Chehalem Pinot Gris

Description

Vineyard Fruit comes from our three Estate Vineyards Ridgecrest, Stoller and Corral Creek, blended into a fully-complemented wine. The estate vineyards are planted on three different soil types, which provides complementary elements in resulting wines Ridgecrest on Willakenzie, Stoller on Jory, and Corral Creek on Laurelwood. The interaction of clone and site add great complexity, consistency and fullness of character to blends of Pinot gris, especially in an excellent vintage.Tasting Notes Beautiful fresh aromatic notes of hang-dried linens, white blossom, Asian pear, and lemon curd greet us on the entry, with lingering hints of candied ginger and butterscotch on the finish of the nose. The palate is especially balanced, showing warmth and spice from a warmer summer in the form of dried apricot, peach pit, and rose petal. The summer fruits are followed by pleasantly lithe acidity and the balancing fruit sweetness of salmon berries, tart cherry, and mandarin, all brought on by a cooler finish to the harvest season.Reviews Lovely floral fragrances lead into an elegant wine with racy acidity. The clover impression continues on the palate, along with apple skin and white peaches. The residual sugar is barely noticeable. 90 points, Wine Enthusiast, Feb 1, 2015The Wine Pinot Gris is one of the wines for which we are best known. We make it in a style as close to Alsace as possible, working to get weight on the palate, while retaining fruit flavors and acidity, and harvested ripe to give full, viscous wines with light spice flavors and long finishes. We consider Pinot Gris a universal food wine. In an increasingly popular style, this bright, stainless-steel fermented Pinot Gris combines Corral Creek, Ridgecrest, and Stoller Vineyards fruit.Vintage 2013 is a Tale of Two Harvestsone very early and one normal, with rain inbetween. They started as one very early harvest thanks to a very consistent, warm growing season, the warmest on record up to final ripening mid-September. An unanticipated 30-year rain event of 5 inches then appeared the last days of September, made of remnants from a typhoon that had hit Japan. Cool weather from then on slowed ripening and turned harvest into two discrete picks, earlier and later picks apart by up to three weeks showing very good quality, the coolness and longer hang-time a big benefit. Croploads were moderate-to high, wines earlyon similar in nature to 1996, with richness, and deep spice. – Chehalem