“Saul Mutchnick makes small batches of stellar white wines at a corrugated tin outpost in the Eola-Amity Hills. For me, they are among the best in Oregon. Fellow fans of dry white wines possessing structure and brisk acidity need to join the winning team that is Championship Bottle.” - Michael Alberty, The Oregonian
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that an otherwise astute palate wrote that…
Who We Are:
We (my wife and I) are a very small (300 case) “winery” (renting space in the corner of Vincent Fritzsche’s facility in Amity), and we’re trying to make some of the best white wines in the Willamette Valley, at prices that those in the wine business can afford to buy. (I’ve been ITB in various forms since I was 22… it’s not the most lucrative work, even if it is a blast.)
We’re loosely inspired by the wines of Friuli, which we think shares a vinous link with our little corner of Oregon. We want to make wines that have bright acidity and mineral-driven personalities—they have to work with food, first and foremost. Our first proper vintage was 2018, and we’ve been slowly growing things since then, though I still haven’t been able to quit the day job.
The Offer (Short Version):
Wine Berserkers has been a very special place for me—I’ve learned a ton here and read the site just about every day. So we’d like to offer early access to the wines we’ll be releasing in the spring to our mailing list. We’ve sold out of wine each of the last three releases now, which seems crazy to me, but a large part of that has been enthusiasm from the WB community. (Please note: we’re still saving some wine for our mailing list—after all, there are a number of people on it who bought wine from us long before WB had even heard about us.)
We’re featuring two wines made from Pinot Blanc (more detail in the next section) from the 2021 vintage. DO NOT SLEEP ON THE YEAR. Not just from me, either: If you like Oregon wines with cut, clarity, and savoriness, this is a vintage to adore. I think the lineup is fantastic across the board—just the sort of vintage I dream about when we head into harvest every year.
PLUS: We have a limited amount (six cases) of 2020 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay available (limit 3btls/per person). This is/should be/was sold out, but a distributor just passed on some of their allocation and so we’re excited to give the Wine Berserkers community first shot at it. Sold Out! Thank you so much.
Shipping is a flat $25 on any size order, and discounts will automatically display in the webstore.
PLEASE NOTE: One of these wines is being bottled during the 2nd week of March and all the wines will ship out after that/pending weather. Please see the fine print below for all the shipping stuff. If you have questions, shoot me an email at saul (At) championshipbottle.com and I’ll help out as best I can.
The Offer (Continued, With Some Winery Detail, etc.):
So, one of the grapes that we have really embraced for its potential in the Willamette Valley is Pinot Blanc. Historically it’s been the least planted (by far) of the various Pinots, and perhaps the most misunderstood. The blessing (and curse, to some) of Pinot Blanc is its acidity—the wine is bright and vivacious, sharp perhaps, longer than either Noir or Gris, and as a result can make wines that have real energy and drive…if you can take the time to work with it properly.
Since our first vintage in 2018, we’ve made a wine we call Hard Promises, which is Pinot Blanc approached in a vin de garde style. That means picking for acidity and then developing texture through long aging in older barrels. This is the opposite approach many wineries take to the grape, and we think it pays dividends. The 2018 is just marvelous right now, with a long life ahead of it, and Hard Promises is always a wine that seems to blossom six months to a year after we bottle it.
But that’s a lot of patience to ask for—especially for a wine that’s always been the least expensive in our lineup. I know that price shouldn’t affect anyone’s willingness to take a wine seriously or age it, but it tends to. As a result, we made the decision in 2021 to treat some of the Pinot Blanc differently, and to create two wines from the grape: One, Hard Promises, would be a continuation of the name and label that are so familiar…but we would select for ageworthiness and structure. The other lot would be blended with a touch of Chardonnay (from a new vineyard to us) bottled after “only” a year in elevage, so that it would be delicious in the spring and summer…and give us all something to drink while we waited for the Hard Promises to blossom. The new wine is called David+Veronica, and it’s delicious. You should definitely try some of each.
The Wines:
WINES HERE
First, 2021 Hard Promises is what we’re after when we make Pinot Blanc. Only two barrels were selected for this bottling, which will the penultimate edition, and they have the raciness, minerality, and ageworthiness we’re after from the moment we pick the grapes. If any of our wines has a cult following, it’s this one—and a quick glance at cellartracker shows that it always improves after time in the bottle.
This is sourced from Twelve Oaks Vineyard, which is a beautifully farmed site off of Bell Road in the Chehalem Mountains. Laurelwood soils give it a savoriness and drive that’s irresistible to me, and we balance the acidity that we prize with a long, 18-month rest in neutral barrels to bring texture and complexity to the wine. Full price on this will be $35—a price increase that reflects its seriousness and smaller production—but it’s just $28 today.
The new wine of the set is the 2021 David + Veronica. It’s a blend of 70% Pinot Blanc from Twelve Oaks and 30% Chardonnay from a warmer site in Yamhill. The goal was to make a wine that still had the brightness and vivacity we’re after, but that was delicious right now. For us that meant aging the Pinot Blanc in larger format barrel (500L puncheon) which helped the wine stay focused and taut, but also blending with the small quantity of Chardonnay for a little more fruit and texture.
We also bottled it right before harvest last year, so it has had plenty of time to recover from bottle shock, open up and bloom. I think it’s safe to say that we’re very happy with how it turned out, and we’ll be making something similar every year going forward. This will be $25 regularly, but is $19 for y’all today.
Finally, the bonus 2020 Gravity’s Pull is very much in keeping with our other 2020 whites—bracing, mineral, and sharp, with a sheen of reduction that delivers a flinty nose and nervy palate. This hails from Dion Vineyard and its ungrafted, 30+ year-old Chardonnay vines, planted in windblown loess soils. It’s telling that across Europe, producers who are lucky enough to have ungrafted vineyards prize them supremely for the je ne sais quoi they seem to provide. Every time we taste Gravity’s Pull, we think that must be happening here, as well, and are grateful to get to work with the vineyard.
This wine fermented and aged for eleven months in older oak barrels before we transferred it into stainless steel tanks for a final six months to build tension into the wine. Just two barrels-worth were bottled. As in the past, we elected to delay its release to give it time to open up, though this will definitely reward a half-decade in the cellar, if you have the patience. Once it hits the market, this will be $35, but for WB it’s just $28.
Enough Said! I’d like to go to the webstore!
THE FINE PRINT:
We just switched to using Vinoshipper for fulfillment/sales and can ship to the following states:
AK AZ CA CO DC FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MN MO NC ND NE NH NM NV NY OH OK OR PA SC TN TX VA VT WA WI WV WY.
If you live in CT or MI: We’re working on getting all of our paperwork in order to be able to ship to you. Please email me at saul@championshipbottle.com with what you want and I’ll try and figure out a way to get you set up.
PLEASE NOTE: One of these wines is being bottled during the 2nd week of March and all the wines will ship out after that/pending weather. Also, flat rate shipping is for ground service only. If you’d like to upgrade to 3-Day/Next Day/Etc you can select that option at checkout—Vinoshipper will calculate the cost for you. We’re happy to hold until fall if it’s already too warm to ship to your area.
Free local delivery is available in the Portland metro area on orders of three bottles or more. Please note: local delivery will occur on weekends and/or weekday evenings at a mutually convenient time.
. It’ll be live by the time BD14 officially starts, but I gotta stay in the Toddfather’s good graces and play by the rules.