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Winemaker Notes - May 2007: Seven Springs and Anden Vineyards
As St. Innocent's winemaker, my job is to be sure that St. Innocent has access to the best fruit possible. I work with the growers and vineyard crews to farm that fruit in the best manner, and to craft wines that reveal the unique terroir in a way that reflects who I am as a winemaker.
It is important for me to have long-term access to specific block of grapes. This allows me to discover their uniqueness and to be able to modify growing practices to optimize fruit quality. To meet that goal, I need to work with growers who share my goal and commit to long-term contracts. I have made wine from Seven Springs as long as the vineyards have produced fruit and as long as I have been making commercial wine (since 1988). St. Innocent was their largest customer.
Seven Springs was divided in 2001 into Seven Springs and Anden (a conjunction of names of their children: Andrew and Kristen,) as part of a divorce settlement between the owners, Joni Weatherspoon and Al MacDonald. After that settlement, Joni owned Seven Springs (more recently planted and higher in elevation) and Al owned Anden Vineyard. The portion Evesham-Wood called Seven Springs en dessous is actually in Anden Vineyard and is considered a 'fanciful name' by the TTB, not a vineyard name.
St. Innocent was the only winery that had fruit contracts in both vineyard areas, and what had been one wine (when it was all Seven Springs), became two. I remained the largest customer of Seven Springs, leasing more than one-third of the vineyard.
Joni died three years ago and the vineyard was left to her children, both of whom were in college out-of-state. At that time my fundamental relationship with Seven Springs began to change. Neither child was interested in the day-to-day management of Seven Springs, so various strategies to deal with day-to-day management of the vineyard were used, but mostly Al managed Seven Springs as well as Anden.
Al MacDonald made it known that he wanted to retire and began trying to sell Anden a few years ago. We tried to buy it early in 2006 at the price he had quoted us 6 months earlier, but he consulted with a real estate agent and then raised the price by 66%. I declined. Anden was mostly planted on its 'own roots', the vineyard had phylloxera, and 80% of the vineyard would need to be re-planted (at a cost of $1M).
I also tried to buy Seven Springs, but Andrew and Kristen had hopes to buy their father's portion and re-unify the vineyard at some point in the future and declined to sell. At that time I received a verbal commitment from Andrew and Kristen to sell fruit from Seven Springs to St. Innocent as long as they owned the vineyard. We had a contract that terminated in 2005, but we were only able to obtain a verbal contract for 2006. I should have seen the writing on the wall, but it was unfathomable that this cornerstone property would cease to be a part of St. Innocent.
Al would also not sign a multi-year contract for Anden fruit with St. Innocent (or, we were told, with anyone else). His stated reason was his interest in selling and desire to keep the vineyard unencumbered.
Unbeknownst to me, Al had been negotiating with Mark Tarlov (an actor-producer who produces wine from two California Pinot noir vineyards under the name of “The Evening Lands”) for two years. I was unfamiliar with the Tarlov venture at the time.
In late January, The owner of Justice Vineyard, Ted Casteel - one of the brothers of Bethel Heights, and a fellow producer of Seven Springs Vineyard wines - called to say that Andrew and Kristen were entertaining an offer to lease their vineyard (Seven Springs) along with their father's (Anden) on a long-term basis. I began vigorous negotiations with the Andrew (Kristen declined to participate) for St. Innocent to lease all of Seven Springs under identical terms to Tarlov (with our additional promise to continue to sell to the historic clients of Seven Springs as requested by Andrew). I was willing to walk away from Anden, Al had made it clear he wanted out and Tarlov was offering him a very good contract. My interest was to continue to have Seven Springs fruit and I was willing to agree to almost anything to retain access to that site.
After almost two weeks of negotiations with Andrew, a family meeting was called to discuss our proposal. We understood from Andrew that we had met all of the terms Tarlov had offered and expected to move forward. After hearing nothing for three days (no response to e-mail or phone calls), we indirectly learned that Tarlov's offer had been accepted. Complicated family dynamics, shadowed communications, and behind the scenes events resulted in Andrew accepting the Tarlov offer that we later discovered that Al and Kristen strongly supported. The end result was that Mark Tarlov was successful in leasing both Anden and Seven Springs for 15 years.
My reaction (after stronger emotions subsided) was to carefully consider St. Innocent's future plans and a re-think of our grape sources in light of those events. My goal was modified to work with growers that are willing to commit to a long-term relationship with St. Innocent. The effort to learn the nuances of a site and winemaking as well as promoting and marketing a specific vineyard designated wine is a significant investment. Customers take the risk to try new vineyard-designated wines and should be able to purchase those wines well into the future. I wanted to make an investment with growers that shared our vision and were willing to commit to St. Innocent well into the future.
In April of 2006, St. Innocent purchased an interest in Zenith (formerly O'Connor) Vineyard. We had made Pinot noir from O'Connor from 1989 through 1998 and I believe that the site was capable of making great wines. Our contract had ended when Pat O'Connor signed a 10 years lease with Willamette Valley Vineyards (sound familiar?). Three years ago, Pat sold O'Connor Vineyard to a very good customer of St. Innocent's (on my recommendation). Early in 2006 we began negotiating to purchase our first vineyard. Those negotiations were successful and we are building a new winery at our new 'estate' vineyard.
My original plan was to plant our 'estate' vineyard with 7 acres of Pinot noir, planted at the current 'state-of-the-art'. In light of current events, I have decided to make Zenith a much larger part of our Pinot noir production. We are working with Tim Ramey to increase our planting to a total of 17-20 acres, all Pinot noir (2600 cases).
Looking to the future, we are actively signing long-term planting contracts with several other growers. We have negotiated with Dan and Helen Dusschee to increase our planting at Freedom Hill to 7 ac. of Pinot noir, 6 ac. of Chardonnay, and 3 ac. of Pinot blanc. They will grow a total of 30% of St. Innocent's production. We are expanding our new (and exciting) plantings at Temperance Hill Vineyard to 7.5 acres of Pinot noir and possibly a small block of Chardonnay. We will continue to lease fruit from Vitae Springs and Shea and hope to plant more at Shea in 2009. We are working on a long-term contract with Montazi Vineyard to supply 8 acres of bio-dynamically (beyond organic) grown Pinot noir. By 2012, most of those plantings will be in full production and our production will increase to just under 10,000 cases.
St. Innocent has Pinot noir from Seven Springs and Anden in bottle or barrel from the 2005 and 2006 vintages that will release in September 2007 and 2008. I appreciate the loyalty of our customers and am very sad that the two vineyard sites will no longer be part of our portfolio. The fact that the real losers are those of you who have bought those wines loyally for years was specifically expressed to all the owners of Seven Springs and Anden and is not lost on me. I am sorry and hope you will find pleasure in my other offerings. I believe that our current and future portfolio of northern Willamette Valley vineyard sites represents the best of Oregon. The persons behind the vines are an integral part of St. Innocent and truly allow me to make the wines I love. I look forward to showing you those wines.
Thank you,
Mark Vlossak
Winemaker
St. Innocent Winery
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