La Belle Promenade Vineyard
Photogallery rendered here.
Our search for vineyards is generally focused on older, historically relevant vineyards in Oregon. We have, undoubtedly, the largest broad swath of old, famous and incredibly well-farmed vineyards represented in our cellar than any other winery in Oregon. That determination has allowed us to create an immense amount of bottlings that have incredibly unique characteristics to each one. However, sometimes you have to spot the up-and-comer and take a chance on it in its relative youth before someone beats you to the punch and the opportunity to work with something that will be a special place passes you by. We did that with the Anklebreaker Block of Olenik (now Corrine) Vineyard back in 2010 and the results have spoken for themselves over the years.
In the spring of 2019 we grafted over close to 3.5 acres of Pinot Noir in our Estate Vineyard to either Chardonnay or another clone of Pinot so we knew that, all things being equal, we were going to be short around 10 tons of fruit just from those grafted sections. We ended up meeting and tasting with Grant Coulter who is the winemaker (and more) at Flaneur Winery and whom also was a fixture at Beaux Freres (our next-door neighbor) for years. He mentioned the possible availability of fruit from their two estate vineyard sites, one of which is La Belle Promenade. This vineyard is located on Kings Grade Rd. which is where Corrine and Lia’s Vineyard are situated, except it is further up the hill. The vineyard sits at around 800’ elevation making it the highest elevation site with which we work and…that may not be a bad idea going forward if you catch my drift.
The site was initially planted in 2012 making it the youngest site from which we get fruit. What it lacks in vine age it makes up for in location, planning and quality of farming. This is a organically farmed site is set upon a gorgeous rolling hillside that is filled with all sorts of life. In fact, the event that really sealed the deal for us was on our initial visit watching two in-flight Peregrine falcons fighting over a snake that one of them had caught. How can you pass up a site when that is your introduction to it?!? We were standing in the Ghost Barn Block (Pommard) when we saw this begin and the section of the vineyard the falcons started over is the Orchestra Block which is a massalle selection (multiple clones scattered throughout a block) planting. Those are the two blocks we ended up taking. The bottling will feature the Orchestra Block but will bring in enough of the Ghost Barn to provide a fuller-scale picture of this rare and potentially phenomenal vineyard site.
For a tremendous interactive view of this unique vineyard please visit https://www.flaneurwines.com/la-belle-promenade-vineyard/.
