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2000 Rion Reserve Pinot Noir

(updated 2/23/04)

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The Wine

Named for Patrice Rion, our friend from Burgundy who gave us advice several times over the years, we look for this wine to embody the essence of pinot noir. Select barrels and fermentation lots are chosen from Ridgecrest Vineyards before any blending is done in the cellar. Cheryl and Harry choose components to make a wine that epitomizes finesse, elegance, complexity, textural silkiness, and palate breadth and length for a vintage. We think these elements are what pinot noir is all about — not as big as we can make it, but as beautiful as we can make it.

The Vineyard

To date, our Rion Reserve has been comprised of Ridgecrest Vineyard fruit. Our oldest estate vineyard, Ridgecrest is a 37 acre vineyard on a 72 acre property. Beginning in 1980, this site pioneered grapegrowing on Ribbon Ridge, a small ridge on the western end of the Chehalem Range and Valley. Soils are Willakenzie, a transition soil series exhibiting characteristics of both volcanic and sedimentary underlying structures. The rich, supple black cherry and blackberry fruits are characteristic of Ridgecrest Vineyard and the Willakenzie soil type. Excellent acidity and a finesseful texture and finish are hallmarks of the vineyard site, being relatively high in elevation, mature in vine age and deeply rooted. Wines are very ageable.

The Vintage

Vintage 2000 was our third great vintage in-a-row, providing full ripeness and excellent weather throughout the growing season and through harvest. The average to one week early harvest, September 29-October 26, saw only 1.09 inches of rain. Fruit quantities were bountiful, permitting crop thinning to obtain ideal croploads of 2.50 tons/acre for pinot gris, 2.55 for chardonnay and 2.31 for pinot noir. White wine characteristics are between 1998's round fleshiness and 1999's crisply structured ageability. Red wines benefit from less extreme extraction at Ridgecrest than the prior two vintages, thanks to normal croploads of 2.49 tons/acre and improved and excellent quality from the other vineyards. The average quality in the pinot noir cellar exceeds 1999 and is similar to 1998.

Stats

Harvest Data:

Harvested October 7, 8 and 15^th for Babies Wadenswil, Babies Pommard and 5 Acre blocks at Ridgecrest Vineyards, respectively; with sugars of 22.7, 23.1 and 22.8; with acids of 8.0, 7.2 and 6.7 g/L; with pHs of 3.18, 3.18 and 3.25; with yields of 2.86, 2.09 and 2.98 tons/acre, all respectively.

Fermentation:

13, 18, 16 day total fermentation time, with 8, 10 and 9 day cold macerations, with enzyme; native ferments; 5 Acre lot chaptalized 1 brix and Cu++ added.

Cooperage/Aging:

Aged for 11 months in French oak, with 35% new, 51% new and once-used barrels.

Clonal Selection:

65% of this cuvee is from the 5-acre block planted in 1982, 2/3 Pommard and 1/3 Wadesnswil clones; 35% is from the Babies block (26% Wadenswil and 9% Pommard)

Bottling:

Bottled on 9/17/2001, as 6-packs (i.e., 1232 6s)

Bottling Analyses:

14.1% alcohol; 3.53 pH; 5.3 g/L TA

Cases Produced:

616 12-bottle case equivalents.

Suggested Retail:

$50

Release Date:

October, 2002

Winemaker's Comments

This is as perfectly elegant and feminine a pinot noir as we've made, showing the beauty of the vintage and the ultimate complexity of the world's best red variety. The allure is up-front and long-lasting-perfumed fruit and spice in the nose, silkiness on the palate, red and black fruit plumping the palate, weighty and long in finish. It is a Carmen or a Scarlett-assertive, dark, driving and passionate, but never losing grace. As well conceived a counterpoint to the super-masculine 1999 Rion as we could have created-if only we'd done it intentionally. But, then again, Mother Nature knows best and controls all!

Quotes

Conoisseurs' Guide, October 2003. ...strikes us as something of a "classic" Oregon pinot in that it eschews outsized ripeness in favor of structure and lively fruit. Its themes of sweet cherries are underlain by a note of minerals...

Northwest Wine Summit Competition, May 2003. Silver.

Wine Advocate, November 2002, Pierre-Antoine Rovani: 90 Points. Violets, roses and black cherries burst from the glass...A firm, medium-bodied wine with outstanding depth of fruit, it exhibits blackberry, black raspberry, and dark cherry flavors in its powerful personality.

Wine Spectator, October 2002: 90 Points. Smooth and velvety...lovely black currant and plum note at the center, echoing nicely on the subtle peppery finish.

Wine Enthusiast Magazine, October, 2002: 92 Points. This is a beauty with deep, sweet aromas of black cherry, mincemeat pie, vanilla and buttered toast. The palate is full of cherry, plum and vanilla, with charred oak supplying the foundation.