theCompass mobile application is a winery, brewery, and distillery locator for North America.

This fruit came from the Red Hill Vineyard. The site is 25 miles east of us, but at 1200’ elevation remains quite cool. The fruit was harvested late on October 19 at 22.5 Brix with 8.1g/L total acids. We chose to barrel ferment this wine at cool temperatures for 1 month. The barrels were mainly older, 10% new, all French. Three yeasts were used to contribute complexity. The wine was allowed to complete malolactic fermentation and the lees were stirred monthly when the wine was topped. This cool climate site, even with complete M/L, has retained well balanced acid. The nose has evident leesy toast with aromas of green apples, pineapple and banana. The flavors are highlighted by bright lemon crème brulee with hints of apricot and vanilla. The wine is round and has good mouthfeel and a lingering aftertaste. This wine would do well with oily grilled swordfish or ahi tuna served with a lemon butter sauce.

This variety, widely planted in France, Spain and California’s central valley, is a rarity for the Umpqua Valley. The fruit is from the Marshanne Vineyard near Oakland Oregon. This site, 25 miles east of our vineyards, received enough heat to ripen this grenache fruit. The grapes were picked October 10 at 24.4 Brix with 6.2g/L total acids. This is a very lively wine. The color is bright garnet and the aromas abound with candied strawberries, honeydew melon and butterscotch with hints of orange rind and spicy cloves. The berry jam flavors carry through in the mouth well integrated toasty oak with a nutty character reminiscent of shelled pecans. The body is moderate and the finish lingers with some warmth. This wine would serve well with honey glazed baby back ribs, stir fried garlic prawns or herb and asparagus risotto with lots a freshly grated parmesan.

Our final pinot from the Wiley Vineyard near Navarro at the very northern end of Anderson Valley. Harvested September 24 and October 4. The grapes are destemmed only, retaining a high proportion of whole berries, to 1 ton open top bins. The fermentations are punched down by hand twice daily for two weeks till pressing and barreling after one day of settling. The two lots were kept separate until blending prior to bottling. The fruit character was quite different and the combination of the less ripe first lot and the riper second seem to be very complimentary. The wine is a bright ruby color, very limpid in the glass with jammy strawberry aromas with a spice bouquet of nutmeg and white pepper. The flavors feature a very bright fore of ripe strawberry/raspberry fruit with good body, ripe integrated tannins and good length. A very pretty, light and lively wine.

The fruit for this pinot was harvested under ideal conditions on September 27. A long moderate fall allowed these grapes to reach optimum maturity. The grapes were lightly destemmed and fermented in small open top containers with hand punch downs twice daily. Following a gentle pressing, after 18 days skin contact, the wine was allowed to age in French oak until bottling April 2002. The wine has rich cherry and berry aromas, with cocoa, herbs and forest mushroom flavors. The finish is long and sultry, always inviting another sip. The wine is an excellent companion to herb butter sautéed chicken and oily grilled fishes, such as salmon or tuna.

Harvested on October 10 from the Wiley vineyard at the northern end of Mendocino’s Anderson Valley. This is one of the oldest pinot noir vineyards in the valley. A perfect south slope with enough elevation usually keeps this property above the marine fog layer that penetrates further inland towards Booneville. A long growing day and cool evenings ripen pinot noir while maintaining balance. The ’99 came to the winery in perfect condition making the winemakers job easy. This wine has a smooth entry with pretty spice and floral notes, rich ripe cherry berry fruit and a nice lingering finish. Very good with light veal dishes and poached salmon or cheese sauce pastas.

Umpqua Valley pinot noir This is our top flight pinot and it is composed of a selection of our best fruit from the vintage. Primarily 114 clone pinot and a bit of pommard, both from the Red Hill Vineyard. From the beginning the 114 showed itself to be a very exceptional lot. As with all of our pinots the grapes are gently destemmed to open top 1 ton fermenters, hand punched down 2 to 3 times daily, gently pressed and barreled the following day. The wines are racked once in the spring following malolactic fermentation and bottled without fining or filtration. The color is a medium dark ruby with purple edges. The aromas are dark ripe cherries with blackberry perfume and a floral bouquet of violets with well integrated sweet caramel oak. The flavors explode with cherry, berry, and tarry butterscotch with clove spiciness. The ripe tannins are well integrated with smooth oak creaminess. The body is medium with a very long finish.

The Benchlands is priced to be our entry level pinot noir. Despite the modest price the wine is made with as much care and attention as the other wines and it was aged in 30% new French oak barrels as were all of our 2002 releases. The primary fruit source for the wine is the Melrose Vineyard on a bench along the South Umpqua River. This site has deep alluvial soils and the grapes exhibit great up front fruit and aromas. To add some structure and length we blended in a bit of wine from the north part of the AVA. The wine is a clear garnet color with very pretty floral rose aromas with raspberry, cherry and warm honeyed oak. Strawberry and Queen Ann cherries dominate the flavors with a nice round mouth feel. It has moderate weight with a long lingering caramel finish.

This is our mid range pinot and possesses excellent structure and very nice fruit. The wine is a blend of wadensvil clone from the Bradley Vineyard in Elkton and pommard clone from the Red Hill Vineyard, the highest elevation site in the Umpqua Valley AVA. We felt that the forward fruit of the Bradley and the structure of the Red Hill blended well together. The wine is a lovely medium ruby color with aromas of ripe dark cherry fruit with a warm smoky oak and sandalwood bouquet. The flavors show dark cherries with raspberry and some ripe plumminess. There is a bit of mint with good acid and somewhat firm tannins. The balance is very good with good structure and length.

