Reserve Pinot noir Club™ for September 2007
Dusky Goose Pinot noir 05 page 2
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Rambouillet & Dusky Goose Pinot noir is made from a combination of fruit from Winderlea Vineyard and Rambouillet Vineyard. Both vineyards are located in the heart of Oregon's North Willamette Valley, west of the town of Dundee. The area is now a sub-AVA called the "Dundee Hills". The Dundee Hills are known for their red volcanic Jory soil and host over 50 vineyards, including many of the top rated in the state. Rambouillet
Vineyard The owners of Dusky Goose Wines, Linda Levy Carter and John Carter, purchased land adjacent to the what was then called the Goldschmidt Vineyard in 2001 and hired Lynn Penner-Ash and Dundee Hills vineyard manager Andy Humphrey to plan and plant a new vineyard, named Rambouillet Vineyard. Rambouillet Vineyard, in the Dundee Hills west of the town of Dundee, is surrounded by such highly regarded vineyards as Arcus, Weber, Bergstrom, and Winderlea Vineyard, just up the road. The Rambouillet Vineyard's first vintage was 2004, and the grapes were combined with Dundee Hills grapes to make the 2004 Dusky Goose Pinot noir. Rambouillet Vineyard is planted entirely in Pinot noir, in a combination of clones chosen by Andy Humphries and Lynn Penner-Ash to specifically complement the clonal selections at Dundee Hills Vineyard. In 2006, a single vineyard Pinot noir was made from Rambouillet Vineyard fruit only. It will probably be released in 2009. |
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In 2006, the Goldschmidt Vineyard, source for Dusky Goose's 2002 and 2003 vintages, and the source of the majority of the grapes for the 2004 and 2005 vintages, was sold and its name was changed to Winderlea Vineyard. Dusky Goose continues to purchase grapes from Winderlea, and has a longterm contract to make Winderlea grapes part of its Pinot noir offerings for many years. The Goldschmidt/Winderlea vineyard site includes some of the Dundee Hills AVA's original Pinot noir plantings from the early 1970s. With a southern exposure and clay loam soil, the vineyard is managed for low yields. A variety of Pinot noir clones are planted at the site. The name “Winderlea Vineyard” may not yet fall as trippingly from the tongue of Oregon wine lovers as some other hallowed single vineyard names, but it is one of the oldest Pinot noir vineyards in Oregon, and has produced many fine wines.
“I think this vineyard is an awesome site for Pinot noir,” enthuses winemaker Lynn Penner-Ash. “It is a spectacular vineyard and near and dear to my heart in terms of quality!” Penner-Ash should know: she worked with the vineyard’s fruit at Rex Hill from 1988 to 1996, and today makes Pinot noir wine from the site for both the Dusky Goose label and her own Penner-Ash Wine Cellars. “There is an incredible dried cherry quality that is unique to that site,” says Lynn Penner Ash, winmaker for Dusky Goose. “The fruit smells like dried cherry tea, and then moves into a ripe red pear mouth feel. The fruit has a creamy textural feel when it is ready to pick, and in the winery it produces a very focused red fruited wine that is incredibly rich and sweet.” Located in the prime Pinot land known as the Red Hills of Dundee, Goldschmidt Vineyard was originally planted in 1974 and today is home to some of the oldest own-rooted Pinot noir vines in the Willamette Valley. The original plantings included Pommard, Wädenswil, and the so-called Coury Clone of Pinot noir (the latter appears to be a “suitcase clone” brought into Oregon by Charles Coury in the early 1970s)—as well as a “mystery” clone of unconfirmed origins. The earliest plantings at the site also included Gamay, Chardonnay, and even Cabernet. When ex-Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt purchased the vineyard in 1998, he wisely decided that it was best suited for purely Pinot noir. Goldschmidt asked David Adelsheim, Oregon’s foremost expert on Pinot noir clones, to replant the rest of the vineyard taking advantage of the latest clonal material. The Vineyard Today Today, the 17-acre site is composed of 15 blocks (see table) with a mixture of different Pinot noir clones. “David did a fabulous job of balancing the vineyard,” says Penner-Ash, “and the farming is superbly managed by Andy Humphrey.” Humphrey has a good site to work with. With a southerly slope ranging in elevation from 440-ft to 560-ft., the exposure and Jory soils combine to make it one of the earliest maturing vineyards in the area—an area, by the way, dotted with such other well-known vineyards as Arcus, Bergström, Maresh, and Erath Prince Hill.
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