2007 Pinot gris | Willamette Valley
In the Vineyard
The 2007 vintage was moderated by a cooler, wet fall harvest. Our ’07 Pinot gris is comprised of fruit from Meredith Mitchell Vineyard, Yamhill Springs Vineyard, and Bellevue Cross Vineyard. All three locations were harvested on Sunday, October 7 in order to beat the forecasted rainstorm that slammed into the Pacific Northwest the following week. Luckily, we beat the rains and surprisingly, the grapes delivered plenty of elegant flavors to produce a lovely wine.
At the Winery
Fruit from all three vineyards was whole-cluster pressed and settled in tank overnight. Fresh juice was then combined in our temperature-controlled 3800-gallon stainless-steel tank. The accumulated juice measured a lean 21.1 Brix, 3.18 pH, and 7.6 g/L TA. We immediately inoculated with CY3079 yeast. Once fermentation was started (at about 64°F) we slowly cooled the tank to 52° F and maintained a slow, steady fermentation for 3 months. The wine was never inoculated for Malo-lactic fermentation, and its sulfite levels and temperature were managed to prevent any M/L from taking place.
We allowed temperature to increase by one degree each week throughout December to avoid stuck fermentations and approach dryness. The wine was racked, lightly fined with a mixture of Bentonite and Casein, and then racked off this fining agent. This blend was cold-stabilized, polish-filtered, sterile-filtered and bottled with another sterile filtration on February 15, 2008. The finished wine has a residual sugar of 0.86%, pH of 3.18, TA of 7.0 g/L, and an alcohol of 12.4%.
At the Table
Our ’07 Pinot gris is the most elegant and ethereal vintage we’ve made of this wine, with aromas of Meyer Lemon and fresh melon with subtle notes of nut meats and fennel. The wine’s texture is silky, soft and articulate on the palate, with flavors of ruby red grapefruit, citrus, and a lovely, long, lingering finish. May we suggest you serve this wine with seared scallops in a cream sauce, or perhaps a nice Madras curry chicken on basmati rice?