The fruit was harvested very ripe on October 3 from the Alegria Vineyard near Healdsburg. This is the third and last year that we worked with fruit from this vineyard and this is the ripest wine of the three. The wine was barreled after a 10 day primary fermentation and racked only once before bottling August 4, 2003 without fining or filtration. The wine has a lovely clear garnet color, with aromas of nice honeyed ripe strawberries, candied bing cherries with notes of cinnamon spice. Well ripened stone fruits and cherries with a bit of cranberry tartness combined with a nice full round mouth feel make this a very flavorful wine, medium in body with a nice lingering finish.

Again, a long ideal fall allowed these grapes to hang on the vines until October 9. The grapes showed ripe and mature flavors as they entered the winery. The wine was fermented in open top containers with twice daily had punch downs. After 14 days of skin contact the wine was pressed to barrels. To preserve the fruit, the wine was aged without racking in neutral French oak until bottling. This wine has intense cherry and strawberry fruit. The body is medium and the tannins are soft. The finish is long and very pleasant with very pretty frit flavors. This is great wine with a wide variety of savory dishes, tomato pastas with herbs and sausage, veal picatta, smoked meats and parma ham and cheese sandwiches. Sangiovese is a very versatile wine fruit driven wine that easily lends itself to many cuisines

The source for this wine is the Acorn Vineyard owned by Bill and Betsy Nachbaur located near Healdsburg. The grapes are grown on a western slope and trained to a Geneva Double Curtain. Sangiovese is a very vigorous vine and can easily produce more crop than is desirable for quality wine. Fruit thinning is usually needed to control crop and this was done for this vintage. 1999 provided a long temperate fall and these grapes did not come in until November 4. This sangiovese is true to type. The acid remains bright and the fruit is full of strawberries and cranberries. The wine was aged for 18 months in a combination of used barrels and puncheons, desiring the positive aspects of barrel aging, without gaining too much oak flavor. The wine is excellent with grilled meats, oily fish and savory risotto.

We sourced cab franc from the Marshanne Vineyard near Oakland. This variety requires more heat than we get in Elkton. The vines are well farmed and carefully cropped. The fruit came in in beautiful condition on October 23. The wine was aged in 50% new French oak. The color is a very dark red and the aromas well up with violets, raspberries and a touch of woody oak so typical of this variety. The flavors are blackberry with black currants and the oak is well integrated and vanillin. This wine has some good tannin and structure, though with only 2 months of bottle age the wine is already rounding out which promises for good early and extended drinkablility. Good acid combines with ripe tannins for a long finish.

The grape source is the Bradley Vineyard in Elkton, planted in 1983. This is a lovely wine that came from very mature aromatic fruit. The wine is fermented in tanks at 50 to 55 degrees F to preserve the fresh fruit qualities. The wine is finished with 2.5% residual sugar. It has great gewürztraminer aromas of intense tea roses, peach, leeche nut and spices. The wine pairs well with hot and spicy Asian foods, especially Thai cuisine with hot, spicy chili sauces. There is good acid in the wine, so even with this degree of residual sugar, the wine remains very much a food wine. The mouth feel is very filling and the finish is long.

The fruit for this wine was sourced from the Melrose Vineyard near Roseburg and the Bing Vineyard in Elkton, 50% from each site. The grapes were whole cluster pressed and fermented in temperature controlled tanks for 5 weeks at 55 to 58 degrees. At 3 degrees brix 1/3 of the wine was transferred to a combination of new and 1 year old Hungarian puncheons. The wine was aged in these puncheons for four months before blending with the tank portion for finishing. The wine was sterile filtered to prevent the malolactic fermentation from occurring, thus preserving a bright green apple component. The oak aging has given the wine a pleasing toast and creaminess to compliment the fruit. The wine is full of very aromatic tropical fruit with honey and toasted almond notes on the palate. This pinot gris is finished dry and has a full pleasing mouth feel and a long finish. The crisp acid will make this wine an excellent choice with grilled herbed poultry, smoked turkey, shellfish, or grilled seafood.

The grape source is the Bradley Vineyard and Bing Vineyard, both in Elkton. The harvest in 2003 came fast and furious. Getting enough pickers was a problem as everything started to get ripe at the same time. This riesling received some extended time on the vine allowing the fruit to fully express itself, while retaining acidity to balance the fruit and the alcohol. By the time the fruit was picked some botrytis had become established and this contributed intense apricot and peach flavors and aromas. The wine is finished in an off dry style with 1.7% residual sugar. It has a summery balance of fruit, peach and honey flavors with a hint of minerals and citrus blossoms. The wine serves well as an aperitif with fruit and cheese and it does wonders with any dish with chilies, sausage or ham.

This wine was made by taking a portion of juice from each of pinot noir lots that we made and then fermenting it as a white wine. The juice was drawn from the tanks the day after destemming, before the pinot noir began fermenting. It is a “serious” rose, fermented dry with lovely rhubarb and strawberry flavors. The acid is balanced with the fruit and would compliment mussels in bordelaise broth. Perfect chilled on a hot summer day with melon and proscuitto. Named for my redhead wife, formerly a Scarlet, companion in all things, both in the winery and out.

This syrah also comes from the Marshanne Vineyard. We feel that Greg Cramer and Fran Sutherland are doing a fine job of farming. The fruit was delivered in suburb condition on October 20. At their site they are able to ripen this variety very well. The color is very dark and concentrated, almost opaque. It has intense aromas of tar, cassis and blackberry jam with hints of smoke. The flavors abound with blackberries and currants with smoke and meatiness. The tannins are smooth and well rounded. The finish is long and the body remains big throughout.