APPELLATION
88% Columbia Valley, WA 12% Willamette Valley, OR
COMPOSITION
Riesling, Pinot Gris, Muller Thurgau, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat Canelli, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
12.0%
PRODUCTION
~25,000 Cases
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, the same wine we’ve loved for years, all in a jazzy new label!
Notes
Aromatic wine with heaps of citrus notes like lychee and lime zest, hints of tropical fruit and just a touch melon. Bright acidity lingers on the finish to balance with residual sugar.
Pairings
Anything with a kick! Thai curry, tandoori chicken, spicy tuna rolls, chili lime peanuts, you name it!
Scores
91 points – James Suckling (2020)
91 – James Suckling (2019)
90 points & Best Buy – Wine Enthusiast (2019)
APPELLATION
100% Dundee Hills
BLEND COMPOSITION
100% Chardonnay
GRAPE CLONES
Varied with a 76 and 96 majority
BOTTLED
April 2022
BRIX AT HARVEST
22°
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
13.5%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
~8–10 Years
PRODUCTION
724 Cases
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 wehad 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 fruit was hand harvested from Thistle Vineyard on September 6th with the intention of making a sparkling wine, it was picked when the phenolics were low, the acids high, and delicate flavors were just starting to develop. The fruit was gently whole cluster pressed with a Champagne pressing cycle that uses long, light pressure, taking only the pure and best cuts of the cycle. The Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc were fermented and aged separately so we could establish how each would contribute to thecuvée. Both lots were aged for 6 months in 50% stainless steel drums and 50% neutral barrels. The final wine was then put en tirage for 37 months, and then was rested 9months under cork prior to release.
WINE PROFILE
Our 2018 Blanc de Blancs has an expressive nose with prominent notes of brioche and fresh gala apples. On the palate there is wonderful balance of brioche and toasted notes with fresh Bosc pear and apples, ending with a lovely acidity on the finish.
PAIRINGS
Our Blanc de Blancs is perfect for savory pairings such as fresh oysters, lobster rolls, crabcakes and Camembert cheese.
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
February 2023
BRIX AT HARVEST
22°
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
13%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
10 -15 Years
PRODUCTION
299 Cases
CERTIFICATIONS
Made with 100% certified organic grapes
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 Willamette Valley has seen through 128 years of record keeping! Bloom 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 little rain which that allowed us to fully ripen the grapes.The hot and dry summer made for fruit that was extremely clean, resulting in excellent fermentations. All in all, mother nature gave us something to be grateful for on our 50th anniversary.
WINEMAKING
The grapes were carefully hand harvested on September 15th, hand-sorted to remove any flawed bunches and 100% de-stemmed directly into several 3-ton stainless steel fermenters. Fermentation took place mostly with ambient fermentation and partially with commercial yeasts, along with regular punch downs 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 for 16 months, with 17% new oak and 75% neutral.
WINE PROFILE
On the nose, the 2021 Twelve Row has red fruit framed by a hint of leather. The palate carries medium acidity with dark current and leathery tannins.
PAIRINGS
This wine will pair nicely with a grilled ribeye or braised lamb shank.
SCORES
92 points – James Suckling (2018)
92 points – James Suckling (2017)
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
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 fruit was hand harvested from Kalita Vineyard from September 21st to the 24th, and brought back to our Dundee Hills Estate winery were 96% was destemmed and the rest left whole-cluster. The destemmed fruit went through an ambient fermentation while the whole cluster was fermented using our native house yeast. All of this took place in three ton stainless steel tanks with punch-downs for cap management. The wine was aged for 10 months in French oak barrels with 20% new oak.
WINE PROFILE
An abundance of black fruit with blackberry, black currants, and black cherry with fresh blossom. A big, rich Pinot Noir with a perfect balance between fruit and tannins.
PAIRINGS
Pair with roasted chicken, beet and goat cheese salad, or a seared rack of lamb with morels.
