2021 Glass WV White Pinot Noir

The long arc of an arrow shot at the setting sun

The Cliff Notes: Watermelon and slight copper is the color. The nose is the fecundity of spring: lime flowers, raspberry, orange, lemon and musk. Racy acidity explodes Meyer lemon, tangerine and ‘Nilla wafer across the entire palate. It finishes long and clean and quenching.

Fermentation: 100% Pinot noir, whole cluster pressed and barrel fermented to dry using a long, slow, low-temperature, wild-yeast regimen. Those native yeasts metabolized the sugar under the pressure of clean carbon dioxide, thus delivering massive high-tone fruit esters that make it seem all sweet fruit. That belies the fuel of this rocket, which is dry, yet salivating, acidity.

Elevage: 100% barrel aged in older French oak barrels. Aged using lees addition and incorporating Champagne methodologies from 100 years ago to strip color and broaden an earthy mid-palate, similar to a rosé Champagne from that era, without the bubbles. Racked once and filtered prior to bottling in February 2022.

Vineyards: In 2022 this wine came from three mountainous vineyards: Our own St. Dolores Estate on Parrett Mountain, a massif in the Chehalem Mountains AVA; Temperance Hill at the top of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA; and King’s Queen Vineyard on Bald Peak, the other peak in the Chehalem Mountains AVA.
 

— Jim Prosser, owner/winemaker