Grochau 2015 Pinot Noir, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley

Here's an exciting find! An extremely small production Oregon Pinot Noir from the Dundee Hills.

John Grochau was first introduced to wine and the winemaking landscape in his early 20’s, while racing bicycles for a French team in the Loire Valley. For several years, he raced through some of France’s most revered winemaking regions including Champagne, Burgundy and the across the Loire Valley. Returning home to Oregon he found his next calling and launched Grochau Cellars. Grochau sources fruit from organic and sustainably-farmed vineyards in the Willamette Valley for his wines.

Only 150 cases were produced of this 2015, sourced from two vineyards in the Dundee Hills AVA; the Anderson Family Vineyard, a meticulously farmed 16.5-acre vineyard planted in 1992 with three different clones and the Vista Hills Vineyard a 42 acre vineyard with elevations reaching 900 feet, Sustainable and Salmon-Safe certified. Here he sourced only Pommard clone grown in deep soils with southwest exposure.

After the grapes were sorted 60% were destemmed and the rest were fermented whole-cluster. This creates a partial carbonic maceration which brings out ripe fruit flavors while the cluster stems provide additional backbone to the wine. Fermentation was spontaneous and natural with no yeast inoculation. The finished wine aged in new and neutral barrels for 18 months before bottling. This Pinot has everything you'd expect from a meticulously handcrafted 2015 from the Dundee Hills.

It shows beautiful mouthfilling texture and lively acidity with ripe strawberry, cranberry and cherry notes and an earthy, spicy undertone. The finish is long and appealing and best of all we grabbed all that was available of this Willamette Valley gem so we can offer it to our Wine Express customers at a special discount. Don't miss it!!