SCORES
93 points – James Suckling (2021)
92 points – Decanter (2021)
Platinum medal at TexSom (2021)
THE STORY
Kalita Estate Vineyard is located in the heart of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA in the Willamette Valley. This stunning, bowl shaped vineyard was planted in 2000 by Arthur and Sherry Kalita; it is currently LIVE certified and we are transitioning the vineyard to organic certification.
APPELLATION
100% Dundee Hills AVA
BLEND COMPOSITION
100% Pinot Noir | 100% Estate Grown
CLONES
Wädenswil 1A & 2A, Pommard andPinot Droit
AGE OF VINES
Replanted in 2008
BOTTLED
2020
BRIX AT HARVEST
21.8-23.2.°
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
13.5%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
10 -15 Years
PRODUCTION
496 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 grapes were hand harvested on September 23rd and October 1st in this founding section of the Sokol Blosser Estate. They were then sorted by hand to remove any flawed bunches and 100% de-stemmed directly into 3-ton stainless steel fermenters. The Pommard and Wadenswil (making up 50% of the grapes), were inoculated with a native yeast while remaining half, composed entirely of Pinot Droit, was inoculated with a commercial yeast. Cap management was done via gentile punch downs up to 2 times per day. Fermentation was long and cool, with the Pommad-Wadenswil lot taking 14 days and the Pinot Droit taking 21 days. This wine was aged in 100% French oak barrels, with 20% new oak for 16 months with minimal SO2 levels.
WINE PROFILE
On the nose, this wine shines with black cherry, boysenberry, complemented by vanilla, clove, tar and mushroom. The palate continues the fruits and mushrooms, but they are joined by clove and flint.
PAIRINGS
This wine will pair beautifully with lamb burgers, pork with cranberry relish, and fried maitake mushrooms.
THE STORY
The Old Vineyard Block Pinot Noir comes from fruit harvested off of the initial section of the vineyard planted by founders Bill and Susan Sokol Blosser in the early 70s. Although replanted in 2007/2009 on rootstock, cuttings from fruiting vines were taken from the original plantings and grafted onto rootstock for the replant.
SCORES
92 points – James Suckling (2018)
93 points – James Suckling (2017)
91 points – Wine Spectator (2017)
APPELLATION
100%Willamette Valley
AVA BLEND COMPOSITION
100% Pinot Gris
AGE OF VINES
Planted in 1997
BOTTLED
March 2023
BRIX AT HARVEST
21.5°
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
13%
PROPER CELLAR LIFESPAN
~5–7 Years
PRODUCTION
~6,300 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 fruit for this wine was hand picked over a period of days between September 30th and October 21st. A portion of the Pinot Gris was picked with an acid focus and the other portion with a focus on higher brix and therefore more fruit weight. All the fruit was machine picked, being destemmed in the process, and went quickly to the press to avoid prolonged skin contact. The juice had long, cool fermentations in stainless steel tanks ranging from 15-20 days, using a diversity of ester focused yeasts. The resulting wines were all blended in a stainless steel tank with light lees where it was aged for about three months with lees stirring weekly for two months. As a result of the dual picking there is a weight and dimension in this wine. Additionally, lees stirring allowed the body and mid palette to build during the aging of the wine. The final product is a clean Pinot Gris with weight, dimension, minerality and aromatics of stone fruit with hints of citrus apple and pear in the palette.
WINE PROFILE
Slight notes of honeysuckle, apple blossoms, nectarines, pear, and apricots. A very complex Pinot Gris that is dry, with high acidity, and a long finish. Spring and Summer we found your perfect pairing!
PAIRINGS
Pair our Pinot Gris with stone fruit salad, Chicken Tikki Masala (Medium Heat Preferred), or spinach quiche.
SCORES
91 points – James Suckling (2021)
92 points – Wine & Spirits (2021)
92 points – Wine Enthusiast (2021)
91 points – James Suckling (2019)
