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2004 Stoller Vineyards Pinot Noir

(new release October 2006)

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2004 Stoller Vineyards Pinot Noir Label.

The Wine

This single-vineyard designate is predominantly from the densest plantings of Pinot Noir at our Stoller Vineyards and provides great concentration of fruit, with good acid backbone. There typically is an earthy, sweet cherry fruit core, soft and broad, with occasional threads of herb.

The Vineyards

Stoller Vineyards is the newest, and therefore most viticulturally advanced, of our three estate vineyards. A south-sloping, 115-acre vineyard on a 350-acre parcel, Stoller Vineyards commands a dominating view of the southern end of the Red Hills of Dundee, giving it regular comparison to Burgundy’s Corton Hill. Stoller Vineyards is planted on Jory soil, with a touch of Nekia, both deep, red volcanic soil types. In tightly spaced plantings, utilizing varied rootstocks, and drip irrigation, vines have every advantage on this site. Formerly a turkey farm, the vineyard is owned by winery partners Bill and Cathy Stoller.

The Vintage

What a difference some rain makes! Vintage 2004 was destined to be as equally hot and ripe as 2003, until we had a quenching rain in late August and then a month later. Young and early vineyards that were almost ready to harvest the first week of September could have done without the rain, but the rest (like Chehalem’s) thought it a blessed relief. A short cropload, plus growing-season heat make 2004 properly plump, but with restraint. An interesting vintage — almost an average of 2001, 2002, and 2003, with perhaps a little more variability in reds and more structured, brighter whites similar to 2002.

Stats

Harvest Data:

Harvested 9/21–9/28/2004 @ 23.8–26.2 brix, 3.43–3.66 pH, and 4.5–5.4 g/L TA, from 2.1–2.8 tons per acre cropload

Fermentation:

Average of 12 days total fermentation with 5 days pre-maceration

Cooperage/Aging:

10 months in barrel, with two rackings, in 48% new French oak barrels, 74% new and one-year prior use

Clonal Selection:

Selected barrels from 3 vineyard blocks, 777 (48%), 115 (36%), Pommard/Wadenswil (16%); 84% Dijon clones; 100% high-density fruit

Bottling:

Bottled 9/5/2005

Bottling Analyses:

14.2% alcohol, 3.7 pH, and 5.6 g/L TA

Cases Produced:

440

Suggested Retail:

$39

Release Date:

October 2006

Winemaker's Comments

For a warm growing season, barely saved by a cooling ripening season, this vintage’s Pinots are full but elegant, soft but balanced. With a moderately deep garnet color, the Stoller exhibits a lovely red fruit mélange on the nose, with red currants, raspberries, and plums; tinges of black fruit; and an underbrush, earthen flavor palate for complexity. The palate texture is silken, with a full, broad finish and nice weight. A lush, soft, ultimately pleasing wine, there is good balance and a minor firmness for aging.

Quotes

Pinot Report, April 2007: 93. Medium ruby color; spicy, some earth and cherry aromas; ripe, earthy, spicy flavor, silky texture, sweet oak, good structure and balance; long finish. Beautiful aromas and flavors mark this as a Pinot that's as good by itself and with a meal.

Wine & Spirits, December 2006: 92. ...this vineyard is known for growing berries with lush red fruit flavors. This wine is soft, clean and fresh with an almost sanguine red berry scent, its juicy strawberry flavors grounded by a gentle minerality. After a day of being open, it comes together with calssic Dundee Hills flavors of dark strawberry and red earth, expressed with a beautiful clarity. For salmon.

winereviewonline, September 26, 2006, Patrick Comiskey: 92. Stoller Vineyard is a sustainably-farmed jewel in the Dundee Hills that rises from 99W, the main highway just south of Dundee, and in its way it's as dramatic and spectacular a vineyard site as Corton. This wine regularly shows a lush red fruit profile, and this particular rendition has a soft red cherry aroma, but its flavors are all strawberry, lush and bursting with juice, with fine tannins and a stirring minerality.

International Wine Cellar, May/June 2006, Josh Raynolds: 91. Spicy, vibrant nose offers an explosive bouquet of raspberry and strawberry fruit accented by fresh rose, rhubarb and cinnamon... Finishes crisp, elegant and long, with persistent red berry flavor.

Wine Spectator, November 15, 2006, Harvey Steiman: 90. Dense and chewy. Layers of mineral and spice are more prominent than the meaty cherry and plum flavors. The second sip brings out more fruit, and it echoes on the intense finish.

Burghound.com, October 2006, Allen Meadows: 88. This is the freshest nose of the group [Chehalem's 2004 Pinot Noirs] with ripe deeply pitched aromas of marinated cherries and spiced plum with hints of cola and briar that continue onto the very rich and sappy medium full flavors that are generous, forward and sweet...easy to like and finishes with a subtle touch of warmth.