2011 ROCKY POINT - LE CADEAU VINEYARD LOT 50 - PINOT NOIR

Tasting Notes: Bright garnet in color with aromas of sweet wet earth, dried orange peel, clove, white pepper, black cherry, and dried strawberry.  Hints of graphite, sandalwood and sweet violets on the palate with lingering notes of cranberry and dried strawberry at the finish.  Soft mid palate moving nicely to a well polished finish.

Lot 50 is crafted from 75% Pommard with the remaining 25% a mix of cofermented Dijon and heirloom clones. The Pommard as always brings forward darker color and nice tannins, the mixture of Dijion and heirloom clones bring brighter aromatics such as cranberry, raspberry and cherry. This was a vintage where the blending of a variety of clones brought more complexity and depth to the final blend. The fruit was hand picked and hand sorted - 100% whole berry to the ferementer.

The wine aged in barrel for 16 months in 40% new ERMITAGE French oak barrels - one 48 month seasoned, Light toast, Troncais; one 36 month seasoned, Light toast, Allier; and the remaining barrels twice filled 36 month seasoned, Light toast, Troncais/Vosges.

After filtration and fining, the wine was bottled in March of 2013.

2013 ROCKY POINT - LA COLINA VINEYARD - PINOT NOIR

Tasting Notes: Deep purple-garnet in color.  Ripe plum, plush blueberry, and soft vanillin aromas set the stage for flavors of black cherry, cranberry, and clove on the palate.  18 months of extended aging in 100% new French oak lends beautiful structure and length to the finish.  Polished and balanced.  An excellent example of Oregon’s gorgeous cool climate Pinot Noir.  

The Vineyard: Read about La Colina Vineyard here

The Vintage: 2013 was a challenging vintage to be sure for the Willamette Valley with a deluge of rain that occurred just prior to harvest.  This is a vintage that forced every winemaker in the valley to bring their A game to the table as we saw issues with rot, EA, VA, low sugar levels, you name it.  The book of Job opened up - first in the vineyards, then in cellars all across our valley.  So!  We babied this wine.  We did as long a cold soak as we could and then threw up our hands when the wine spontaneously kicked off primary fermentation. Go native or bust! "Natural Winemaking” is what the hip kids call it.  We racked the juice into ridiculously pretty, new ERMITAGE French oak barrels – lightly toasted, steam bent, large format 265L cigars.  After 18 months of gentle aging (with some very apprehensive tastings along the way), the wine developed beautifully.  Admittedly – a surprise.  The wine has elegance, structure and weight, dark rich fruit - nuance.  The wine has balance - what we hope to get from our wine in an ideal year and feel blessed to have it in a more challenging vintage.  I truly believe that the recipe for the 2013 vintage was time, more time, new oak, more time, and lots of time in bottle.  That extra aging to help the wine integrate and settle has really worked.

2014 ROCKY POINT - LA COLINA VINEYARD - PINOT NOIR

Tasting Notes: This is a special barrel selection from our most premium vineyard lot coming from the most southwestern hillside of the La Colina Vineyard nestled in the heart of the Dundee Hills.  The 2014 La Colina Vineyard Pinot is a wonderful example of where 777 can go in a vintage with ample sunshine. The fruit is dark, ripe and opulent - the wine is rich and full-bodied. The nose expresses mountain blueberry and huckleberry with hints of lavender and mocha. The palate shows ripe black cherry, candied fig, and a touch of ginger spice. Round and voluptuous with polished tannins smoothing out the finish.

The Vineyard: Read about La Colina Vineyard here

Cooperage: Barreled in 70% new ERMITAGE French oak barrels. The barrels are unique... 265L cigar shaped barrels, providing a longer bed of lees for the wine to rest on which adds more volume and structure to the mid palette. The barrels are all steam bent, light toast, 36 month seasoned with a combination of customized forest blends - primarily crafted from the Bertranges, Tronçais, and Allier forests.

2014 ROCKY POINT - RUSSELL-GROOTERS VINEYARD - SAUVIGNON BLANC

Tasting Notes: Beautiful round mouthfeel with bright acidity.  Leaps and bounds apart from the typical new world Sauvignon Blanc aged in stainless.  Myer lemon, honeysuckle, toasted hazelnut, peach stone with a hint of ginger bread spice.

The block was picked at 23 brix on the morning  of September 12th after a glorious month of sunshine.  We immediately pressed off the fruit and let the juice oxidize for approximately 8 hours – slightly browning – then moving to barrels for fermentation.  We barrel fermented this wine in 30% new steam bent, light toast, 36 month seasoned ERMITAGE standard 228L and 265L Cigar barrels.  The Cigar format simply gives a longer bed for lees contact during barrel aging – offering up more texture and volume to the mid palate.  The combination of oxidizing the juice, barrel fermentation, barrel aging on lees for one year, and finally a minimum one year of bottle aging prior to release – all help to bring more texture, spice, and soft plush fruit – less grassy, less cat pee.  We want this to be as beautiful to drink fireside as lakeside – we want depth and nuance!

Alcohol: 13.6%
Cases Produced: 88

2014 ROCKY POINT CELLARS GRENACHE - BOUSHEY VINEYARD

Tasting Notes: Beautiful, complex aromas of perfumed violet and rose petal, anise, sandalwood, grapefruit, dried orange peel, and ripe blackberry.  The palate opens with sun-ripened plum, cracked black pepper, cherry stone and boysenberry.  We aged this wine on lees in once filled 265L steam bent, light toast, 36 month seasoned Cigar barrels.  The shape of the Cigar barrel allows for more lees contact with the wine – adding more structure to the body while softening and rounding out tannins.  

ERMITAGE 265L Cigar Barrels: The  idea  behind this shape and size is that the wine has more contact with the lees - through contact during barrel aging, the lees will help add more mid palate structure. For this barrel - we thus went to barrel “dirty” - not settling nor inoculating before putting the wine to barrel. 

Alcohol: 15.2%
Cases Produced: 62