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If You Like Massive, Full-Throttle Pinot noirs
The 2006 Sineann Wines Are Batmobiles on Overdrive!

Picture A Batmobile on Overdrive -- Big, Bold, Powerful, and Dark....
that's Peter Rosback's 2006 Pinot noirs.

Sineann
"Oregon" Pinot noir 06
$32.36/$35.95

Peter's one blended Pinot noir (made from several different vineyards' fruit). Fresh flavors of berry fruit with a spicy hint of cinnamon make this Peter's most approachable, ready to drink 2006 Pinot noir.

Scents are of fresh blackberry and raspberry, with enticing hints of toasty cinnamon and strawberry candy. Flavors are a wow! Sweet and spicy red and black raspberry, blackberry and red cherry mingle with buttery cinnamon notes. While present, acids and tannins take a back seat to the sweet fruit flavors of this easy to love wine.

This is an ideal wine to offer to friends who want to try Oregon Pinot noir. Its sweet spicy fruit flavors and light acidity and tannins appeal to wine neophytes and Pinot experts alike.

Sineann
Resonance Vineyard Pinot noir 06
$43.16/$47.95
The perfumed nose of the Resonance 2006 shows layers of red and black fruit intermingled with the scent of roses and violets. The complex scent continues in the flavor of the wine.

Sweet red raspberry, red cherry, red currant, red plum, and other red fruit provide layers and layers of lush fruit flavors. Great, refreshing acidity and seamless silky tannins prevail in the long and complex finish.

Sineann
Resonance Vineyard Reserve Pinot noir 06
$64.75/$71.95
First Reserve Pinot noir made by Sineann, made from a few of the very best barrels of the winery's Resonance Vineyard wine. Scents are of dark berry and black cherry with distinct and appealing hints of rose petals and violets. Buttery, toasty barrel oak also figure in the nose.

Flavors are of supersweet blackberry, marionberry, and other berry fruit. The wine shows great depth, more than the regular Resonance 2006, and it is somewhat closed, reflecting the aging potential and dense bigness of the Reserve. We're interested in trying the wine in 2-5 years. It shows all the hallmarks of a very fine Pinot noir made in the dense, over-the-top style Peter Rosback is known for.

Sineann
Lachini Vineyard Pinot noir 06
$37.76/$41.95
Sweet black fruit flavors dominate, and this dense Pinot noir has an unctuous, smooth mouthfeel. This wine is positively "fat" with dark, silky, and intense fruit flavors.

Sineann
Wyeast VIneyard Pinot noir 06
$37.76/$41.95
Sweet red raspberry, red cherry and red currant fruit intermingle with yummy barrel toast in scent and flavor. A refreshing acidity balances the intense fruit flavors and emphasizes the oak components in the silky, well integrated tannins. Unique in the Sineann lineup, a most uplifting blend of intensity, red fruit, sweet acidity and appealing barrel flavors.

Sineann
Phelps Creek Vineyard Pinot noir 06
$37.76/$41.95
Big, unctuous black raspberry and black fruits are accompanied by hints of licorice and tar in this dense, massive wine. A lush, liqueur-like quality makes this wine ideal for lovers of over-the-top intensity in their Pinot noirs.

Sineann
Covey Ridge Vineyard Pinot noir 06
$37.76/$41.95
A big, sappy, sweet Pinot noir with an intense liqueur flavor dominated by black cherry, black currant and other dark fruit. There are hints of anise and smoke in the dense finish with restrained acidity and tannins. The wine is driven by a density that coats your palate.

Sineann
Schindler Vineyard Pinot noir 06
$37.76/$41.95
This big, dense black fruit dominated Pinot noir has an appealing Chambord nose with smoky black fruit and hints of oak. Flavors of super sweet black cherry mingle with licorice, pepper, and black fruit liqueur. There's lots of body from smooth tannins and a dense structure.

Sineann's Pinot noir Vineyards

Resonance Vineyard

The vineyard is located in Oregon's northern Willamette Valley on a south-facing hillside in Yamhill County, just west of Carlton. The vineyard is in the new Yamhill-Carlton District AVA.  The Resonance Vineyard sits on a convex portion of a low, west-east oriented ridge emerging out of the Coast Range. The ridge is hook-shaped, wrapping around to the east. The much higher High Heaven Ridge protects the property from the south. Panther Creek flows through the valley created between High Heaven and Resonance. The Coast Range rises immediately to the west of the property, creating a formidable weather barrier. As a result, Resonance is protected from inclement weather and wind on all sides, making it a particularly warm, dry site.

Soils are primarily Willakenzie and Yamhill, but there are areas with virtually no top soil that can only be labeled as shale rock land. The Willakenzie and exposed shale are both old sedimentary deposits that begin at the bottom of the slope. The Yamhill is an ancient, submarine basaltic soil (much older than the more common, basalt-derived Jory and Nekia soils in the Dundee Hills). The Yamhill soil is found near the top of the slope and much of the crown is exposed, broken basalt bedrock.

