VINTAGE HIGHLIGHTS
What started as a dry winter turned into a deluge of rain in the springtime. We had the wettest and coldest April/May/June in recorded (130 years) history. Freezing temperatures on the morning of April 14th and 15th knocked back the fragile new growth, in fact, until crop estimates were done in late August, we thought our crop yields would be down across the board by 50-60%. The lesson learned is don’t second guess a grapevine. In over 51 years of growing grapes here in the Dundee Hills we have never seen a freezing event during the growing season, so we had no idea what was going to happen. The primary buds froze and died, but the secondary buds came on, produced fewer but larger clusters, and the vines made a miraculous comeback. The coldest and wettest spring turned into the 2nd warmest and driest summer on record, and then we got to October. Everything depended on good ripening conditions (dry and warm) in the month of October since bloom was much later. Fortunately we got the warmest October in Oregon history, we were able to let the grapes hang, and the rains stayed put until all our Estate fruit was in on Thursday, October 27th. The fruit got nice and ripe, and we are thrilled with the wine produced from this vintage!
WINEMAKING
The fruit was hand harvested from Kalita Vineyard from September 21st to the 24th, and brought back to our Dundee Hills Estate winery were 96% was destemmed and the rest left whole-cluster. The destemmed fruit went through an ambient fermentation while the whole cluster was fermented using our native house yeast. All of this took place in three ton stainless steel tanks with punch-downs for cap management. The wine was aged for 10 months in French oak barrels with 20% new oak.
WINE PROFILE
An abundance of black fruit with blackberry, black currants, and black cherry with fresh blossom. A big, rich Pinot Noir with a perfect balance between fruit and tannins.
PAIRINGS
Pair with roasted chicken, beet and goat cheese salad, or a seared rack of lamb with morels.
SCORES
94 points & Publisher's Pick - The Somm Journal, 94 points - Tasting Pannel, 92 points & Critic's Choice - Northwest Wine Report, 92 points - James Suckling
THE STORY
Kalita Estate Vineyard is located in the heart of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA in the Willamette Valley. This stunning, bowl-shaped vineyard was planted in 2000 by Arthur and Sherry Kalita; it is currently LIVE certified and we are transitioning the vineyard to organic certification.