2021 LeNez pinot noir
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LeNez is made to be our most approachable pinot noir, but don't let that fool you. Our small 15.5 acre vineyard produces nothing but excellent fruit, so even our most affordable wines are exceptional quality, and tasting room guests are often surprised to find how much they like every wine on the flight. Even the most affordable!
The 2021 LeNez is one of our best vintages for this wine, with a full body and succulent dark-fruited flavors. This wine is usually a blend of all five clones, but in 2021 we used all the Dijon 777 elsewhere, and went heavy on the Pommard to give this a bolder, darker profile. It is comprised of 65% Pommard, 15% Dijon 667, 10% Dijon 114, and 10% Dijon 115.
The name is a pun. Leonard was the name of the father of our founders, and his nickname was "Lenny." We gave his name the "Chez Targez" style fancy pronunciation to arrive at our "Len-neh" pronunciation, and "Le-neh" sounds just like "Le Nez" which is how you say "the nose" in French.
Vintage notes
The 2021 growing season was long and hot, with a larger than average fruit set that paired beautifully with the lengthy ripening season. We saw a record heat bubble in late June with temps over 114 degrees! Thankfully that happened in June and not August, and the tiny grapes were not impacted by the brief event. The rest of the summer was hot, but not excessively, and we saw our typical cooling in September, allowing for longer hang time. On the whole it was one of the best vintages in the history of the Willamette Valley.
Our 2021 pinots are bold and fruit-forward, but even young, they show excellent balance with tannic structure and acidity on the finish.
