APPELLATION
100% Yamhill-Carlton
BLEND COMPOSITION
100% Pinot Noir
CLONES
Pommard, Wadenswil, 114, 115, 777
AGE OF VINES
Planted in 1999-2001
BOTTLED
September 2022
BRIX AT HARVEST
24-24.5º
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
14%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
10 -15 Years
PRODUCTION
748 Cases
VINTAGE HIGHLIGHTS
2021 was the 2nd warmest growing season we have ever seen since 2015. We also got to add a new term to the dictionary: “Heat Dome”. Three straight days of triple digit temperatures in late June breaking heat records for the Willamette Valley! Bud break started like usual in the middle of April. We had the driest March through May that the Valley has seen through 128 years of record keeping! Bloom, or flowering, also appeared on time in early/mid June. While late June brought the “Heat Dome”, our grapes made it through thanks to bloom being finished at all our sites and there still being soil moisture, so they grew like crazy over those three days of hellish temperatures. While July and August turned out to be exceedingly hot and dry, September arrived with with a few mild rain events that allowed us to fully ripen the grapes. The hot and dry summer made for fruit that was extremely clean, resulting in for excellent fermentations. All in all, mother nature gave us something to be grateful for on our 50th anniversary.
WINEMAKING
The fruit was hand harvested from Kalita Vineyard on September 25th and brought back to our Estate winery were 85% was destemmed and the rest left whole-cluster. Over a 12-day period the wine went through an ambient fermentation in 3 ton stainless steel tanks with punch-downs for cap management. The wine was aged for 10 months in French oak barrels with 10% new oak. This is our first vintage from the newly acquired Kalita Vineyard and it is also our first purchase of Yamhill-Carlton AVA vineyard land so it is very exciting. This is very different, dark fruited and rich Pinot Noir verses our delicate bright red fruited Dundee Hills we are accustom to be working with.
WINE PROFILE
Our 2021 Kalita Vineyard Pinot Noir bursts with classic Yamhill-Carton dark fruit notes: black cherry, cranberries and blackberries. The fruit is met by warm spices, espresso, and a woodsy forest floor followed by grippy tannins.
PAIRINGS
Serve with rich pairings such as roasted quail or duck, salmon on a cedar board, veal stew, grilled mushrooms, or a piece of dark chocolate.
THE STORY
Kalita EstateVineyard is located in the heart of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA in the Willamette Valley. This stunning, bowl-shaped vineyard is planted with Pinot Noir on hillsides facing South, Southwest and Southeast with elevations ranging from 525 to 750 feet. The site was planted in 2000 by Arthur and Sherry Kalita; it is currently LIVE certified and we are transitioning the vineyard to organic certification. We are thrilled to continue the two-decade legacy of creating superb, world-class Pinot Noir from the beautiful Kalita Estate Vineyard.
APPELLATION
88% Washington
12% Oregon
COMPOSITION
Riesling, Pinot Gris, Muller Thurgau,
Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat
Canelli, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
12.0%
PRODUCTION
~25,000 Cases
WINE
Luck? Intention? Evolution Lucky No. 9 White launched the alternative white category two decades ago and remains a classic staple in any wine lover’s fridge. With each bottle opened, anticipation heightens until the first drop hits the mouth. It’s oh-so-good and refreshing, capturing today’s savvy, food-hungry wine drinker.
WINEMAKING
Press – juice – tank – bam – wine! Wouldn’t it be nice if winemaking was that easy? We press our fruit straight to juice and ferment in stainless steel tanks to maintain the bright fruit flavors. We finish
fermentation with 8.3g/L of residual sugar, just enough to give it a dash of sweetness.
VINTAGE
2021 was HOT, HOT, HOT! Like triple digits, hide from the sun, you’re melting into a puddle hot! September arrived and hit the breaks on ripening with a little rain, letting us bring in perfectly ripe, clean
fruit! Huzzah!
NOTES
This wine is unbelievably tropical! Immerse yourself in a sea of lychee, pineapple and apricot, scented with lemongrass, elderflower and lime. Bright acidity lingers on the finish to balance with residual sugar.
PAIRINGS
Anything with a kick! Thai curry, chicken Vindaloo, spicy tuna poke, chili lime peanuts, you name it!
