2022 St. Innocent, Pinot Blanc, Freedom Hill Vineyard, Mount Pisgah-Polk County AVA, Willamette Valley, Oregon.
I always enjoy the wines of St. Innocent, and especially the efforts from Freedom Hill Vineyard, like this lovely Pinot Blanc, which marries the best of Burgundy and Alsace into one complete and rewarding dry white wine with a textured and layered palate of crisp, but nicely rounded orchard fruit, with mineral notes, a touch of spice, saline and leesy notes. I love this vineyard, which is set on marine sedimentary soils of the western Willamette’s valley’s Coastal Range, now called Mount Pisgah-Polk County AVA, with this site being just about 10 miles southwest of Salem in the foothills up at around 550 feet, with warm days and cool nights it provides excellent conditions for Burgundian varietals, which over the years has produced some monumental wines. 20-25 years ago, we all talked about Pinot Gris being the es Oregon white grape, but now there’s maybe a dozen other ones we hype, but I have the opinion that Pinot Blanc thrives here and I’ve really been impressed by the efforts by Ken Wright, Kelley Fox and this St. Innocent in recent years. A big thank you to Roxanne and Tamara at Lady Somm in Carmel for sharing this golden hued gem with me on a recent visit to their awesome shop in the Barnyard Shopping center, which has a nice range of unique small producer wines from around the world, including some favorites from Oregon, like this one, and Germany, which I am addicted too.
One of Oregon’s classic wines, St. Innocent makes profound and age worthy Pinot Noirs that remain some of the greatest values in American wine! Mark Vlossak of St. Innocent, is one of the state’s best winemakers with many outstanding vintages under his belt, and is of one of the Willamette Valley’s legendary generations that includes the greats like Ken Wright, Doug Tunnell (Brick House) Mike Etzel (Beaux Freres) and John Paul of Cameron Winery to name a few, who all set the world a light with their early to mid nineties wines, especially with the 1994 and 1998 vintages, which were wines that cemented the region’s place as one of the world’s great Pinot Noir terroirs. Vlossak employs old school methods to craft his wines, and while we typically think of his Pinot Noirs, he does this beauty too, with this Pinot Blanc seeing 76% stainless and 24% wood fermentation and aging. The Pinot Blanc grapes, coming from vines were planted in 1993 and 2008 on well-drained very old sedimentary clay loam at an elevation of 475 feet, are picked ripe and cold pressed, with most seeing the stainless tank, and instead of oak, the other 24% saw Acacia barrel, with the wine maturing on the lees for about 8 months. All of this makes for a rich and transparent white wine, with lemony tones, apple and white peach fruits, that goes fabulously well with sea food, cheeses and poultry dishes, and I highly recommend checking Lady Somm out, if you are in the Carmel area, plus all of the St. Innocent wines!
($30 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive