2010 Bergström Pinot Noir Temperance Hill Vineyard

The Bergstrom 2010 Pinot Noir Temperance Hill delivers – as have certain other wines of its vintage and especially from this site – an impression almost as though Riesling and Viognier (or perhaps even Gruner Veltliner) had been blended-in, since invigorating nips suggestive of citrus oils, radish, and white pepper run all the way through. Add to this a prominence of the pits of juicy, fresh sour cherry and you have a wine of enervating piquancy as well as brightness. Yet, its texture is positively silken and its penetrating, tactilely impinging finish never turns unruly or crass. And as this takes on air, perfumed suggestions of almond extract, buddleia, rowan, and nut oils add further allure. “It’s a risky site, Temperance Hill,” opines Bergstrom “and you’re rolling the dice playing with it” – but then, look at the results in precisely one of the coolest recent vintages on record! This ought to remain glorious for at least ten or a dozen years. Josh Bergstrom was much influenced by the time he spent studying oenology in Beaune and working in Burgundy immediately before in 1999 taking over winemaking duties at his family’s then nearly new estate. Today, it comprises 85 acres of vines in five disparate locations, to each of which a single-vineyard Pinot Noir bottling is dedicated. Rounding out the line-up are Pinots from Shea and Temperance Hill vineyards; a blend; and some very serious Chardonnay that makes up 10% of total production. Bergstrom’s blocks of Temperance Hill were planted to their high-density specifications with vines they bought, and a promise of long-term control “all on a handshake,” notes Bergstrom, adding “that’s Oregon. Forty to fifty percent of the vines in all my vineyards are Pommard (selection),” he explains – echoing a sentiment expressed by a number of top Willamette growers and on which I’ll comment further in next year’s report – “because I think that’s the skeletal structure of Oregon Pinot Noir. The Dijon clones, for as lovely and fleshy and fruity as they are, can sometimes be too much of a good thing.” There is considerable clonal diversity in his vineyards, but few blocks are mixed, whereas Bergstrom says “if I had it to do it all over again, I’d take 30 different clones in a jumble and just throw it out there.” Pioneers in Willamette biodynamic viticulture – virtually since their estate’s inception – the Bergstroms typically crop at little more than two tons per acre, though in 2010, across-the-board, they didn’t even manage quite one ton. Josh Bergstrom reported losing “only 30%” of his total Pinot crop to birds, whereas he lost 70% of his Chardonnay to them, and a total harvest that usually lasts six weeks took only three. Around half of the cellar was lightly chaptalized, a rate that crept-up in 2011. Bergstrom favors a long cold soak and wherever he judges it feasible a significant amount of both whole clusters, and spontaneous fermentation (de rigueur for fruit from those sites he farms biodynamically). Acidification is eschewed (and even in 2009, Bergstrom insists you simply had to pick earlier to preserve acidity). “I know that there’s going to be balance in the whole blend,” he claims, “given that we have so many (microclimatically) divergent blocks within each vineyard.” There’s one conical wooden upright, but otherwise fermentation takes place in jacketed stainless steel tanks. In keeping with an increasingly popular sentiment (hardly confined to the Willamette Valley) Bergstrom reports that while “we used to do upwards of one pigeage every two hours all day long and use 100% new oak, we’ve really backed-off in recent years to get a little less brash, in-your-face style of Pinot Noir and instead more elegance, doing maybe one pigeage a day and in some vintages like 2010 or 2011 doing more remontage. My style in Pinot has been increasingly influenced by my love of Chardonnay,” he adds, and he just came back from doing brief stages with Roulot and Morey. The young Pinots are pressed at dryness and settled for several days before going to barrel; are racked into tank after 11 months, and then sit there until February bottling. Incidentally, I tasted through Bergstrom’s 2011s in barrel – wines he says have shocked him with how expressive and high quality they are turning out to be – and I did indeed find them exciting. Tel. (503) 554-0463