THE RAFFLE IS CLOSED BUT THE OFFER WILL STAY LIVE UNTIL 2/2!
Wine Berserkers has been a very special place for me—I’ve been here since October 2009, though I don’t post often, despite Marcus’ best efforts. I’ve learned so much about wine from members of the forum and built some really awesome relationships, as well. I want to thank you all, but especially Todd and the mods+BerserkerDay team.
Who We Are:
We (my wife and I) are a very small (700 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 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
The Offer:
Our Berserkerday offers in the past have often been a sneak peek for the spring release (we’re small, and we weren’t able to hold much wine back in years past due to cash constraints) , but we’ve finally got a little wine left in the warehouse that we offer some more ready-to-drink bottles to you at special BerserkerDay pricing. We also put together a six-pack and twelve-pack samplers for anyone who wants an assortment of what we think you should try (without the hassle of reading all my verbiage).
Shipping is still a flat $25 on any size order, and local delivery is available in Portland metro on orders of 4+ bottles. Orders will ship in early March. Also, if you’re planning on ordering on our spring release in a few weeks, I’m happy to consolidate the future order under today’s shipping charge. Pickup at the winery (Amity) or my house (Portland) is available as well.
As always, if you have any questions about the wines/the winery/etc, feel free to fire away in this thread!
How To Order: Just email saul@championshipbottle.com with what you’d like. I’ll follow up with next steps. We can ship to most states either directly or through a third-party fulfilment house. If you’re in a state that sometimes presents problems, let me know and I can get you the info you need. If you’d like pickup or local delivery, just let me know when you email.
Special Raffle: Hard Promises Vertical
RAFFLE IS CLOSED TO NEW ENTRIES, I’LL DO THE DRAWING TODAY (1/31) AND POST THE WINNER THIS AFTERNOON. BUT PLEASE, STILL COMMENT IN THE THREAD! Here’s the deal: If you make a purchase and then post in this thread you’ll be entered into a raffle for a five-vintage/six-pack of Hard Promises Pinot Blanc (18/19/2x’21/22/23), which is one of our best aging wines. The older wines are absolutely singing right now, and we only have a case or so left of the 2018 and 2019 in the library. You’ll be quite happy.
The Wines:
First off, samplers! You asked for them, and here you go:
Motorcade of Generosity (Six-Pack Sampler)
Retail $234, BerserkerDay Price: $182: Never had our wines? Looking for a stress-free assortment? This is a half-case sampler to get you on board with our vision of Willamette Valley winemaking…at a nice discount. This includes:
2023 You+Me+The Moon White Blend
2023 History Ablaze Rosato
2023 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay
2023 New Walk Chardonnay
2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc
2023 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir
Prolonging the Magic (Full-Case Sampler)
Retail $437, BerserkerDay Price: $332. Never had our wines? Looking for a stress-free assortment? This is a full-case sampler (with a bit more of our higher-end wines!) to get you on board with our vision of Willamette Valley winemaking…at a nice discount. Includes:
2x 2023 You+Me+The Moon White Blend
2x 2023 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay
2x 2023 New Walk Chardonnay
2x 2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc
2023 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir
2023 History Ablaze Rosato
2023 David+Veronica White Blend
2023 Intimate Strangers Chardonnay
Comfort Eagle (Full-Case, Built for the Cellar)
Retail $503, BerserkerDay Price: $388. (We are building a religion, a limited edition…To resist it is useless, it is useless to resist it.) We love to make wines that improve over time, and this case highlights that—yes, including the rosè. Everything in this box will improve for at least a half decade, and some should age beautifully for much longer. '23 is one of our favorite vintages, and you can see that here…at a nice discount. Includes:
3x 2023 New Walk Chardonnay
3x 2023 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay
2x 2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc
2x 2023 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir
2x 2023 History Ablaze Rosato
Individual Wines at BerserkerDay Discounts
2023 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay
$38 / $30 The 2023 Gravity’s Pull is one of the best versions of the wine we’ve made—it’s easy to point to when making the case that 2023 is the best collection in our winery’s short history. 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. ‘23 had a warm end to the growing season, but we absolutely nailed the pick here, so it has delightful fruit plus a captivating salty edge that makes it an absolute dream with food. It reminds us of the 2021, but with more finesse—there’s an airiness and grace here that’s charming and captivating. It would be a mistake to ignore Gravity’s this year, no matter how cool the new kid on the block (below) is. 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. Only 96 cases were bottled.