SCORES
90 Points & Top 100 Best Buy Wine Enthusiast – 23rd, 22nd, 20th, and 18th editions!
91 points James Suckling – 2019 and 2020
APPELLATION
Willamette Valley
BLEND COMPOSITION
100% Pinot Noir
BOTTLED
December 2022
BRIX AT HARVEST
~21.5°
RESIDUAL SUGAR
3.3g/L
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
12.5%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
~3 years
PRODUCTION
2,756 Cases
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 grapes were harvested September 25th and 29th using our Pellenc machine harvester
which destemmed the grapes as it picked. The fruit was sent directly to the press and gently
pressed to minimize extraction of tannins from the skins, with the juice receiving around 4-6
hours of skin contact. We maintained an extended, slow, cool fermentation of around 2
weeks in strictly stainless steel tanks to preserve the lively fruitiness and delicate floral
aromas. The wine did not spend any time aging as our intention is to create a clean, brightly
fruited and delicate Rosé. By fermenting and bottling in a short time, we were able to
capture the purity of fruit presented at the time of fermentation. Our 2022 Rosé is a delicate
wine that balances red fruit and bright acid with a clean long finish.
WINE PROFILE
Our 2022 Rosé of Pinot Noir bursts with notes of strawberry, cranberry, kiwi, guava, and
hints of rose petals. Lovely balance between the bright red fruit notes and mouth-watering
acidity.
PAIRINGS
This wine will pair beautifully with bright dishes such as a stone fruit salad with burrata,
pesto pasta, lamb gyro with tzatzik, as well as cheeses like brie and goat cheese.
SCORES
2021 – (91) Savor NW
2020 – (92) VinePair, (91) James Suckling
APPELLATION
100% Willamette Valley
BLEND COMPOSITION
A proprietary assemblage of Pinot Noir,
Chardonnay, Riesling, MüllerThurgau, Muscat
BOTTLED
En tirage 12 months
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
11.5%
DOSAGE
8g/L (Brut)
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
~5 Years
PRODUCTION
1,740 Cases
VINTAGE HIGHLIGHTS
2020 will always be remembered as a year of epic challenges. For the grapes, a cold wet spring hindered fruit development during bloom and thus gave us the smallest crop since 1998. An exceptionally light crop level historically leads to exceptionally good quality. Loose clusters with big and small berries often leads to dark color and richer and more intense flavors.
We began harvest on September 3rd and had a good week of bringing in most of our grapes for sparkling wine. Then, the winds changed and the fires started. For around seven days a thick fog of smoke hung over the Willamette Valley. During that time the sun was covered, all photosynthesis stopped and the grapes’ development stalled. The smoke event ended in an amazing fury of lightening,
thunder, and 1” of rain on the night of September 17th. We then waited for the grapes’ development to progress, taking samples and doing micro-ferments to test for smoke effect. Proceeding slowly and carefully once full maturation had been achieved, we harvested the remainder of our Estate fruit feeling incredibly lucky and optimistic.
WINEMAKING
Our Bluebird Cuvée Brut Sparkling is a vibrant example of a wine made in the traditional method. It is kept in tirage for a relatively short amount of time, only 12 months, the shorter tirage time is essential for the style of sparkling we are aiming to produce. We are looking to create a sparkling wine with bright acidity and citrus zest characters along with other intense floral and tropical fruit characteristics. It is kept in tirage for 12 months. The shorter tirage time is essential to gently build the mouth feel by the secondary fermentation that occurs in the bottle. We balance the bright acidity of sparkling with a mid-brut level dosage of 8g/L.
WINE PROFILE
The Bluebird Cuvée Brut Sparkling is designated as a Brut level of sweetness. On the nose, this wine is floral with hints of honeysuckle, lychee, peach blossom and jasmine, accented with fresh coconut and lime zest. On the palate, the lime zest and peach blossom are joined by sweet vanilla which gives way to the bright grapefruit on the finish.
PAIRINGS
This wine will pair beautifully with fried chicken, truffle flavored chips, caviar blinis, and smoked salmon.
