|
|
Whole Cluster Backbone in the Dundee Hills
The 2009 growing season in Willamette Valley was what the Oregonians like to call 'a winemaker's vintage.' A wet winter and warm spring provided for an unusually large set of big berry clusters. June was hot, torridly so. Melissa Burr, the brilliant young winemaker at Bill Stoller's stronghold in the prized Dundee Hills, was perturbed. After the low yields of the highly structured small berry harvest of 2008, where Burr ripped the cover off the ball with her deft, delicate Pinot Noir touch, 2009 was already throwing curves.
The Stollers, as always, responded aggressively in the vines, dropping crop frequently, still careful to maintain healthy leaf canopies that would help shade the clusters on a record number of 90 degree days. After a brief cooling July reprieve, the heat lamp flicked back on in August. Weather.com offered little relief. So it was, in the last week of August, as Burr trekked the 22 distinct Pinot Noir blocks on these magnificent southeast-facing hillsides, plucking berries and dropping them into her mouth, that she conjured up the haute cuisine recipe that would account for one of the sexiest, most scintillating Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs of 2009.
"By the second week of September, all of us had to make a call that no one really wanted to make." Melissa told us. "Some suggested picking, and you could understand why. The Brix measurements (sugar content) indicated that the Pinot was ripe. But while I always keep my eye on the numbers, I pay much closer attention to the flavors of the grapes on the vine. Yes, the fruit was sweet. But the flavors and tannins weren't ripe. So I did what I'd learned I had to do. I waited."
It wasn't as if Burr was blindly rolling the dice. Having already sweated through the warm 2004 and 2006 growing seasons, both featuring nearly the same number of 90+ degree days as 2009, Melissa had come to understand the risk in letting clusters hang too long. She took her lumps like many of the top talents in the valley, but also learned to trust her intuition, unperturbed by the late harvest risks.
In 2006, Burr first came up with the idea of handling the oldest vines -- all planted to the magical complexity of the Pommard clone -- differently from the Pinot Noir on the rest of the property. She conducted protracted A/B vinification tests, flirting both with extended maceration and whole cluster fermentation, noting that both helped buttress the ultra-ripeness of the warm 2006 growing season.
So, by the time Melissa pulled the trigger on harvesting these precious 22 Dundee Hills blocks in the fall of 2009, her winemaking blueprint was sketched out. She treated the delicate Dijon clones gingerly, focused only on nursing out all the gorgeous red berry juiciness for which these clones are so well known. But as to the old vine Pommard clone clusters, with their far darker, racier flavor profile, Burr pushed the envelope on extraction and intensity. First, she conducted a long, cool maceration, then dosed in twenty percent whole clusters, creating a muscular super-cuvee that would magically buttress the exquisite red raspberry sweetness of the Dijon cuvee.
The 2009 Stoller Family Estate Pinot Noir SV is a deliciously ripe, wonderfully floral rendering of this decidedly Russian River-like vintage in the Dundee Hills, one that marks the coming out party for one of Oregon's most talented young winemakers. Deep ruby to the edge with explosive aromas of raspberries and dark cherries, lightly infused with sweet herbes-de-Provence. Rich and lively on the attack, forward and juicy in a Russian River kind of way, but just enough chewiness and muscle to keep this lavish, super-ripe 2009 in perfect balance.
This one earned 91 points from Steve Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, as high as the world's harshest and most respected Pinot Noir critic would go in this piping hot Oregon vintage for any Pinot Noir at anywhere near today's price.
|
|
Tasting Notes
2009 Stoller Vineyards Pinot Noir SV Estate Dundee Hills
"Bright ruby-red. Pungent aromas of dark berry compote, cherry-cola and black cardamom, with a smoky topnote. Ripe and fleshy but lively too, offering intense dark berry flavors and exotic hints of blood orange and bitter herbs. A sweet vanilla note comes up with air and carries through the long, sappy finish. I suspect that this pinot will be in prime drinking form by its fifth birthday."
91 points -- Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar
|
|
|
Cart