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Reviews/Commentary
My goal is to produce wines that are balanced, complex, and ageworthy that reflect the nuances of their terroir. My wines to made to enjoy with food, so acidity is important. Unfortunately, blind tastings and wine competitions are not generally designed to highlight these types of wines.
In competitive tastings, wines that are restrained and balanced are at a disadvantage. When comparing 50 different Pinot noirs, the differences in a flight of wines become the focus. Heavier oak treatment, lower or higher acidity, bigger or riper fruit all stand out as distinct and different. Those wines receive higher scores because they deviate from the norm, they are different. Subtile nuances are often overlooked. These nuances are the essence of terroir and are the focus of my winemaking.
Reviewers often prefer to taste wines when they are very young. When a wine is bottled, the winemaker must choose whether the bottling techniques will emphasize early drinkability or long term ageability. Oxygen exposure, aeration racking, and low sulfer levels will promote greater access to the wine's fruit and aromatics in the short term. These wines show well when young. The opposite choices: minimal racking, anaerobic bottling techniques, and balanced sulfur additions, promote longevity, but make it more difficult to evaluate a young wine. These are the techniques I choose to use. My Pinot noirs will almost always improve with several hours of open time. The last glass is usually the best glass.
The wines I make at St. Innocent are made to reflect my vision. I choose to sell to persons who enjoy my Pinot noir, gris, and blancs, as well as my Chardonnays and sparking wines. I generally do not enter competitions or submit my wines for review.
I have a long relationship the writers of The Wine Advocate. For fifteen years, Robert Parker and then Pierre-Antoine Rovani, have annually tasted my wines. Their analysis only begins with my young wines. They have followed the evolution of my Pinot noirs and have tasted St. Innocent wines more than a decade old. There reviews frequently include tasting notes of older vintages. I am grateful for their interest.
Mark Vlossak, winemaker
What The Wine Advocate
says about St. Innocent Winery:
Wine Advocate Review of the 2003 and 2004 vintage (click to view entire review)
2004 Wine Personalities of the Year
"Mark Vlossak, Willamette Valley, Oregon – A Wine Advocate Hero in 2002, Mark Vlossak continues to grace consumers with the finest Pinot noirs Oregon has fashioned to date (one of his wines at Panther Creek earned the highest score Robert Parker ever gave to an Oregon wine and his offerings at St. Innocent Winery have received the highest scores I’ve attributed to Oregon). As if that were not enough to earn high praise, Vlossak also deserves thanks from all wine-loving consumers for maintaining extremely fair pricing – many of his 2002s, for example, were the finest Pinots I tasted in that highly successful vintage yet were some of the cheapest wines in my report. Vlossak’s dedication to quality and his commitment to delivering value to his customers is exemplary. The Wine Advocate 12-27-04
2002 Wine Personalities of the Year
“Mark Vlossak (Proprietor and Winemaker, Saint-Innocent Winery, Salem, OR) – From his barn-shaped winery located in an industrial park on the outskirts of Salem, Mark Vlossak consistently produces some of Oregon’s finest wines, both red and white. Mark works assiduously with growers to ensure low yields and well-ripened fruit. His winemaking, which has been heralded in The Wine Advocate for years (he was formerly at Panther Creek), seems to improve with each passing vintage. Not only are Mark’s wines fabulous, but they are reasonably priced. Unlike most of his Oregonian and Californian colleagues, Mark is committed to providing the consumer with top-flight wines at fair prices.” The Wine Advocate 12/31/200
About 2000:
"Consumers should pay particular attention to Saint-Innocent's offerings. Not only are
they some of the finest wines made in Oregon, but they are among the most reasonably priced."
“Medium-bodied, forward, and sexy, the medium to dark ruby-colored 2000 Pinot noir Shea Vineyard offers cherry, spice, strawberry, cassis, and violet aromas. This feminine wine has lovely intensity and elegance. It is pure, sultry, packed with cherry as well as blackberry fruit, and has a long, supple finish. Projected maturity: now-2009." 91 pts.
"The restrained 2000 Pinot noir Seven Springs Vineyard needs air to reveal itself. Perfume, black raspberries, violets, and cherries gradually unfold in its delightful nose. Medium to full bodied, it has admirable concentration, depth, and refinement. Brambleberries, black cherries, and flowers dominate its flavor profile and extensive finish. Projected maturity: 2005-2012." 91 pts.
