A verdant garden beyond clean glass

A Story: “Silent Lucidity” is a 1990 power ballad by the band Queensrÿche. This is not that. It’s tonal and beautiful, without the hair.

The Cliff Notes: The color is gold, silver, green — metallic. The nose suggests a more European cadence to this wine, revealing bright lemon, applesauce, honey, nutmeg, white pepper and wheat-berry with florals of citrus blossom and white flowers. Mouthwatering upon entry, it gives up the succulence of pear, fresh lemon and sugared orange-slice candy before a long and winding resolution, then poof, it’s gone.

The Vintage: The 2021 growing year was a bit of an old dry goat, down 10” of rain and sporting separate 112- and 104-degree heat events. Given our dry-land (non-irrigated) farming, the vines reacted with a smaller-ish crop which we assiduously protected. The crux of the picking decision was, surprisingly, less about high sugars and more about achieving complex flavors before the zinging acids metabolized away.

The Building of: The grapes were whole-cluster pressed at the lighter end of the spectrum, then wild-yeast barrel fermented in French oak for a year (one new, one once filled, six older), before resting on light lees in stainless prior to bottling, unfiltered, in February 2023.

Ageability: Expect a five- to seven-year horizon.

Vineyards: Temperance Hill sits like an old European crown at the top of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Our St. Dolores Estate sits equally high on a hilltop in the Chehalem Mtns. AVA. Both organic and dry-farmed, they deliver ripe yellow fruit bolstered by crisp linear acids.

— Jim Prosser, owner/winemaker