Wine Notes > Pinot Gris > Current Release

2008 Pinot Gris Reserve

(new release February 2010)

The Wine

This is the version of Pinot Gris we make to gain ultimate complexity and structure. Using Alsace as a standard, we seek weight and richness to make this more than a simple white. This Pinot Gris is a true reserve wine—the fruit is divided at harvest, after full ripeness is achieved, with the reserve portion going through barrel fermentation in neutral oak. With long lees contact, minor partial ML (malolactic fermentation), and a variety of yeasts, the wine is concentrated, complex, well-textured, and carries tropical fruit aromas and a tight pear flavor profile, accented with a honeyed richness.

The Vineyards

Fruit comes from our three Estate Vineyards: Ridgecrest, Stoller, and Corral Creek, blended into a fully-complemented wine. The estate vineyards are planted on three different soil types, which provides complementary elements in resulting wines: Ridgecrest on Willakenzie, Stoller on Jory, and Corral Creek on Laurelwood. The interaction of clone and site add great complexity, consistency, and fullness of character to blends of Pinot Gris, especially in an excellent vintage.

The Vintage

The 2008 vintage saw one of the coolest growing seasons on record, with 1,976 degree-days of heat during the growing season, versus the average for the last twelve years of 2,212 degree-days, and second only to 1,968 degree-days in 1999. This vintage resembles 1999 in the counterintuitive ripeness of the crop we finally harvested, and both vintages showed very good acid levels and excellent, full ripeness at lower sugars. Look for both whites and reds to excel this year, with very ageable wines, rich and complex from release to old age. Lower croploads, almost half-crop in nature, also similar to 1999, brought some of this richness, with harvest dates that were two-plus weeks later than average but not experiencing significant rainfall.

Stats

Harvest Data:

Harvested 10/8–10/12/2008 from 47% Ridgecrest, 46% Stoller, and 7% Corral Creek sites @ 21.6–22.7 brix, 3.1–3.36 pH, and 6.4–7.3 g/L TA, from
1.03–3.06 tons per acre cropload

Fermentation:

Fermented in neutral barrels with several yeasts (native [20%], 3079, SIHA7, VL1, VL3, and ALS)

Cooperage/Aging:

Aged for 5 months with lees stirring

Bottling:

Cold stabilized and filtered, bottled 3/27/2009

Bottling Analyses:

13.92% alcohol, 7.5 g/L TA, 3.26 pH, 0.13% residual sugar

Cases Produced:

702

Suggested Retail:

$20 (TO ORDER)

Release Date:

February 2010

Winemaker's Comments

Bright and rich, this wine has plenty of structure and ripe fruit, from white-yellow stone fruit to tropical, with warm baking spices and butterscotch hints thrown in. The emollient, lime-tinged mineral-oil texture again balances well with great acidity, seemingly a marker for the 2008 vintage. Bone dry and acid-driven, this wine needs time to open up, and will continue to lengthen, as a peach pit and pear skin finishing snap turns weighty and oily.

Quotes

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, August 2009, Jay Miller: 90. Offers up additional aromatic complexity with aromas of baking spices, apple, and peach. Ripe, round, and full-flavored, it is meant for enjoyment over the next 4 years.

Wine Enthusiast, June 2010, Paul Gregutt: 90. This is fermented in neutral barrels, so it is a rounder, more open style than Pinot Gris done in stainless steel. It is therefore more approachable at a young age, and also tastes leesy and creamy--a treat for the palate. The fruit is lean and fresh, and a bracing minerality infuses the finish.

Wine Spectator, December 31, 2009, Harvey Steiman: 90. Lithe and focused, with pretty lemon, star fruit and delicate spice flavors that linger on the lively finish. This has intensity and refinement.

© CHEHALEM
31190 NE Veritas Lane • Newberg, OR 97132
Tasting Room (503) 538-4700 • Winery (503) 537-5553 • Fax (503) 537-0850