2023 New Walk Chardonnay
New Bottling
$49 / $39 From Royer Vineyard, which is quickly establishing itself as one of the Great Sites for Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley. Royer is a cool, windy site, and that allows for proper flavor maturity combined with a bracing acidity and minerality. More than Gravity’s Pull, even, this reminds us of Burgundy (or at least Burgundy before modern hot vintages became the norm) with an energy that’s impossible to ignore. It’s not loud, it’s not bombastic, but there’s just something about it that touches the back of your brain and says “I am special, I am important.” When the team of our DC/MD/VA distributor visited this summer, one of them told us directly: “This is the best Chardonnay, probably the best wine, you’ve ever made.” While we don’t like to pick favorites (there are others that we’d throw in the mix), it seems to make quite an impression when we’ve poured it for visitors to the winery. Give it air or time in the cellar, though. 98 cases bottled.
2023 History Ablaze Pinot Noir Rosato
Limited
$40 / $30 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. This year it’s more strawberries-meets-orange zest and lighter in color–it reminds us of Bandol in many ways. Its character is more cheerful, though it still shows off the complexity and nuance of a great site given a full 18 months in barrel before bottling. This is Sonya’s favorite wine, and be warned it’s probably going to sell out today. Again, just three barrels (73 cases) were made.
2023 Hard Promises Pinot Blanc
$36 / $29 It might sound crazy, but Hard Promises is consistently one of the two or three best-aging wines in the lineup. The 2018 and ‘19 are fantastic right now, and the ‘21 has moved up a gear in the last year or so. This 2023 is tracking to be one of the better versions of the bottling (yes, I’m saying that a lot in ‘23) with an approachability that reminds me of the ‘21—and it’s only been getting better over the last few months. At this point, Hard Promises has its own fan club and production is still tiny, so perhaps it’s not wise for us to fan the flames of demand too much. This is the final vintage to be 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. Only three barrels (75 cases) made the cut for this wine.
2023 Lost Coastlines Pinot Noir
$45 / $36 Lost Coastlines in 2023 is the best version we’ve released—far and away, probably. Fir Crest Vineyard has always had a strong personality and beguiling aromatics, married to a sometimes-fierce structure. In ‘23, everything fell into place: We nailed the pick, as ripeness was accelerating quickly, and our experience with the vineyard over the previous vintages allowed us to build structure while keeping a finer texture to the tannins. Fir Crest is one of Oregon’s great Pinot Noir vineyards (in terms of ownership and vision, Robert and Karin Moshier share the same attributes we talked about with Royer), with shallow soils and an energy that resonates through the site. We’ll put the 2023 Lost Coastlines up against basically anything in the Willamette Valley. We are not known for Pinot Noir, but this newest Lost Coastlines proves that we have a lot—or at least something—to say on the subject. 72 cases bottled.
2023 You + Me + The Moon White Wine
$26 / $22 An homage to the fresh, electric white wines of Friuli—where blending grapes to combine their individual strengths is a long-standing tradition. The 2023 saw an additional six months of élevage (12 in older wood, then it was racked to stainless) which makes it a bit more “serious” vis-a-vis the first vintage. That said, it’s really blossomed in bottle over the last few months and I like it very, very much. Made from Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris, it’s a delightful wine that’s capable of aging for a half-decade, but we won’t be able to keep our hands off it for that long.
2023 David + Veronica White Wine
Skin-Contact(ish)
$28 / $20 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 only one of them saw maceration: a small lot of 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—with a bit of spritzyness from dissolved CO2—but still held in check and poised. 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.
2024 Lusty Little Crushes Red Wine
BerserkerDay Exclusive
$24 / 19 We love making light, fresh reds—the kind of wines that make you wonder where the rest of the bottle went and seemingly pair with everything. Lusty Little Crushes is that wine for us—the 2024 is based on skin-contact Pinot Gris with some Pinot Noir in the mix as well. It’s the lightest iteration we’ve made (it has very Grignolino or Jura red vibes) and does well with a light chill as the weather warms. This bottling absolutely crushes in distribution (forgive the pun, or don’t), but the economics of shipping a sub-$20 bottle are…not ideal. So while we’ve stopped offering this directly to the mailing list at a discount, it’s available here for BerserkerDay.
THE FINE PRINT:
Free local delivery is available in the Portland metro area on orders of four bottles or more. Please note: local delivery will occur on weekends and/or weekday evenings at a mutually convenient time.
I have no pictures of me doing “winemaking things” because production is basically a solo operation and I need my hands. But @Vincent_Fritzsche kindly supplied these two glamorous harvest shots.
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