision on Temperance Hill and Wren.
Temperance Hill is remarkably powerful, but a very cool site. The only thing we pick close to it are Bednarik and when we made Syrah from Deux Vert(which was the last pick). Wren is one of the absolute coolest sites in the Valley.
In our grafted block, the clones are Dijon. But we pick it well before Mark Vlossek picks his. Dai is an amazing farmer but his view of Chardonnay is not picking at 20 Brix for still wine. He’s truly an institution in Oregon viticulture though, and his feelings about 108 at THV and Wren are probably correct, but they don’t really apply to a large percentage of other Willamette Valley sites.
Abbey Ridge, Clos Electrique, Maresh, Four Winds, and Eyrie all make lovely wines from Wente or with Wente as part of the mix. It’s also been a part of the mix in the Chardonnay at Whistling Ridge, and all of the Clos Electrique cuttings we grafted are old clones (non-Dijon), including Wente and Draper. I like Dijon clones, and do not believe one or the other is superior, but there’s a lot of proof in the Willamette Valley’s being able to ripen Wente.
I think Bethel Hights ‘High Wire’ is Wente as well.
3 Likes
Bought a mixed case from him last year.
1 Like
I think one thing to keep in mind is that when everyone decided that the Wente clone was bad, the viticultural knowledge was very rudimentary compared to today. In the 80s, very few people did any kind of green harvest - the best vintages were when Mother Nature did it for everyone (the case in both 1983 and 1985). Discussions with Ken Pahlow and Marcus impress on me how much growers are still learning about how to grow the grapes that will make the best possible wine.
The other thing to consider is that it is warmer now than it was 40 years ago. Forty years ago, the best chardonnays came from warmer and more protected sites in the valley. A lot of places where chardonnay (and Pinot) now grows just fine were thought to be only suitable for sparkling wine thirty years ago.
4 Likes
Hey Ken, I was part of the barrel tasting with the Lumos crew a few years ago. You mentioned you were trialing very low yields (forgetting which vineyard(s). How did that experiment go? What are you seeing as lessons learned and yields that work for your sites and style?
Good to know— yes, those are very cool sites to be sure.
Oregon needs more sparkling wine. After offering a real alternative to red and white Burgundies, becoming the New World answer to Champagne could and should be next.
6 Likes
I’m just enjoying a bottle of 2016 Haden Fig Juliette. Named after the owner’s daughter, this is the top Chardonnay at the winery. I believe the grapes come from Mahonia vineyard. Seriously good, high quality stuff here. A bit reductive style, authoritative acidity, excellent purity of fruit, no obvious “winemaker signature,” this probably has as upside to at least it’s tenth birthday. Strongly recommended. As I mentioned before, Haden Fig and Evesham Wood sister wineries are making some of my favorite OR Chard.
3 Likes
I agree Chris. There’s a new wave of young méthode champenoise producers out there such as Dave Cho (Cho Wines) and Kenny McMahon (Arabilis Wines). Would like @Kenny_McMahon1 to weigh in here on his take of the best producers. (Kenny literally did his PhD on Méthode Champegnoise! And travels to Champagne, etc. His first bottling should be available soon-ish??)
2 Likes
Good to know! I haven’t heard of either of those two producers, but will definitely keep an eye out for their wines.
There really does seem to be jump in the quality pf Oregon sparkling wines these days. I had the 2015 Grand Moraine BdB and Rollin Soles RMS bottling the other night and both were excellent.
1 Like
Who in OR is currently making BdB or Chardonnay dominant sparklers? It looks like Lundeen makes a BdB as does Mellen Meyer, but it seems the emphasis of producers is to make PN-based sparklers.
2 Likes
@David_Patte sorry about the distributor ghosting you. That sucks. I’ve heard horror stories. Glad to hear how much reception there is on such short notice to get scheduled with alternative distributor visits/tastings. That’s been a tough one to crack. Can you repost the link to the Commerce Corner fundraiser?
2 Likes
That is a really good question.
Sparkling wine is blossoming here now, but there isn’t any real reference work for what’s being produced by whom. Additionally, a lot of producers are doing small amounts of sparkling to fill out a tasting room line up or to broaden the options for their wine club. These offerings are mostly under the radar, and hard to get a read on.
Most offerings for sparkling in Oregon will lean to Pinot Noir because that’s more widely planted, and Chardonnay is exploding in popularity as a still wine.
But if you look at the sparkling productions out there, many sparkling producers do both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Some BdB wines of note that I’ve tried:
Argyle Knudsen vineyard: they have experience, resources, and an excellent old vine vineyard. The 2010 (phenomenal vintage) is one of the best sparkling wines I’ve had from Oregon.
Mellen-Meyer Johan Vineyard Bdb: hands down my favorite wine from Bobby’s line up (but I lean heavily to BdB wines)
Grand Moraine: this is a really nice representation of Oregon sparkling. Very, very well made and delicious to drink.
