Lenné Estate 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir with Filet Mignon
This wine is the smallest production wine that they make at Lenné Estate, sourced from the highest elevation block with the poorest of the poor soils on the site. When we talk about poor soils, these are soils that make the vines dig deep to find nutrients. The name Kill Hill is because many vines don’t make it. The mortality rate on this block is the highest on the estate. In the first year, they lost 30% of the vines.
Luckily this mortality rate is only for the vines, although early on there is a story of Steve rolling their tractor on this steep section of vineyard. I guess there are multiple meanings here.
These vines are clones Dijon clones 114 and 667. You’ll find here in Oregon, that Pinot Noir clones are blended to build out the complexity of a wine in the same way that they blend Cabernet and Merlot in Bordeaux. Pinot is a transparent grape that shows off the place it is planted so a variety of Pinot Noir clones allows a winemaker a bit of room to play.
The winery noted “blackberry, raspberry, and mocha” in the aromas and flavors of the 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir, so I ran with that as I composed my recipes.
Pinot Noir is often subjugated to lighter meats, chicken, pork, and fish. I knew this wine would have more body than a typical Pinot Noir, so we went with beef, but kept it light doing a bacon-wrapped filet, then doing a pan sauce with a bit of the wine and blackberries.
For our side, I wanted to play on the coffee notes in the wine. We roasted carrots in salt and coffee…well, coffee, and coffee grounds (reduce reuse recycle people!).
We finished with a super simple salad of spring greens and sliced almonds that I dressed with olive oil, balsamic reduction, salt, and pepper.
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