Ahhhhh...Weber: Weber is spice and everything nice. That’s what I always think of whenever I taste this wine. I have worked with this vineyard almost every year since 1994 and still can’t get enough. Arthur & Vivian Weber first planted their vineyard back in 1974 and I feel honored to get some of this precious fruit. We get the top of Blocks 5 and 7, which just fall off the top of the vineyard to the east. These blocks are Pommard clone planted on its own roots in 1985. The characteristic spiciness must linger in the soil here, because it’s always in the wine. This year think of plum tart with a hint of nutmeg, then seasoned ground almonds and hazelnuts roasted with tons of butter. This is as good as it gets in New World Pinot Noir and stands up with the best in the Whole World. -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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