Who We Are:
We (my wife and I) are a very small (600 case) winery (renting space in the corner of Vincent Fritzsche’s facility in Amity). Starting in 2018, we set out to make thoroughly uncompromising white wines of impeccable quality, which reward age and are geared towards drinking with food. We’re loosely inspired by the wines of Friuli, which we think shares a vinous link with our little corner of Oregon, and our bottles have bright acidity and mineral-driven personalities.
That means we give our wines time, attention (and as a result, capital) that not a lot of bottles at our prices see, especially when we’re talking longer elevage (12-18 months for basically everything). I spent a long time in the wine-retail trenches and so I’m very aware of how much great stuff is out there–delivering exceptional value has always been a mantra of mine.
"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.” - Michael Alberty, The Oregonian
I’ve been a member of WineBerserkers since October, 2009 and this community has taught me so much and has been instrumental in getting Championship Bottle off of the ground. Today’s deals are a way to thank y’all for all of that.
We’ve got an assortment of great stuff at great prices today: Now that we’re a little further from the spring bottling, many of these wines have really started to open up, and are entering great drinking windows that should last the next half-decade (or much longer, in a few cases). Feel free to reach out if you have questions about the wines, etc.
How to Order:
Just email me at saul@championshipbottle.com with what you’d like. That’s basically it. I’ll confirm your order and email you an invoice through Square (the point-of-sale people) that you pay with a credit card.
We (or a third party shipper in the WV) can ship to most states (KY, ND, NH, UT, MS, and SD, you’re out of luck at the moment).
UPS Ground shipping is still $25, flat-rate, for any size order. You wanna buy six cases? Still just $25. Split it with friends? As long as it’s one order, and one shipping address, make my day. All orders will ship in the fall, after harvest, when the weather is cool and we have time to pull and pack everything. I expect we’ll start shipping mid-October.
If you’re in the Portland metro area, delivery is offered/free on orders of four bottles or more. The plan will be to do a round of deliveries over a couple weekends in August, then after harvest in October. You’re also welcome to pickup the wines at the winery in Amity or at my house in PDX. Just indicate what you’d prefer when you order.
I’m happy to combine shipments/shipping fees with the upcoming Fall Release or with any orders already on weather hold. Just let me know when you order
THE RAFFLE: Play it again, Sam! We’re giving away one of our ultra-rare magnums of 2019 Silicone on Sapphire “Extended Elevage.” Just six cases (36 mags) were made, and two were auctioned off last year for $225 each. None have ever been sold. Enough people were disappointed that they missed out on BD that I’m gonna give another one away.**
Everyone who makes a purchase and then posts a comment in this thread will be entered to win. Shipping included. You can find more details about them in the auction thread from last year , and the magnum also boasts a hand-painted/numbered label!
Sampler Packs:
Expert in a Dying Field
Retail Price $416, VinDependence Price: $315
A perfect place to start if you’re new to the wines: two of each.
2x 2022 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay | 2x 2022 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir | 2x 2023 History Ablaze Rosato | 2x 2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc | 2x 2023 Intimate Strangers Chardonnay | 2x 2023 David + Veronica White Wine
Jump Rope Gazers
Retail Price $208, VinDependence Price: $163
One of each—dip your toes into Championship Bottle, and/or save some room to add on with Fall Release wines
2022 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay | 2022 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir | 2023 History Ablaze Rosato | 2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc | 2023 Intimate Strangers Chardonnay | 2023 David + Veronica White Wine
Future Me Hates Me
Retail Price $465, VinDependence Price: $335
Only the “fancy” wines! Your future self will actually thank you, I’m pretty sure.
3x 2022 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay | 3x 2022 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir | 3x 2023 History Ablaze Rosato | 3x 2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc
Individual Wines with Great Discounts:
2022 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay
Dion Vineyard, Laurelwood District AVA, Willamette Valley
Retail $37, VinDependence Price: $29
The 2022 Gravity’s Pull is one of the best versions of the wine we’ve made—and is starting to enter its drinking window now, especially once it’s open for an hour or three. As always, this comes from ungrafted vines in Dion Vineyard, and it has some of the tension and brightness of the ‘19 with a bit of the richness of the ‘21. It’s beautifully balanced between delicate fruit and minerality, and you can (and should) pour it for your Burgundy-only friends. This is always from Dion Vineyard and its ungrafted 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 we’re 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. We only make a tiny amount: one puncheon and two barrique’s worth of wine (~this vintage.