The wet winters coupled with soils of sufficient water-holding capacity allow dry farming of vines. And the warm summers provide more than adequate heat to fully ripen the fruit. The growing season is very long (over 210 days) and dry which keeps disease and insect pressures at a minimum.

The entire vineyard is on a vertical, upright, shoot-positioned trellis (commonly called a VSP). Spacing on the oldest vines is 8 feet between rows and 6 feet between vines, leaving 908 vines per acre. The most recent plantings are set at 7.5 feet between rows and 5 feet between plants or 1162 vines per acre and 7.5 feet by 4 feet or 1452 vines per acre. All vines are cane pruned with very low head heights of 18-24." The trellis is 6.5 feet high allowing the canopy to grow as high as 7.5 feet before being hedged (which occurs only once). This allows for a large leaf area to accommodate adequate ripening even in cool vintages.

The coarse-grained, ancient marine sediments native to the area are the oldest soils in the valley. These soils drain quickly establishing a natural deficit-irrigation effect. Thus, the vines stop vegetative growth earlier here than elsewhere, leading to more complete ripening, even in cooler growing seasons. This allows Pinot noir to develop deep ruby colors and broad, silky tannins. The mouth-filling wines exude powerful fruit aromas of raspberry, blackberry and black cherries complexed by minerality reminiscent of pipe tobacco, espresso, clove and dark chocolate and accented by scents of rose, violet, lavender and sweet wood smoke. These are alluring, complex, supple gems of Pinot noir to sip and savor.

The vineyard consists of 4 acres of Pommard Pinot noir, 2.5 acres of Pommard Pinot noir (grafted from Muller-Thurgau in 2000) and 1.5 acres of Gewurztraminer all originally planted in 1981, plus 3.5 acres of Wadensvil Pinot noir planted in 1987 and 2 acres of 777 Pinot noir (grafted from Pinot Gris) planted in 1995. An additional 6.5 acres of Pinot noir (evenly split between Wadensvil and Pommard clones) was planted in the spring of 2006.

Until June of 2003, Resonance was named Reed & Reynolds Vineyard. Reed is owner Kevin Chambers middle name, and has been the middle name of the first-born male of his family for several generations. Reynolds is Carla Chambers’ maiden name. The Chambers felt the two names offered a pleasant and memorable alliteration, as well as designated their partnership and teamwork that created the vineyard. Nevertheless, after a protracted and expensive trademark battle with a California winery, the Chambers chose to change the name to Resonance.

Virtually all the vines are own-rooted. Of course, this leaves them at risk to phylloxera. But Biodynamic practices, a strong nutritional program and commitment to a diverse, healthy microbial community in the soil significantly mitigates the disease risk. The Chambers believe that plants should be grown on their own root systems rather than be grafted to other species' roots. They feel this leads to healthier plants, better drought tolerance and greater wine quality. A few grafted vines have been planted for experimental purposes, but the intent is to sustain an own-rooted vineyard. At 25 years of age in the oldest blocks, the vines are now yielding profoundly complex wines. It is the Chambers' intent to maintain this "old vine character" in the wines for as long as possible.

Year in and year out, the Resonance vineyard supplies the fruit for Sineann’s best Pinot noir.  In 2003, Wine Spectator gave the Sineann Resonance Pinot noir 94 points.  In 2004, the Pommard clone barrels supplied the fruit for Sineann’s first French Laundry Cuvee.  For 2005, this wine is yet another stunning example of the flavors and complexity that winemaker Rosback can coax out of a well kept vineyard.

Schindler Vineyard

The Schindler Vineyard is in the Eloa Hills area of Oregon’s Willamette Valley and has just recently converted to Biodynamic practices, which are akin to going organic with a bit of witchcraft thrown in for good measure.  There are 14 acres of Pinot noir and 6 acres of Chardonnay.  The vines are now 14 years old and this is the third year that Sineann has received fruit from this vineyard. The first year Schindler fruit went into the Oregon blend.  2004 was the first single vineyard designate and really showed its stuff.  This year, select fruit from the Schindler Vineyard was bottled privately for the French Laundry, so you know the vineyard has something special going on.  Grape grower and practicing doctor Robert Schindler thinks Oregon Pinot noir is setting a new paradigm for the grape and can show Burgundy a thing or two about how this noble grape shines in New World cool climates.

Phelps Creek Vineyard

The Columbia Gorge AVA is really hitting its stride and grower Bob Morus’ vineyard is among the best in the Hood River Valley. The cool marine weather from the Oregon coast and valley meets the warm desert air over the Hood River valley making for a unique cool weather climate perfect for apples, pears and grapes.   Bob’s vineyard is on the west side of the valley that in years past, the pear growers avoided due to the poor soils.  Those soils happened to be just perfect for growing grapes.  Seventy five feet of volcanic loam, called Oak Grove Loam make up the majority of the soil, mixed in with a fair amount of clay.  Not a rock in sight though.

