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2005 Pinot Noir, Maresh Vineyard, Futures
Release Date: 6/2007 Production: 98 cases Price: $360 per 6 bottles Sold only as a future Production Notes: The destemmed grapes were fermented in two small bins after one or two days of cold maceration. The wine aged for 16 months in 50% new French oak barrels before bottling. Maresh Vineyard is one of Oregon's greatest Pinot noir sites. It was the best wine produced by my mentor and it is a privilege to work with this fruit again. Drinkable at release, it will benefit from aging up to 15 years.
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Winemaker Notes
Maresh Vineyard was the flagship vineyard site for Arterberry, Ltd., where I apprenticed under it's winemaker Fred Arterberry, Jr. from 1987-9. Fred was the first winemaker in Oregon to make multiple vineyard designated Pinot noirs; the Burgundy tradition that I follow. I believe that Fred's wine from Maresh Vineyard was the pinnacle of winemaking in Oregon in the 1980's. The Arterberry 1985 Pinot noir, Maresh Vineyard was also the highest scoring Oregon Pinot noir for more than 20 years.
The allure of Maresh is its very Burgundian mix of supple beauty, elegance, silky texture, and raspberry fruit framed in a wine with fine tannins and a backbone of acidity. The Maresh Pinot noirs develop slowly and the wines are a joy to drink.
From the time of Fred's death in 1990, I have attempted to purchase fruit from the Maresh site, unsuccessfully. In 2005, Rex Hill's exclusive contract for the site released half of the acreage to other wineries. I was offered 2.1 acres of Pinot noir, including half of Fred's original vineyard blocks and I was thrilled.
The good news was that we finally had Maresh fruit and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, the fruit set in the Dundee Hills was particularly bad in 2005 and it appeared that my blocks had the lowest crop in the vineyard. We received only six, half-full bins, about one-third of a normal crop. The yield was a microscopic 0.8 tons per acre or 12 HL/HA. Instead of 12 barrels we had hoped to make, there was enough wine for only four barrels (24 cases per barrel).
The rest of the bad news was that the voles (a small rodent) had infested the vineyard and had chewed the bark entirely around 25% of the old vines, killing them. That loss meant that I would not get fruit from Maresh in 2006.
It appears that this small production may be my only chance to make wine from what are some of the oldest vines in Oregon, one of the best vineyards in Oregon, and a wine I cherished from my mentor. I hope to enjoy those bottles for a long time.
Sincerely,
Mark Vlossak, winemaker