Montinore Estate – About the wines

December 13, 2018

Continuing our conversation with Rudy Marchesi at Montinore Estate

After looking over the Willamette Valley AVA map and having Rudy give us some background on the soils and the impact of the Missoula floods we sat with him to talk about how these soils influence the wines at Montinore Estate.

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is very expressive and Rudy told us that pinot grown in the windblown loess here tend to be brighter, with berry flavors rather than the cherry notes that are so often associated with pinot noir. The pinots here also are very spicy with baking spices.

They produce several different Pinot Noirs here. Here is a sampling. I can’t promise that I have not missed one.

“Red Cap” Pinot Noir: This is a blend from all the vineyards giving you multiple areas and soil types blended into one bottle.
Reserve Pinot Noir: Again from multiple sites but all within the estate. These are the best blocks and lots. They ferment and age separately and then blend the best.
Parsons’ Ridge Pinot Noir: This vineyard block sits on a part of the vineyard where the vines face two different directions. The lots, as they are different, are fermented separately and then blended.
Keeler Estate Pinot Noir: This is a 25 acres Biodynamic vineyard in Eola-Amity Hills that they source from. This gives you another opportunity to taste and compare the terroir.
Windy Hill Pinot Noir: This comes from the Southern part of the Valley and is influenced by the winds of the Van Duzer Corridor.
Cataclysm Pinot Noir: Comes from their Block 1 which has mineral rich soils. They pick the most expressive barrels from this block to make this wine.

Pinot Gris

He finds the white wines to actually be more distinctive. Pinot gris grown in the Missoula flood loess, is very complex. Rather than apple and pear, they get citrus and herbal notes. In warmer years there will be tropical notes. Always he finds pinot gris here to have lots of texture.

Riesling

The riesling he find distinctive, but without as much difference although he feels sure some might disagree.

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is new here. They had quite a bit planted early on, but it was the clone brought up from California. This clone was a late ripener and had tight clusters which were prone to rot. It was a great clone when there was good weather in a vintage, but that was about 1out of every 4 years.

They have now planted the new Dijon clone, which has looser clusters and is an earlier ripening clone. They are back in the Chardonnay business in a small way. He is encouraged by the quality, but it’s too soon to know what they will get stylistically from the vineyards with these clones. They will need a few more vintages to figuring this out.

Bubbles

They are currently producing a prosecco style bubbly, and have a Traditional Methode Champenoise Sparkling wine of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which is yet to be released.

Other Varieties

In addition they are growing bits of Teroldego and Lagrein, Gerwürztraminer and Müller Thurgau.

Blends and specialty wines

You will find Rosé, Orange wine, fortified wine (Ruby), Ice wine (Frolic) and Verjus also on their wine line-up which is very diverse, having something for every palate.

Everything here is done on site, and they try to be as Estate as possible. The 2016 Pinot got away from 100% Estate because they had too much demand and had to contract a couple of other growers.

Speaking with Rudy and walking the winery, you can see the pride they take in making the best possible wines here.

You can learn a bit about the estate with our posts.

https://www.crushedgrapechronicles.com/montinore-estate-a-recent-history/

https://www.crushedgrapechronicles.com/montinore-the-deeper-history/

And check back here as we will next talk to Rudy about Biodynamics before heading with him to the cellar for a tour and barrel tasting.

If you are in the Willamette Valley stop by and give the wines a taste for yourself. You can find them a:

Montinore Estate
3663 SW Dilley Road
Forest Grove, Oregon 97116
503.359.5012

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Santa Barbara’s Celebration of Harvest Weekend

October 8, 2014

Santa Barbara seems to be an undiscovered gem of wine country. There were those that took notice when “Sideways” the movie came out back in 2004. Santa Barbara recently celebrated 10 years of “Sideways” in early September. While it is still a relatively young area with the first of the vineyards planted in the 70’s, this area has turned out some super star wineries and winemakers without losing it’s small town neighborliness.

Sta. Rita Hills

Lompac Ghetto

Grassini Family Vineyards in the El Paseo Central Coast Wine Country

Lompac Ghetto

Saarloos and Son Windmill Ranch Vineyard in the Ballard Canyon AVA where Rhones grow so well.

Au Bon Climat Tasting Room in Santa Barbara

Sanford & Benedict Vineyard

Santa Ynez Valley

Santa Maria Valley, Riverbench

Happy Canyon AVA where the Bordeaux varieties thrive.

Sta. Rita HIlls, Clos Pepe

Hilliard Bruce Canopy Management

Santa Barbara Vintners represents around 120 wineries in the Santa Barbara County Area and these wineries cover quite a bit of ground! With 5 AVA’s from the Santa Maria Valley AVA to the north and the Santa Ynez Valley AVA to the south which encompasses the Sta. Rita Hills AVA, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA and the new Ballard Canyon AVA. In addition the Wine Collection of El Paseo in Downtown Santa Barbara, the Lompoc Wine Ghetto in Lompoc and the Funk Zone near the beach in Santa Barbara, make where to start exploring a difficult question. Luckily the Santa Barbara Vintners hold 2 grand tastings each year, one in the spring and one at harvest, where all the wineries gather and you can see them all in one place.

