Hard Promises - 2018

Pinot Blanc is a cypher of a grape—so versatile that it reveals a lot about what a winemaker values. It’s capable of being turned into wines across the stylistic spectrum, from pleasant, innocuous quaffers to broad, rich showy wines and everything in between. Rarely, though, is it presented like it is here—steely and bright, with minerality allied to just enough texture to elevate the wine.

This wine comes from a cool, north-facing vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains, just off of Bell Road. The site’s combination of exposure and elevation allowed us to pick the grapes for maximal zesty brightness while giving them a relatively long hang time on the vine. This wine fermented spontaneously for a long time—the wine didn’t go fully dry until the late spring following harvest. This long fermentation has given it another layer of complexity and nuance.

Hard Promises was a wine that tried our patience, but ultimately rewarded our waiting. From the long fermentation to the extended elevage in barrel (seventeen months), this wine required time to show its truest and best self. There were multiple times when we wondered how the wine would turn out, but our faith was rewarded right around month twelve (two to six months after most winemakers would have bottled their Pinot Blanc) when the wine turned a corner. The butterfly/chrysalis metaphor is beyond overused, but nevertheless persists for a reason. A wine that had been closed and introverted was now compelling, open and mineral.

From a purely economic perspective, making a wine like this is a terrible idea—most winemakers see Pinot Blanc as a “cash-flow” grape. Yet with time and care, it rises beyond the assumptions of its origins to be compelling in its own right. In that sense, this might be the wine that best epitomizes what we do.

47 cases produced. ($22)