2023 Estate Vineyard, Wadensvil Block Pinot Noir

The Block: No block defines the 2021 vintage more accurately and succinctly than the Wadensvil Block from our Estate Vineyard. This is a very wide and narrow block. The block stretches about 70% of the width of the vineyard. After the 119 degree heat dome in June we expected to see, well, catastrophic results. We did not. In fact, in the very middle of the vineyard there was a distinct patch of rows that accelerated forward. Since a wide tractor row runs through the very middle of the vineyard there wasn’t a lot to see in most blocks. However, that tractor row ends at the Wadensvil Block and thus we saw a 30-40 row patch in this block move, ultimately, about a full week ahead of the two sides, one sloping off to the northwest, the other to the northeast. This has never happened before. We acted accordingly and picked this advanced section that we called The Tenderloin on September 6th and the two sided, dubbed The Outer Limits, on September 12th. The block was planted in 1997 and was nursed back from the depths of mismanagement when we purchased it in 2000 to being a stand alone bottling in 2015. It is now near the top of overall favorites each vintage.

Farming Practices: We have done the management of this property internally since we purchased it in 2000 with the exception of 2014 and 2015 when Sterling Fox’s management service did the work. Also, at that time, the vineyard was switched entirely to organic farming practices and remains so to this day. The vineyard has always been dry farmed.

Picking Dates, Tonnages, Tons/Acre: Picked on September 13, 2021. 8.18 tons (2.65 tons/acre)

Vinification: All fermenters of the Wadsnsvil Block were done in 1.75 ton open-tops and done 100% destemmed.  

Winemaking: Fermentation was managed exclusively by pigeages to ensure gentle handling, extraction and delicate tannin construction. Cold soak lasted for 4 days for both fermenters. Full fermentation from beginning to pressing lasted 17 days. A 48-hour settling of pressed wine occurred prior to being racked to barrel. All barrels were on full lees until assemblage for bottling. Bottled without fining or filtration.

Barrels: This 20-barrel bottling consists of 4 new barrels Cadus barrels, 10 once or twice used barrels. The balance was neutral barrels.

Notes: This bottling is perhaps our quintessential Wadensvil bottling. As wonderful as Corrine, Freedom Hill and the Chehalem Mountain Vineyard bottlings are this one manages to steal the spotlight each year. When we talk about Wadensvil bringing red fruit, floral aromatics and delicacy into a marine soil environment that favors darker fruits, meatier/gamier aromatics and lots of structure, this is the wine we are truly referencing. This is the largest bottling we have done of this wine which shows how the quality and health of this block have continued their upward trends from when we initially bottled this on its own in 2015. This is the 7th bottling of the block. The wine finished with numbers of a TA of 5.6, a pH of 3.56, a free sulfur level below 35 ppm and a total sulfur below 85 ppm.

Tasting Note: Please be aware that I am loathe to write tasting notes on our wines. Each person has an individual palate and therefore unique experiences with every wine. Also, what a person has tasted in their life and what they enjoy informs them on what a wine is like. If I tell you a wine tastes like cherries and you either have never had a cherry or don’t like cherries what I am saying is irrelevant information. That being said I have been asked to include my thoughts on each wine (since we have so many).

The 2023 Estate Vineyard, Wadensvil Block is perhaps what we had in our minds’ eyes when we first saw this wan and sad section of the vineyard back in 2000.  We envisioned this as a block with both the capacity to produce some of the most interesting and unique fruit in the vineyard while also being a good producer in terms of tonnage. When you consider that this vineyard can produce both the massive, dark and rich Bonshaw Block and this exquisite, red-fruited of incredible complexity and length from the Wadensvil Block gives you an idea of this site’s unique capacity. This bottling shows how this clone and our marine soil interact in a way that allows both components to have a significant role in the outcome of the wine. While the Old Vine is the flagship wine of our entire operation, this bottling is may be the most significant of our many block bottlings. This will reward long aging, but because of its nature it will drink very well before its block counterparts.