2022 WV Blend pinot noir
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A blend of pinot noir sourced from three premium Willamette Valley vineyards. This is the first Lenné vintage made by our new winemaker Jared Etzel, and this wine enjoyed extended aging in French oak. It is full-bodied with bold fruit flavors, and has beautiful balance and complexity for such a young wine,. As with all Lenné pinots, it will only improve with several years of cellar aging.
- On the nose: Violets, roasted coffee, caramel, herbal, tropical, anise.
- In the mouth: Cool, silky, musk melon, kiwi, white peach, butterscotch, with a jammy, tingly finish.
Winemaker's Note
The 2022 WV Cuvee is a blend of fruit sourced from the Lenné Vineyard and Star Dance vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, and the Star Mooring vineyard from the Chehalem Mountains AVA. It is our most approachable and elegant cuvee of the 2022 vintage.
The Lenne vineyard always produces powerful and concentrated wines and contributes blue and black fruit and depth to the blend. The Star Dance vineyard is a very cool and elegant site which brings high tone floral elements to the cuvee. The Star Mooring vineyard provides a deep mineral element and red tone fruits.
The wine was fermented by native yeast, aged 12 months in 30% new French oak barrels, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. It is a very fresh, balanced and accessible cuvee that doesn't require a long cellaring or decanting to reach its prime drinking window.
I had a great time blending this wine, bringing the strengths of each of these vineyards together to produce a harmonious and very expressive blend.
--Jared Etzel
Vintage Notes
The 2022 growing season was uniquely challenging. The Spring was cold and wet, capped off by a freak storm that dropped several inches of snow in late April. We had not yet seen bud break in the Lenne vineyard, but the freezing temperatures set the new growth well behind schedule. May and June continued cool and cloudy, but thankfully when the summer finally arrived it came with a vengeance, and we saw a record number of days above 90 degrees through August and September. Early October was much warmer and dryer than usual, and the small fruitset finally ripened enough to harvest by mid-October, four weeks later than usual.
The resulting wines are complex and very reflective of their winemaker's technique. Many Willamette Valley pinot noirs from 2022 are light and delicate, with a thin mouthfeel. Our Lenné pinots received extended barrel time, which helped give them a much richer, bolder texture.
