2010 Four Winds Vineyard Pinot Noir: This vineyard site had been in our hands since 1997. In 2007 we decided that the combination of the political pressures on being a farming employer and the financial skittishness of farming economics was incentive enough to turn the management of this site over to Andy Humphrey of Ana Vineyards. Of all the sites we have worked with over the past 10 years none has gone under as big an evolution as Four Winds. Located well west of McMinnville in the Coast Range foothills this is one of the most westerly situated vineyards in all of Yamhill County. This is no doubt why the nature of the vineyard has undergone such a dramatic change over time. While it is in the bounds of this new appellation, the preponderance of vineyards in the appellation cluster around Highway 18, east and south of this site. This makes it unique and provides little in the way of comparison since when it was initially planted it was the sole vineyard out this direction.

There is nothing quite like vineyard maturation to make a major impact on what you get from a certain vineyard’s Pinot Noir. Four Winds Vineyard was a site we wrestled with for years. The earthiness inherent to the site was often presented as a strongly barnyardy nuance especially when the wines were young. However, this vineyard is coming into its own. After the heroic 2008 and the sublime 2009 the 2010 is as special a bottling as we have done from this site. Combining the raw power of the 2008 with the much more feminine characteristics of the 2009 to get a wine of both power and nuance. Deeply succulent and very rich with dense plum, blackberry and cola notes in the mid-palate yet sweetly fruited on the back-end with long tannins that give the wine enormous persistence. This is a very artful wine that is something quite special. 375 cases bottled.

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