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2009 Pinot Noir, Momtazi Vineyard
Release Date: 9/2011 Retail Price: $32/bottle Production: 1404 cases Production Notes: The grapes were fermented in small stainless and French oak fermenters after one or two days of cold maceration. The wine aged for 16 months in 33% new French oak barrels and was bottled by gravity without fining or filtration. Crop Level 2.3 tons/ acre This Pinot noir complements foods with rich earthy flavors: stews, roasts, cheeses and braised meats. When served young, this wine is best opened 1-2 hours before serving . It is drinkable at release and will benefit from aging up to 9 years.
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Winemaker Notes
In 2006 I approached Moe Momtazi and asked if St. Innocent could contract for Pinot noir fruit from his bio-dynamically farmed vineyard. From my first trip to France in 1998, I observed that the greatest domaines in both Burgundy and Alsace had one thing in common, they farmed bio-dynamically.
Bio-dynamics is an integrated system of farming that incorporates and encourages diversity in the entire ecosystem, from the roots and soil, through the macro-climate of the vine. A step beyond organic farming, this system was developed by Rudolph Steiner. The end result is a greater sense of the terroir of the site.
Momtazi Vineyard is in the McMinnville appellation, located high above a warm valley. Within the northern Willamette Valley, this AVA is the one most strongly affected by coastal winds blowing through the Van Duzer corridor in the early evening. It is both a sunny, roasted hillside achieving full ripeness and a windblown, ridge of thin soil that challenges the vines ability to survive. The wines produced reveal this dichotomy, being densely fruited and rustic at the same time. The wines produced from this AVA tend to be darker in fruit profile, richer in tannins, and more intense on the palate.
This wine has a distinctly different density compared to other St. Innocent offerings and reflects its unique McMinnville terroir. The best analogy I can offer is to imagine having tasted all of Burgundy except for Nuits-Saint-Georges. Then you taste Nuits-Saint-Georges and respond that this is not Burgundy. But of course it is, in fact it is the geographic center of Burgundy, yet is somehow completely different. This is how Momtazi and the McMinnville AVA fits into the profile of Oregon's Willamette Valley.
2009 was an unusual vintage. Normally, the fruit grown in the northern Willamette Valley is fairly uniform in character over the 40 or so miles from the north end in the Chehalem Mountain AVA to the area just south of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. This was not true in 2009.
The northern AVA's (Yamhill-Carlton, Dundee, and Ribbon Ridge) experienced significant cluster dehydration and lower acidity yielding intense and very fruit-dominated wines. AVA's to the south (McMinnville and Eola-Amity Hills) harvested 7-10 days later, had no significant dehydration and normal acidities, producing exceptionally balanced wines.
Tasting Notes
This is a complex wine that reflects the heat of the afternoon sun, the cool, windy evenings, and the rustic soils of the McMinnville hills while retaining the dark beauty of its intense, ripe fruit. It is aromatically complex with layers of blue and black fruit, Indian spices, coffee hints, and pepper. In the mouth the blue/black fruit flavors and eastern spice notes are layered with a "sauvage" sense of wildness. Texturally layered, its flavors vary in intensity and quality over your tongue and palate. Ample ripe tannins balance with its acidity into a finish that integrates both its dark, wild fruit and nuanced spices.
Serve with braised meats, stews, sausages, or cassoulet. It can be enjoyed in its youth after decanting for two hours or more and will develop over a decade.
Mark Vlossak, winemaker