North America | Oregon | Fossil & Fawn | Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (2021)

VARIETAL
Pinot Noir

NOTES
VINEYARD: Finnegan Hill Vineyard (37%), No Clos Radio Vineyard (34%), Silvershot Vineyard (29%). All three are organically-farmed sites with vines ranging in age from 14 to 47 years.

Finnegan Hill is a high elevation vineyard in the newly formed Laurelwood District AVA. Laurelwood District was split off from the Chehalem Mountains AVA to highlight the unique Laurelwood soils, consisting of a windblown layer of sedimentary soil (loess) over volcanic soil.

No Clos Radio is a 70-acre site nestled in the Coast Range foothills on the western edge of the Willamette Valley, and planted to 30 acres of vines, some of which are the oldest in the region. First planted to grapes in 1972 (prior to this it was used for strawberry cultivation), No Clos Radio is one of the oldest extant vineyards in the northern Willamette Valley, and Washington County.

Silvershot is the home vineyard of Fossil & Fawn and was planted by Jim's father and uncle in 2000. They farm fifteen acres of vineyards, fourteen of which are Pinot noir (114, 115, 777, Pommard, and a few "suitcase" clones of unknown provenance), with an acre of Pinot gris (Colmar clone). All of the vines are dry-farmed (no irrigation) and most are own-rooted (ungrafted), pushing through thin sedimentary soils and fractured sandstone that were once the seafloor during the Oligocene epoch. The site is south/southwest-facing on Holmes Hill at the exit of Holmes Gap (better known as the end of the Van Duzer Corridor) and gets strong, cooling marine breezes.

VINIFICATION: Harvest took place between September 17th and 23rd. The majority of the fruit was de-stemmed, but approximately 14% was whole-cluster inclusion. All fermentation was spontaneous and the average length of fermentation was 14 days before pressing off into a mix of French and Oregon oak barrels. The wine aged for 9 months in barrel before being racked once and then bottled without fining or filtration.