Fifteen of the 60 acres were planted in 1990 with a combination of Pommard and Dijon clone Pinot noir and four acres of Chardonnay.  An underlying minerality is a hallmark of this vineyard in both Pinot noir and Chardonnay.  Rosback has Morus crop Sineann’s Pinot noir blocks to a ton and a half per acre, which results in a concentrated wine with notes of blue fruit, dark cherry and a coco/tobacco notes.  The Chardonnay, cropped to two tons per acre, when fermented in stainless steel has a bright Myers lemon quality to it and when oaked, tropical pineapple notes although Rosback has almost completely forsaken barrel aged Chardonnay in favor of 100% stainless steel renditions.  Recently fifteen acres have been leased in adjoining land taking the vineyard to 30 planted acres.

When the Willamette Valley was hammered with hot weather in 2003 or wet weather in 2005, the Hood River Valley and the Columbia Gorge AVA continued to produce stellar and consistent fruit that rivals the Willamette Valley.  Keep an eye on this AVA as the wines coming out of this area will only continue to improve.

Covey Ridge Vineyard

 Located on a ridge above Banks, Oregon this is the most northern spot in the Willamette Valley from which Sineann acquires Pinot noir. The six and a half acre vineyard is mostly Dijon clone Pinot noir with a bit of Pinot gris.   Planted in 1995, another eight acres will be planted in the fall of 2006.  The vineyard is a Jory type clay under 16 inch of loam.  It sits at 600 feet elevation.   Good Northwesterly winds keep the site free of frost and still air.   The entire site is dry farmed which brings out the mirror of the weather that year, in the fruit.

Fellow winemaker Dick Ferraro recommended this vineyard back in the 90’s, so Rosback picked up a small quantity of Pinot gris grape and included them in a line up along with a few other test batch vineyards.  The Covey Ridge stood out as an excellent vineyard.  1999 was the first Pinot gris vintage for Sineann from Covey Ridge and it’s been in the array along with several other single vineyard Pinot gris ever since.

In 2000, Rosback decided to try the Pinot noir from the site.  What resulted was a spicy Pinot noir with layers of blackberry, cherry and a touch of anise.  Small quantities of the Pinot noir are made every year and it sells out quickly. 

Wyeast Vineyard

The Wyeast vineyard high up in the Hood River Valley was planted in 1989 with 10 acres of Pinot gris and in 1990, 8 acres of Pinot noir.   The south and southwest facing slopes are covered with deep red volcanic soil, and like many vineyards today, are dry farmed allowing the vintage and weather to really show through.   The high elevation vineyard ranges from 1600 feet at the base to 1800 feet at the top of the vineyard and allows form some nice acids to form in support of the terrific structure and dense lush flavors that come out of this vineyard.  Wyeast is one of three vineyards in the Columbia Gorge that Sineann receives Pinot noir from and also provides some of their best Pinot gris as well.   Winemaker Rosback thinks that the Hood River Valley can be one of the best places in Oregon to grow Pinot noir.  Anyone who tries the Wyeast Pinot noir from Sineann might well agree. 

Lachini Vineyard

Lachini Vineyard's forty-five acres are located near Newberg, Oregon in the Chehalem Mountain AVA. The gently sloping vineyard is comprised of Willakenzie soils-ranging from 18 to 48 inches in depth at an elevation of 350 – 400 feet. The shallow, fine silt loam over sedimentary rock has lower water capacity due to its sandy consistency and thus forces the vines to compete and develop deep root systems. The emerging terror of these dark-brown to yellowish-brown soils reveal Pinot noir wines with strong earthy notes, chocolate, and a delicate flavor of anise and spice.

The property was purchased in 1998 and planted the first five acres with Pommard clone Pinot noir in June of 1999. In the following growing seasons, Lachini planted additional blocks that now entail just over 20 acres of planted Pinot noir. Most recent plantings include Dijon and Wadenswil clones. Lachini Vineyard currently has fifteen acres bearing fruit. Over the next five years, the entire vineyard will come into full production, with maximum planting to 30 acres on this site. Vineyard spacing is 4' X 6" or roughly 1700 vines per acre, which forces the vines to compete and low cropping keeps the flavors concentrated to premium quality wines.

Lachini Vineyards are hand-farmed using sustainable agriculture and organic practices prescribed by Oregon LIVE. Low Input Viticulture and Enology, Inc. program (LIVE, Inc.) is a program providing vineyards and wineries official recognition for sustainable agricultural practices that are modeled after international standards such as the practice of botanical diversity in the cover crop and management practices that favor beneficial insects.