Lytle-Barnett Blanc de Blanc: made byAndrew Davis, the owner of Radiant Sparkling Wine company (our custom tirage/disgorgement experts). Andrew worked at Argyle for years and is the driving force behind the explosion of Willamette Valley sparkling wines. His equipment makes it all possible for most of the rest of us.
That said: great sites make the best wines. Producer, producer, producer may be the mantra but the correllation of great producers getting fruit from great vineyards is pretty much 1:1. There are damn few Gerard Potel’s that can make 1er Cru wines that surpass Grand Crus. And the GC track record is centuries old.
So while the grape matters and the producer matters, IMO, the elite sparkling wines in Oregon will come from the people who are most capable of finding the best sites, acquiring grapes from them, and farming to most closely align the flavors and the numbers necessary for great sparkling wines.
One of the most experienced guys at Argyle told me that, “the village idiot can make good red wine” and while that’s not really accurate unless “good” is all you strive for, it’s magnitudes easier than sparkling, where your needs for acidity, fermentable sugars, phenolic character, and flavors are highly constricted compared to still wines. So after identifying the best sites, farming for restraint will also come into play. Just picking semi-ripe fruit may get you a decent sparkling wine, but tasting great grower champagnes these days shows that we’ve come a long ways from the idea that neutral base wines get their character from yeast lees in bottle.
The pricing in Champagne should have people at looking at Oregon, but it will probably take some foraging to find the best choices and definitely a few years (decades?) for the best sites to become apparent.
7 Likes
Aren’t some of the best Chardonnay sites already known? Or are you suggesting some of the best sites for sparkling BdB might not be the same as those that are currently making still Chardonnay?
And given how difficult making sparkling wine is, it would seem that a bunch of producers making sparling wines for reasons other than making great bubbles (to fill out a tasting room line up or club offerings), might lead to a bunch of “meh” bottlings. In other words, the wines wouldn’t get the highest focus they need to be great. It seems that is a problem with most Loire bubbles (and the case of OR Chard and PG in the past).
Jeanne and Dan at Corollary are also making some Chardonnay dominant sparklers (the Cuvee One & Namaste Brut) and an X-Omni BdB.
3 Likes
Honest answer:
-
still and sparkling don’t necessarily work in the same spot. And I am not suggesting, what turns out to be the best sparkling BdB sites will probably not correllate 100% to the best still Chardonnay sites.
-
wine is subjective, so best is relative at best. That’s why actual knowledge of the sites and producers would be really useful to have.
-
everyone in wine production talks as if our opinions are facts. Truly, everyone in wine production, including me, has expertise but doesn’t know shit. Truly knowing sites is a 20-30 lifetimes endeavor, especially given how much things are constantly in flux; new clones, new climate, new viticulture, new trellising, new rootstock, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Proof: half the industry professionals in the valley still tell people we had the wrong clone planted here originally and that’s why early Chardonnay was bad. This statement isn’t right at all…unless it’s someone like Dai, talking about Wren and probably Temperance Hill too…
But it will probably take decades to get that narrative washed out of popular expertise.
- we have so much undeveloped ground here still. High elevation sites like Koosah are just being planted. And no one ever talks about the east side of the Willamette Valley. But David Lett and Charles Coury both wanted to plant outside of Silverton originally, they just couldn’t afford the land over there. But there’s grapes grow there now and some of the results are very good. But the vast majority of plantings are volume based so very little attention is focused on that fruit.
It’s exciting times for Chardonnay and sparkling in the Valley but it’s definitely more like back country skiing than deciding between Alta and Snowbird.
5 Likes
Sheesh…
I can’t believe I didn’t post this already. John and Lynn Albin own Bald Peak Vineyard, a high elevation vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains AVA that is most definitely focused on sparkling, though climate change is probably making it more viable for still wines as well.
John Albin has quietly been making some fantastic wines for years. He is very experienced and makes a excellent wines from a lot of areas. That probably keeps him from becoming recognized for some of the better Willamette Valley sparkling wines.
He, along with his wife and son, make both Blanc de Noirs and Blanc de Blancs wines that are both well executed, he’s a very experienced winemaker, and from an appropriately planted vineyard.
None of them are particularly great at marketing, nor are they “reinventing” winemaking, so they don’t get a lot of attention. But if I was setting up a sparkling tasting to gauge the level work being done by the new wave, I would use John’s wines as the bar to compare with.
5 Likes
Walter Scott into the inbox…
Too expensive for me
I caved for some X-Novo and Koosah. 2021 seems like a vintage right up my alley. I’m also looking forward to comparing the Walter Scott Koosah with Seth’s Eola-Amity Hills cuveé which this year is 100% Koosah fruit.
4 Likes
It looks like their winery is called Six Peaks Winery. The only BdB they currently offer is made from Walla Walla fruit!