Wine Notes > Pinot Noir > Current Release

2006 STATEMENT Pinot Noir

(new release November 2009)

The Wine

In certain vintages you perfectly capture the essence of the variety, terroir, and growing season. So much so you can't blend it away. So much so that you save it for friends who are as obsessed by great Pinot Noir as you are. This is such a wine.

As with all our wines, we’ve made this Pinot Noir with sustainability in mind every step of the way, from following LIVE-certified farming practices in our vineyards to selecting sustainably grown pine for the wooden boxes that hold the finished bottles.

CHEHALEM will also donate $27 (approximately 10%) to charity for each 3-pack purchased of this glorious Pinot Noir. This year, the Oregon Food Bank will be our beneficiary.

The Vineyard

This wine uses fruit from Ridgecrest Vineyards, our oldest estate vineyard, a 55-acre vineyard on a 176-acre property. Beginning in 1980, this site pioneered grapegrowing on Ribbon Ridge, a small ridge on the western end of the Chehalem Mountains. Soils are a Willakenzie soil called Wellsdale, a transition soil series exhibiting characteristics of both volcanic and ocean sedimentary underlying structures. The rich, supple black cherry and blackberry fruits are characteristic of Ridgecrest Vineyards and the Willakenzie soil type. Excellent acidity, silky texture, and a long finish are hallmarks of the vineyard site, being relatively high in elevation, mature in vine age, and deeply rooted.

The Vintage

I have the highest regard for the Pinot Noirs in barrel, not having seen better fruit EVER from selected blocks or vineyards, including 22 harvests from Ridgecrest! The reds should be held to high expectations. The whites are the surprise, since a very warm vintage often blunts the acid, raises alcohol to unbalance the wine, and softens the fruit to soft and fleshy. Not so in 2006. The Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Pinot Blanc are crisp, bright, and scintillating in fruit aromas and complex in spice and fruit flavors. The warmth that came during the growing season abated before most fruit seriously began ripening, with cooler days and, especially important, acid-saving nights giving finesse to the wines. Appealing early, they should age respectably, too. Color me pleased.

Stats

Harvest Data:

Harvested 10/10/2006, fruit coming from Ridgecrest Vineyards (100%), @ 26.3 brix, 3.45 pH, and 5.3 g/L TA, from 2.05 tons per acre cropload

Fermentation:

16 days total skin contact, with 10 days of that pre-maceration, native ferment, 35% whole cluster

Cooperage/Aging:

Aged for 14 months in 100% new French oak barrels

Clonal Selection:

100% Pommard

Bottling:

Bottled 1/22/2008

Bottling Analyses:

14.95% alcohol, 3.50 pH, and 6.0 g/L TA

Cases Produced:

93 cases

Suggested Retail:

$99 sold in 3-pack wooden cases of $297 each (TO ORDER)

Release Date:

November 2009

Winemaker's Comments

Red-blue-black, very intense color; deep plum and licorice and pepper flavors; red, complex fruit; lovely length and finish—exceptionally elegant; fine tannin. A once-every-few-years wine.

Quotes

Wine Enthusiast, Summer 2010, Paul Gregutt: 95/CELLAR SELECTION. This one-of-a-kind offering from Chehalem celebrates what they are calling a "great" vintage. The wine is dark, supple and immensely rich and dense, yet retains a lightness that captures the elegance of the Pinot Noir grape while propelling it to rarified heights. The mix of red and purple fruits, herb, spice and earth all come together in a smooth and seductive wine that drinks like a dream.

Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, May/June 2009, Josh Raynolds: 93. Ruby-red. Explosive perfume of black raspberry, boysenberry, potpourri and smoky minerals. Lush, creamy red and dark berry preserve flavors are enlivened by a slow-building minerality and pick up suave spiciness with air. An alluring pinot with excellent finishing clarity and clinging sweetness. As powerful as this is, there's no excess weight or fat.

Wine Spectator (Insider), March 24, 2010, Harvey Steiman: 91. Firm in texture, with a wide-open feel to the juicy plum and currant fruit, framed with mineral and wet earth nuances. The finish pushes nicely through a layer of chewy but fine tannins. Best from 2011 through 2016.

Northwest Palate, July/August 2010: Exceptional. Sumptuous scents of blackberry and plum fruits combine with hints of barrel toast, forest floor, and dried herbs; time in the glass opens the aromas considerably. Weighty and broad on the palate, rich flavors of dark red and black berry and raspberry fruits are concentrated and supple. There is a lot going on in this layered wine: mocha, cherry, coffee, tea, toast, a little anise, a little vanilla and cola -- layers of flavors playing hide and seek with each other. Texturally supple and elegant, the acids never poke out and the tannins don't shout: the definition of balance. The finish is flush with fruit and toast, and is pleasingly persistent. In a vintage full of blowsy Pinots, this wine stands out as the template for refinement and sophistication. Drink it now with a grilled Porterhouse steak, or age it for 3 to 4 years.

Portland Monthly, September 2009, Oregon's 50 Best Wines, Condé Cox: #16.

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