About 1999:
"The 1999 Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard is medium to dark ruby-colored and displays a darker fruit as well as a more present structure than is generally associated with this vineyard. It bursts from the glass with loads of blackberries, black cherries, and brambleberries. This is a medium to full-bodied wine with a gorgeously sappy character, copious quantities of fruit cake, blackberry syrup, dark cherry flavors, and a marvelously long finish. It's tannin is ripe yet present, giving it the backbone that many wines from this vineyard have lacked. Projected maturity: 2004-2012. - 92 pts.
The slightly darker-colored 1999 Pinot Noir Freedom Hilll Vineyard is a hugely endowed wine. It bursts from the glass with loads of cherries, red flowers, and sweet earthy spices (Vlossak compares this last scent to clay). On the palate, it reveals powerful boysenberry, blackberry, and cassis fruit flavors in a more delineated and civilized style than generally found from wines from this vineyard. It has outstanding focus, copious ammounts of ripe tannin, and an impressively long finish. Drink between 2005-2012. -91 pts.
I am enthralled with the aromatics of Vlossak's Pinots from the Seven Springs Vineyard. A magnum of the 1991 served at this year's International Pinot Noir Celebration was super, causing Burgundy's Claude Dugat, unquestionably a maestro of Pinot, to exclaim, 'ce nez est magnifique!' (This nose is magnificent!). A bottle of the 1992, which I served a week before to a chef visiting from Paris, was equally lovely. In its youth, this wine reveals hints of its complex aromatics and tends to be tight and backward (the 1998, tasted three months ago, remains an exception). With cellaring, Vlossak's Pinot Noirs from Seven Springs typically blossoms into one of Oregon's real stars. Aromatically, the medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 Pinot Noir Seven Springs displays wild flower, berry, cinnamon, and a myriad of spices, It is rich, juicy, and extremely elegant. Loads of candied red fruits, mostly raspberries, and cherries, are found in this ample, structured wine. It is fresh, bright, beautifully concentrated, and has a long, toasted oak and cherry-flavored finish. Projected maturity: 2005-2014. - 93+ pts.
About 1998:
“While many of Oregon’s best-known estates appear to be in a horse race to see who will have the state’s most expensive Pinot noirs, St. Innocent has maintained an intelligent, honorable, and consumer-friendly policy of fair pricing.
In a manner typical of Pinot Noirs from the Freedom Hill Vineyard, St. Innocent's 1998 offers a boisterous, red fruit-packed nose. The big, dense, chewy-textured, meium to full bodied wine is well structered, and crammed with red and black cherries. While presently firm, this wine has copious quantities of fruit as well as well-rippened tannins. Projected maturity: 2004-2010+. - 90+ pts.
Vlossak believes his 1998 Pinot noir Seven Springs Vineyard is the finest wine he has fashioned to date. I agree. Possessing a nose reminiscent of a Romanèe-St.-Vivant, this wine expresses complex aromas of perfume, flowers, red berries, and spices. Medium to full-bodied, satin-textured, and lush, it possesses great focus, refinement, and complexity. Silky layers of cherries, raspberries, and strawberries can be found in this intricate and exceptionally long-finishing wine. Projected maturity: 2002-2010+ .... Wow!” - 94 pts. (highest score of the vintage)
About 1996:
“The 1996 Pinot noir Freedom Hill Vineyard is medium to dark ruby-colored, and reveals black currant and Asian spice aromas. The most powerful of St. Innocent’s 1996s, this wine’s personality is dense, medium to full-bodied, chewy textured, and structured. Road tar, black cherries, and cassis can be found in its intense flavor profile. It is certainly one of the stars of its vintage.”
About 1995:
“A recently purchased bottle of his 1995 Seven Springs Vineyard Pinot noir once again drove home the point that Vlossak is crafting some of Oregon’s finest Pinots... Had I not been the one with the corkscrew, I could have been convinced that it had been crafted by Maurice Ecard of Savigny-Les-Beaune fame! This superb wine, particularly in light of the difficulties faced by Oregon producers in 1995, is a testimony to Vlossak’s superb skills.”
1995 Pinot noir, Seven Springs Vineyard - 90 pts. (highest score of the vintage)
About the 1994’s:
“Winemaker/proprietor Mark Vlossak has turned out four superlative efforts in 1994......Kudos to St. Innocent, which can boast an enviable track record over the last few years.”
Note: I became Panther Creek's winemaker in 1994 and continued through the harvest of 1999.
1994 Panther Creek, Pinot noir, Shea Vineyard - 94 pts (highest score of vintage)
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