2011 Pinot Noir Olenik Vineyard

Blackberry, cassis, cherry, high-toned citrus oils, and peat pungently scent the J. Christopher 2011 Pinot Noir Olenik Vineyard, which comes to the palate with sap and grip, its tannins more noticeable than in other wines of this collection but still fine-grained. There is a glowing intensity of cherry pit piquancy here that furthers an impressively penetrating, lusciously fruity and invigoratingly zesty, energetic finish. I can’t imagine this running out of juice or electricity before 2022. Jay Somers – for much more about whom, and about his J. Christopher project with the Mosel’s Ernie Loosen, consult my Issue 202 account – picked from October 21 through November 2, 2011. He chaptalized certain lots – though not those from the estate’s immediate Calkins Lane neighborhood – and finished alcohols vary between 12.8% and 13.2%. As usual here, an extremely restrained regimen of punch-downs or pump-overs prevails. All of the Pinots received – and typically will receive in future – one-quarter each of new, once, twice, and thrice previously used barrels, so as to put the emphasis on terroir character, while keeping other things close to equal. A full tier of A.V.A.-designates was bottled, which – as with the vineyard-designates – did not occur until April and May of this year. “I’ve been making wine here (in the Willamette) for a long time,” says Somers, “and something I’ve learned is that we have cool vintages from time to time” – prior to 2010 he adduces 1997, his second commercial vintage – “and my feeling is that you have to go with the vintage, and not try to screw with it too much trying to make the wine what you want to make, but something it’s not.” As Somers remarked to me apropos his A.V.A. series – though this could be applied to all his work – “We’re not constructing wine, but representing something with it.” Incidentally, the first two barrels of Pinot came off of the two-year-old estate vineyard in 2012, likely destined for that vintage’s Chehalem A.V.A. blend, with the return of Appassionata (the name formerly used for a late-bottled, late released cuvee, henceforth for the estate vineyard) likely to come with 2013. Tel. (503) 554-9572