Tag: Oregon

Wine Review: Panther Creek 2017 Kalita Vineyard Pinot Noir

This is a continuation of my tour of Panther Creek Cellars’ various vineyard sources. Today, we travel to Kalita Vineyard, located in the Yamhill Carlton AVA of Oregon, and planted entirely to Pinot Noir.

A bit about the vineyard from the Kalita Vineyard website:

Year planted: 2000
Varieties planted: Pinot Noir
Clones: Pommard, PN 114, PN 115, PN 777, all on grafted rootstock
Acreage planted: 22 acres

  • A bowl-shaped site providing winemakers with the option to select grapes grown on hillsides facing South, Southwest or Southeast with elevations ranging from 400 to 800 feet.
  • The soil is classic WillaKenzie soil.
  • 22 acres of Pinot Noir with four different clones – Pommard, PN 114, PN 115 and PN 777 – all on grafted rootstock. Spacing is 4’x7′.
  • A Certified Sustainable Vineyard by Oregon Live
  • Managed since first planting in 2000 by Results Partners (currently led by Daniel Fey).

Now onto the wine…

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Panther Creek Cellars 2017 Maverick Vineyard Pinot Noir

My latest shipment from Panther Creek Cellars came with single-vineyard Pinot Noir from each of the winery’s estate vineyards. Super fun. I had the chance to compare the vineyards last year, so was so pleased to get to experience the 2017 release this year. The new kid on the block: Maverick Vineyard. In fact, this vineyard, located in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA of Oregon was only planted seven years ago, in 2013. For those of you unfamiliar with a vine’s growth cycle, typically the first three years of a vine’s life does not produce any fruit (or at least not enough or enough quality fruit to make wine). So, I imagine, 2017 was really the first harvest that yielded enough fruit to make enough sellable wine. And even then, only 150 cases were produced. So, how did the new kid fare?

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Troon Vineyard Cotes du Kubli White Rhone Blend

Biodynamic wine anyone? Honestly, you may be sipping on more biodynamically farmed and made wines than you realize, as many who do don’t necessarily advertise it. (Hello, Tablas Creek.) Anywho, that’s not actually why I gravitated to this wine—it was the fact that Troon is consistently in pursuit of planting with vineyard specificity, replanting and grafting new vines appropriate to their Applegate Valley estate. Thus, more Rhone varieties are being planted, Rhone-style wines being made. This is the first release of this white blend, made in partnership with fellow biodynamic farmers and winemakers, Barbara and Bill Steele of Cowhorn Vineyard.

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