2021 could have possessed any combination of a wide range of challenges not smoke related and all our winemaking friends would have dropped to their knees and thanked the stars. To have lost something so precious the year before, one of a finite number of vintages in a life, was devastating. To have it followed by what I’ll term to be a neo-classically perfect vintage felt like a balancing of universal fates. Our valley’s classic cool nights anchored the vines as they worked. There was heat, concentrated, record breaking heat, yes, but this is the new world and we’ve spent the last decade and more listening and learning. We farm through a more sensitive lens, we make wiser, more forward thinking decisions in the winery. We work at elevation near the cool air of forests, on east facing slopes just for summers like this one. When the wines became clear in the cellar we saw a shimmering intensity, catching the light from every angle. Luxurious and fine, destined for long life, but brimming with an infectious joy on day one. An ode to sunshine yes, but to forests who drink the rain deeply as well, if this is the new way, lead on.
Our 2021 Audeant Pinot Noir is blended to capture the beauty of small, thoughtfully tended vineyards tucked against forests high in the hills of the Willamette Valley. Late ripening sites, farmed for biodiversity, deliver fruit packed with energy, ripened by light, balanced with tensile acidity.