2023 History Ablaze Rosato
La Cantera Vineyard, Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley
Retail $38, VinDependence Price: $29
Is the ‘23 History Ablaze the wine I’m most proud of? The best wine we’ve made? It’s a hard question to answer, but someone asked me recently and it certainly is up there. Partly that’s because this wine is a huge departure from how rosé is typically made. The common way to do things is to ferment it in stainless steel and bottle it early—even for more expensive examples. But History Ablaze is predicated on the idea that if you treat a rosé like a serious white wine in the cellar, you get serious (and still delicious) results. As a result, it’s fermented in older barriques and then spends 18 months aging in barrel.
We first made this wine because we were frustrated at the scarcity (and cost) of rosé from Valentini, L’Anglore, et al. and decided that if we were going to try and make world-class rosé from the Willamette Valley, it needed to be from a top-shelf site (La Cantera Vineyard) and needed to see all the bells and whistles in the cellar. The 2023 has strawberries-meets-orange zest flavors, with a real overlay of dry honey and floral tones. Its character is cheerful but pensive, and it still shows off the complexity and nuance of a great site given a full year-and-a-half in barrel before bottling like a top white wine. Just three barrels (73 cases) were made.7im, u,-
2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc
Twelve Oaks Vineyard, Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley
Retail $35, VinDependence Price: $27
It’s early going, but the ‘23 is very much in the running for best Hard Promises we’ve ever produced. If you’re unfamiliar with the bottling, this is Pinot Blanc made to be ageworthy and structured—minerality, cut, and electricity is what we’re after. The ‘23 takes that and adds on a delightful level of fruit and richness. It’s really opened up nicely, but will age beautifully for a good while yet. This is sourced from Twelve Oaks Vineyard, which is a beautifully farmed site off of Bell Road in the Chehalem Mountains. Its Laurelwood soils give it a savoriness and drive that’s irresistible to me, and we balance that brightness with a long, 18-month rest in neutral barrels to bring texture and complexity to the wine.
2022 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir
Fir Crest Vineyard, Yamhill-Carlton, Willamette Valley
Retail $45, VinDependence Price: $34
We started Championship Bottle with a focus on white wines, but when Pinot from a vineyard like Fir Crest is available, any reasonable winemaker is going to jump at the chance. I think Fir Crest Vineyard is the most interesting site in all of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, but its reputation has yet to catch up to its quality. There’s a beautiful blend of dark- and red-fruit, along with citrus zest, spice, and a hint of the fir trees that give the site its name. Lost Coastlines in 2022 certainly reflects the excellent vintage, but it’s also fair to say it equally reflects how much we learned in our second year working with Fir Crest Vineyard’s Pinot Noir. (Though, unfortunately, quantity is down by ~33% this year.) Tannins are silkier (though still present) and aromatically it’s significantly more open than the ‘21.
2023 Intimate Strangers Chardonnay
Eola-Amity Hills, Willamette Valley
Retail $26, VinDependence Price: $22.
In true Championship Bottle fashion, the goal here was to make an entry-level Chardonnay without compromise—and we went ahead and treated this like our more expensive wines. So as a result, this 100% Eola-Amity Hills bottling is a fairly serious, structured wine for the price. This is blended from two vineyards in the Eola-Amity Hills. Most of the wine comes from Clive Newell’s promising young-vine site on Seawood Road, not five minutes from the new winery, and the rest from Royer Vineyard, which is establishing itself as a truly top-shelf place to grow white grapes. The wine is very Eola-Amity Hills Chard, with great vibrancy and zip. Although it’s less expensive than our other Chards, it was treated to the same elevage, with 12 months in barrel and then another six months on its lees in stainless steel.
2023 David + Veronica White Wine
Willamette Valley
Retail $27, VinDependence Price: $22
Pinot Blanc/Chardonnay (50/50). We’ve long been a fan of wines that use skin-contact as a component of their flavor profile, but don’t stake their entire identity on orange-ness—which is the approach we took with this wine, a blend of Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. We made six barrels-worth of this wine, and one of them saw skin-contact: Chardonnay that spent a little over two weeks on the skins. The net result feels a bit more capital-N “natural” than many of our other bottlings, but still held in check and poised—and in return there’s tremendous length on the palate and beautiful texture. We’re excited to drink this all summer and with hearty flavors in the fall.