SCORES
91 points & Editor’s Choice – Wine Enthusiast (2019 vintage)
90 points – James Suckling (2019 vintage)
APPELLATION
100% Dundee Hills AVA
BLEND COMPOSITION
100% Pinot Noir | 100% Estate Grown
CLONES
Wädenswil 2A & Pommard UCD4
AGE OF VINES
Replanted in 2006 & 2009
BOTTLED
April 2021
BRIX AT HARVEST
22.5°
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
13%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
10 -15 Years
PRODUCTION
345 Cases
VINTAGE HIGHLIGHTS
It was clear something was different with the 2019 harvest when fruit flies were spotted at Thistle Vineyard over Labor Day Weekend. The second sign was the dramatic shift in the weather forecast. At the end of August, we believed we would have a “warmer and drier” than average September/October. Sounds good huh?!?!? Then, at the end of September we got 2.7” of rain… which is double the average, and we had one of the coolest Septembers on record. We remembered and applied the key learnings from prior similar vintages in our approach to the 2019 harvest – get the grapes as ripe as possible with as little fruit degradation as possible. Even with a longer hang time this year the grapes had less sugar, high pHs and high acids. Consequently, we based our picking decision more on the taste of the juice and looking at the weather. We had 5 distinct rain events from when we started harvest on September 3 to when we ended picking on October 10th, and these individual rain events sometimes lasted multiple days. In the end, we got as much ripeness as possible and are very happy about what we put into
barrel.
WINEMAKING
The fruit for this wine was farmed organically on our estate, and was hand harvested at peak ripeness on September 26th and 28th. The picked fruit was de-stemmed and sent straight to fermentation with a combination of commercial yeast and our house native yeast cultivated from our vineyards. During it’s ~21 day fermentation, cap management was performed with strictly punch downs of the 3 ton fermenters, it was a cool vintage resulting in long, cool fermentations. Once the fermentation process was finished, the wine was pressed of the skins at dryness and barreled down in 100% French oak barrels with 24% new oak, and left to age for 16 months before bottling.
WINE PROFILE
On the nose, this wine expresses wet forest floor and mushrooms, complemented by prune, dried cherry and cinnamon. On the palate, the nose largely carries through, though it is joined by nutmeg and tobacco.
PAIRINGS
This wine will pair beautifully with boeuf bourguignon or lamb tagine.
THE STORY
The Watershed Block Pinot Noir comes from fruit harvested off of a section of the vineyard planted by founders Bill and Susan Sokol Blosser in the early 70s. Although replanted in 2006/2009 on rootstock, cuttings from fruiting vines were taken from the original plantings and grafted onto rootstock for the replant. The original section of the Estate vineyard has a diversity of clones present.
APPELLATION
100% Dundee Hills AVA
BLEND COMPOSITION
100% Pinot Noir | 100% Estate Grown
CLONES
An obscure Pinot Noir clone, internally
referred to as the “12-Row clone”
AGE OF VINES
Replanted in 2007
BOTTLED
April 2021
BRIX AT HARVEST
23°
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
13.5%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
10 -15 Years
PRODUCTION
327 Cases
CERTIFICATIONS
Made with 100% certified organic grapes
VINTAGE HIGHLIGHTS
The spring of 2018 was warmer than the average over the previous 10 years, and fairly dry. Bud break happened in mid-April and Bloom in early June, which can be a treacherous undertaking as the spring weather can mess up a healthy flowering. A giant hail storm descended on the Dundee Hills in early June, but luckily none of our Sokol Blosser Estate crop was ruined. The summer started like
one giant furnace; July was a hot month and we had a lot of above 90 degree days. Just when it seemed like the hot weather would not stop, August came and more moderate weather with it. This helped slow the ripening down, and even cooler weather in September allowed us to let the grapes hang longer, resulting in riper fruit without additional sugar accumulation. The 2018 vintage is our coolest growing season since 2012, and we believe it will be our best vintage since then.
WINEMAKING
The grapes were carefully hand harvested on September 28th, hand-sorted to remove any flawed bunches and 100% de-stemmed directly into several 3-ton stainless steel fermenters for a 20 day, slow and steady fermentation with daily punchdowns for cap management. The wine was left for a long settling after it was drained and then pressed off the skins in order to have the wine as clean as possible going down to barrel. This wine was aged in 100% French oak barrels (29% new oak) for 16 months and 14 barrels were selected for the final 2019 cuvée.
WINE PROFILE
On the nose, this wine shows black fruits such as black cherry, black currant and blackberry, joined by tar and leather. These black fruits are joined on the palate by cinnamon, tobacco and leather.
PAIRINGS
This wine will pair beautifully with grilled ribeye or braised lamb shank.
SCORES
2018 – (92) James Suckling
2017 – (92) James Suckling
