2011 Ayoub Wines Pinot Noir Brittan Vineyard

Ayoub’s 120 cases of 2011 Pinot Noir Brittan Vineyard adds to the delicious accumulation of evidence that this dramatically domed and stonily basaltic site south of McMinnville developed by his oenological coach Robert Brittan is among the most exciting in the Willamette Valley, indeed in the entire U.S. (See especially my account of the Brittan estate wines in this report and that of Issue 202.) “There’s just more of everything here,” notes Ayoub of the present instantiation, and the most dramatic thing I notice is an emphasis on black fruits rare for this vintage, but whose sense of ripeness is allied to vintage-typically tartly bright fruit acids that seem to be buffered by sheer density. The feel here is firm but not hard or austere. Savory elements of animal blood, smoked meat and game lend striking contrast to the intense fruit. An onrush of what I can only refer to as rocks and gravel sets the seal of intriguing complexity on this Pinot’s audacious performance. No doubt it will settle down somewhat with a few years in bottle, but I suspect – even though only short-term track record for the bottle evolution of Pinot from this site has accumulated – that one will want to hold at least a portion of this concentrate through 2025. I met Mo Ayoub this year at his four-acre property of dozen year-old, clonally diverse vines (dry-farmed since 2005) high in the Dundee Hills, and the array of wines I tasted – including two older vintages for the first time; several for the second; and stunning collections from 2011 and, in barrel, 2012 – left me in no doubt that his fanaticism is paying off in some of the most exciting wines produced anywhere in North America not to mention the Willamette Valley. “Paying off” might, though, have been a painfully poor choice of words, because taking the aforementioned fanaticism and the low yields, extreme selectivity, and labor intensiveness it implies together with the prices Ayoub asks (wishing to retain a perhaps equally fanatic devotion among his clients), it’s clear he can’t be putting much, if anything, on the bottom line. In fact, any returns are presumably what he’s plowing into a significant expansion of the tiny cellar attached to his house as well into securing the option and then planting – with Chardonnay as well as Pinot – a new, impressively situated site near (and larger than) his existing estate, a spot that it’s amazing could have remained unplanted until now. (Possibly the steepness deterred potential farmers.) All this, plus – as noted in my extended introductory notes for Issue 202 – Ayoub still makes his living as an engineer in California. It awes and exhausts (as well as worries) me just thinking about him, and I hope he can soon devote his attentions entirely to his calling as a vintner. When he testifies: “I never worked by butt off harder than in 2011,” I’m exhausted just thinking about what that might, coming from his lips, imply. By Ayoub’s reckoning, the skins were thinner not to mention more disease-prone than in 2010. Even after stringent selection of what made it to the fermenter, he was still left with two barrels of Pinot that he rejected for his “Memoirs” blend. AI have no idea what I’m going to do with them yet,” he said. “Probably it’ll be like 2007 when I ended up pitching two down the drain.” Most of the 2011 musts were chaptalized to arrive at around 13% finished alcohol. As usual here, the fruit underwent close to a week of cold soak; and fermentation temperatures were kept on the low side. Both whites and reds were bottled already in September, 2012. The amicable but redoubtable Robert Brittan, incidentally, continues to offer Ayoub consultation. Tel. (503) 554-9583