Au Bon Climat at the SB Vintners Grand Tasting

Grand Tasting

Grand Tasting Crowd

The Celebration of Harvest held in October over Columbus Day Weekend, holds it’s Grand Tasting on Saturday October 11th. You can go and enjoy a day at the beautiful Old Mission Santa Ines with wine, food purveyors and live music. But this is more than just a fun day tasting wine. Many of the booths will have a winemaker pouring. You will get the feel of the winery and get to hear what is important to them. Remember I mentioned the superstar winemakers that this area has turned out? Richard Sanford of Alma Rosa, Rick Longoria of Longoria Wine, Doug Margerum of Margeum , Norm Yost of Flying Goat, Kathy Joseph of Fiddlehead, and new winemakers Mikael Sigouin of Kaena, Michael Larner with Larner Vineyard & Winery…those are just a few of the well known names behind wines in this area that will pouring and chatting with people and telling them first hand, the stories behind their wines.

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Santa Barbara County is a big place with lots of choices for where to go tasting. This is a great way to get your feet wet, find the wines and the people that intrigue you and then make plans to come back and visit their tasting rooms and get to know a little more about this very special place and it’s amazing people.

For more information on the Celebration of Harvest visit http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/festival.html It will give you details on the events at the Grand Tasting as well as other information on wineries events happening that weekend. You can also find a link there to buy tickets for the Grand Tasting.

See a video of The Highlights from their Spring Grand Tasting

West Side Paso Robles – the Highlight Reel!

September 4, 2013

Daou Over-Look

We spent the weekend in Paso Robles arriving mid-afternoon at DAOU where they were having music out on the patio. The views from this vineyard are incredible.

It is 360 degrees of the Paso Robles area from the top of a mountain on the West side. Watch for a slide show of amazing photos of the view coming up this next week!

Tablas Creek Wine Walk

The end of our day was filled with a Vineyard Walk at Tablas Creek. The walk was led by Tablas Creek Viticulturalist Levi Glenn. We and about 50 other wine lovers hiked through the vineyard tasting wines as we walked learning about the vineyard and the grapes and then enjoying small bite pairings prepared by Chef Jeff Scott. We watched the sunset by the head-pruned Tannat. This was just a joy. We promise a video in the next week or so to let you enjoy the walk with us vicariously!

The next morning found us up too early again, so we roamed the West Side hills enjoying the views.

Lone Madrone Tasting Room

We started our day of tasting at Lone Madrone’s new tasting room across from the Adelaida entrance. This is Neil Collins’ winery (the winemaker at Tablas Creek). The renovated barn is beautiful with great art. Inspired by this little bit of Paso Robles 6 degrees of separation we headed to Le Cuvier. Okay, let me double back and explain. When Neil first started in Paso Robles he was working at Adelaida for their winemaker at the time, John Munch. Tablas Creek stole Neil away from Adelaida and then John Munch left Adelaida. He now is the co-owner and winemaker at Le Cuvier.

Le Cuvier View

So after an evening a Tablas Creek, a tasting at Lone Madrone where else could we go but Le Cuvier. They do small pairings with all the wines here. John Munch is an exceptional character and his wines are unique. His flamboyant writing style makes his blog well worth the read! You can look forward to a fascinating blog post on this fascinating man.

Jada Patio

Our next stop was Jada on Vineyard Drive where they do cheese pairings with all of their tastings. The hospitality here was exceptional. We were greeted downstairs and guided up to the tasting room and offered a table on the patio. They brought us our cheese and they came around with each wine. This is a young winery, but the staff is knowledgeable and thoughtful and really made this a great experience.

Vineyard at Proulx

On our last trip we had stopped by Shale Oak and I found that Kevin Riley their consulting winemaker had his own winery called Proulx (pronounced: Pru). We stopped by to find Kevin and his wife Genoa running the tasting room and were able to taste their wines and have a great conversation with them.

Halter Ranch Dinner

This day finished with the Vineyard View BBQ at Halter Ranch. We were early, so we sat and enjoyed a glass of wine on the patio by the tasting room and then headed up for the dinner. The food, the wine and the view were all perfect. To top it off we were seated alphabetically which put us next to the Sass family and we enjoyed the evening chatting with the winemaker, Kevin Sass’ parents, brother and sister-in-law. Good wine and good company…that’s what this is really all about. You can expect some great photos and a blog with more details on this wonderful and relaxing dinner.

Sunset Moonstone Beach

Our final day saw us paying homage to the sea, which brings the climate that allows all of these grapes to thrive. We headed out to the coast and drove from Morro Bay to Ragged Point enjoying the views along the way.

So that’s the highlights! Stay tuned for photos, videos and more detailed blog posts!

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Montinore Estate – About the wines