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Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Utopia Estate Pinot Noir, Ribbon Ridge AVA

Ribbon Ridge is the smallest AVA in Oregon. It is entirely contained within the Chehalem Mountains AVA in the Willamette Valley. The AVA includes 3,350 acres of land and approximately 500 acres are currently planted. There are approximately 34 vineyards and 11 wineries in the Ribbon Ridge AVA and one of them is Utopia Vineyard, a small, family owned winery producing only a few hundred cases of each wine each year and the Utopia Estate Pinot Noir is the Please The Palate wine of the week.

Daniel Warnshuis began in the Bay Area. After college, he got a job with a company who's headquarters were in Oregon, and his boss, an amateur chef and wine collector, introduced him to wine. At 23 years of age, and based in Napa, he converted his laundry room into a wine cellar. He began importing wine in 1989 and then started an online retail cellar. While he was importing French wines, Daniel was also an early proponent of Oregon Pinot Noir before anyone else knew about it. He was known as the "pied piper of Oregon wine" in Napa.

29 January, 2020

Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Le Cadeau Winery Pinot Noir – Rocheux, Diversité and Côte Est

Sitting down with Tom Mortimer of Le Cadeau Winery in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, I was regaled with Tom's passionate description of his vineyard located in the Chehalem Mountains AVA. He spoke about the various soils, the microclimates and the clones that he has in his vineyard. Then I tasted his Pinot Noirs and it all came together. And that is why the three Pinot Noirs - Rocheux, Diversité and Côte Est are the Please The Palate wine(s) of the week.

Originally from the Midwest, Tom and Deb Mortimer purchased an uncultivated piece of land located on the south slope of Parrett Mountain in the Chehalem Mountains AVA in 1997. Sitting at a high elevation between 610 feet and 725 feet, they cleared the land and planted six acres of Pinot Noir in 1999. Tom selected a mix of Pinot Noir clones and planted Pommard, Dijon clones 667, 777, 113, and 115, as well as Mariafeld (a Swiss Pinot noir clone) and assorted heritage clones from California. Today there is a total of sixteen acres planted.

22 January, 2020

Willamette Valley’s other varietals

Of course when you think about the Willamette Valley in Oregon, you likely think of it as a land of Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir definitely reigns in the region and as a likely partner, Chardonnay is also planted and well-regarded in the Willamette Valley. But, the Willamette Valley is far more diverse than you might think it is and there are a number of producers who are working with other grape varieties and these grapes are well-suited to the region. I explored some of these grapes in my column in the Napa Valley Register, which you can read here.

Say ‘Napa’ and people think Cabernet Sauvignon. Say ‘Burgundy’ and people think Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Say ‘Piedmont’ and people think Nebbiolo. Say ‘Oregon’ and people think Pinot Noir.

It is easy to think of the Willamette Valley in Oregon as one large Pinot Noir-producing region. After all, of the 24,436 acres* of vineyards, 16,536 acres* are planted to Pinot Noir. At the same time Pinot Noir was planted in the 1970s, Chardonnay was also planted. The Willamette Valley shares the same latitude as Burgundy, so it makes sense that if Pinot Noir is suited for the Willamette Valley, so is Chardonnay. However, there are only 1,941 acres* planted to Chardonnay.

29 October, 2019