2014 Lemelson Vineyards Pinot Noir Six Vineyards Willamette Valley 750 ml

2014 Lemelson Six Vineyards Pinot Noir: “Vintage of a Lifetime”

We touched down at PDX at 9 p.m. on September 14, 2014. Our timing couldn’t have been more perfect. We awoke early at The Allison Hotel & Spa and fueled up on roasted sausages, spuds, three eggs over easy, and a thermos of piping-hot black coffee. Our first stop was at 9 a.m., just up the road above Newberg at Tony Soter’s log cabin tasting room at North Valley. Then it was off to Soléna Estate and Bernie Lacroute’s WillaKenzie. At 2 p.m., we pulled in to Lemelson as a truckload of clusters were being gingerly unloaded onto the sorting table. The unmistakable harvest fragrance of freshly picked Pinot Noir filled the air.

As we’d learned earlier in the day from Lacroute and Laurent Montalieu at Soléna, 2014 was miraculous on two fronts. A warm, dry spring made for an unusually large and uniform fruit set, followed by a summer that featured an unprecedented number of days (25) where high temperatures topped 90 degrees.

Most importantly, however, despite the steady heat, there wasn’t a single day where temperatures soared above 100 degrees. Natural sugar readings at harvest mimicked those of Russian River, while acids remained bracing. As to the size of the crop, despite the unprecedented concentration, nearly every estate reported record yields.

Nearly every estate ... but not Lemelson.

How to explain not only the lavish wild-berry concentration, but also the Burgundian “tautness” of winemakers Anthony King and Tresider Burns’ 2014 Pinot Noirs? While many growers told us that yields topped 4 tons per acre on many parcels, Eric Lemelson’s fastidious commitment to both organic and dry-farming practices, coupled with aggressive crop-thinning over the summer months, led to only a modestly larger harvest at Lemelson in 2014.

Particularly with Pinot Noir, lower yields mean smaller berries, more tight-fisted clusters, greater natural concentration, and more sumptuous tannins. Such is the case with our nominee for #1 Under-$20 Oregon Pinot Noir of the Year, the 2014 Lemelson Six Vineyards Pinot Noir.

Those six vineyards are the Stermer, Johnson, and Rocky Noel vineyards in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, the Meyer and Wascher vineyards in the Dundee Hills, and Chestnut Hill Vineyard in the Chehalem Mountain AVA. King opted for a long, cool, whole-berry fermentation, extracting color and dark-berry concentration, before treating the Pinot Noir to a 13-month stay in French cooperage, 25% of which was new.

Brilliant dark-ruby to the rim, with luscious aromas of black raspberry, black cherry, sweet spice, and cedar. Rich, juicy, and opulent, showing unusual tautness for the vintage, filled with crushed-black-raspberry preserves, blackcurrant, and cherry compote, finishing with excellent vibrancy and fine tannin backbone.