Everyone loves to place vintages in large, general categories - "warm year," "cold year," "wet year," etc. And while these characterizations are never completely accurate there is often a kernel of truth to them. Then there are vintages, such as 2009 in the Willamette Valley, that don't fit quite so easily into a box. The 2009 vintage was hot in the summer, cooler and wetter in September, with rapidly rising sugars in some vineyards, and gigantic clusters. Given the location of our vineyards, at the northern and coolest end of the Willamette Valley, we were largely spared any challenges posed by the heat. However, we did have to find ways to work with clusters that sometimes weighed as much as half-a-pound. One solution was to go to one cluster per shoot, which we did in most of our locations. That still resulted in a larger than normal tonnage per acre. However, going to less than one cluster per shoot made no sense and would have only encouraged vegetative growth. Instead, we choose to harvest this fruit, diligently sort it for any rot or imperfections, and then bleed off (saignée) the juice. In some cases this meant taking 20- 25% of the juice in a tank, draining it off the skins and discarding it. This bleed off is expensive if you look at it from the point of view of quantity, but from the qualitative point of view there simply was no other path to follow.

The 2009 Siduri Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is a blend of 61% Arbre Vert Vineyard fruit, 23% Shaw Vineyard, and 16% Muirfield Vineyard Pinot Noir. While the vintage generally produced riper wines, this one weighs in at less than 14% alcohol and was aged in one-third new wood, so it doesn't show a big hit of oak either. Instead, it is a sleek Pinot Noir, with a core of cherry and raspberry flavors, accented by hints of cinnamon and violets. Already nuanced despite its youth, this is a superb wine with the natural acidity to improve over the next 3-5 years in the bottle.

Cases: 2815
Released: August, 2010