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1998 Pinot Noir Jacob-Hart Vineyard

2000 (Rex Hill North Block)
2000 (Bethel Heights Wadenswil Clone)
2000 (Stoller Vineyards Clone 115)
1999 | 1998 (Ridgecrest Vineyards 7 Acre Pommard)
1999 | 1998 (Bethel Heights Southeast Block)
1999 | 1998 (Jacob-Hart Vineyard)

Chehalem 1998 Jacob-Hart Vineyard Pinot Noir

One of three experimental Pinot noirs resulting from multi-year experiments aimed at separating vineyard and winemaker influence.

The Wine

This wine is very limited and is a result of ongoing experimentation between Chehalem and two close friends at Bethel Heights and Rex Hill. Since 1998 the three wineries have exchanged fruit from key vineyard blocks, making wines that, when assembled into a 3 by 3 tasting array, give insight to the relative influences of terroir, winemaking style and, replicated over several years, vintage. The concept is that vineyard distinctions are important determinants in wine quality, but that winemaking style can often mask nuance site differences. With three different approaches, even the same vineyard can reflect differently.

The Vineyard

Rex Hill has numerous vineyards of its own, some it manages and several from which it only sources fruit in the Willamette Valley. Jacob-Hart Vineyard is in the Chehalem Hills and is on an iron-bearing volcanic soil called Jory. The vineyard is on the mid-flank of the Chehalem Ridge, was planted beginning in the mid-eighties by Rex Hill owners Jan Jacobsen and Paul Hart (thus the vineyard name). The site is non-irrigated, relatively shallow and therefore easily water stressed in late season. Its elevation is 3-400 feet and is easily ripened The Jacob-Hart Vineyard has been vineyard designated for several years as a key Rex Hill property. The vineyard is known for robust, briary, ripe berry fruit aspects with dusty, dark spices.

The Vintage

The 1998 vintage is possibly the best we have yet seen in Oregon, or at least the equivalent of the highly touted 1994 vintage. The intensity of this vintage is due to a half-crop yield (e.g. 1.2 tons per acre) and perfect ripening weather at this moderately high elevation vineyard, where acidity is maintained even in ripe years.

Stats

Harvest Data:

Harvested 10/1/98, harvested at 1.4 tons/acre @24.2 brix, 6.1 g/L acid and 3.49pH.

Fermentation:

Fermented with commercial yeasts (BRG) with 14 days total skin contact, 8 days of that pre-maceration; acidulated with 1.0 g/L; no post maceration.

Cooperage/Aging:

Aged for 11 months with one racking in 1/3 new, 1year and 2 year French oak.

Clonal Selection:

Pommard clones.

Bottling:

Bottled 9/24/99 with eggwhite fining and no filtration.

Bottling Analyses:

Cases Produced:

Suggested Retail:

$39

Release Date:

April, 2001

Winemaker's Comments

A big, structured, leathery pinot noir. Deeply colored, dusty bittersweet chocolate and big, dried cherry and cassis on the nose, this wine is front-loaded, slightly hollow in between and sweet, tarry and relatively long in finish. It has moderate structure, good polish and weight, and good wood integration, especially considering significant alcohol. Elegance is not the dominant impression, rustic and packed fruit is. HPN, CJF, MD