This is a first for us. Glenn and Susanne Howard who are the owners planted it only in the last few years, and it is just now beginning to produce fruit. I am delighted to work with it. I believe that it has the same potential as the well-heeled vineyards in the Dundee Hills. It has the same altitude of about 400 feet and aspect of due south. It is the red jory soil of Dundee and yet it is in the McMinnville appellation. We taste very lovely blueberry and peach kind of flavors coming out of this wine, very soft and sweet on the palate. Since this is my first year of making wine from the vineyard, I am excited to see what becomes consistent from year to year – defines the terroir of this site. With Glenn’s passionate and precise management, it won’t take long to get a sense of it. This vineyard is set to become a regular component of our Autograph blend. -Rob Stuart
2007 Vintage Report
What a year! If you remember the weather in 2007 you'll remember one thing - rain. The spring wasn't too bad, and we actually had a pretty good set. But we had several unseasonably cool and rainy weeks throughout the summer and early fall. Followed by buckets and buckets of rain in October.
Luckily we were able to get some of our fruit for sparkling in before the end of September, and a little bit of Cabernet from Klipsun Vineyard in Eastern Washing (we put it in our port). Other than that, we just had to hold tight. It was brutal because the fruit wasn't ripe, and the rain just kept coming. We were dreaming of arks and keeping our fingers crossed that it would eventually stop.
We gambled, and sure enough, we won. The sun came out on the 23rd of October and we had gorgeous wetehr till the end of the month. We gave things a few days to dry out and sweeten up, and bam, we went out and picked it all. Somehow we survived, and actually prodcued some incredible wines, in spite of it all. Welcome to Oregon.
At R. Stuart & Co. we hang our hat on blended Pinot noirs. The Big Fire Pinot and the Autograph are really the cornerstones of what we do.
Having said that, it’s still lots of fun to make single vineyard Pinot noirs. In 2007 I made six of them. All in small lots – just about 100 cases each – and all are unfined and unfiltered. We age them each for about 10 months in a combination of new to 5 year old French oak.
Taste and explore these wines for yourself. Watching them unfold over the years is a fascinating and delicious pastime – I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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