Scott Paul ’08 Pinots, the final blends
Kelley and I spent most of yesterday doing final blending trials and selecting individual barrels for our upcoming 2008 bottlings. First off, everybody’s enthusiasm for the 2008s certainly seems justified. There is a completeness, a level of concentration, a depth to the wines that we haven’t seen since, well, ever – at least not in the 10 years we’ve been making wine here. My favorite Oregon vintage to date has been 2005, but I imagine when all is said and done the ’08s will eclipse them – and it appears to be one of those rare vintages where virtually everyone made excellent wine across the board.
The old-vine fruit from our 7.29 acres at Maresh in the Dundee Hills was again the star of the cellar. We tried endless combinations of barrels from this lot, until we arrived at what we thought was the absolute finest and purest representation of the vintage, and arrived at a total of 11 barrels that will become the 2008 Audrey – it will end up being about 250 cases of what will likely be the best wine we’ve ever made. Lovely aromas, rich sweet fruit and silky texture, superior length – this one truly has it all. It will be released in spring 2010, and should age well for 10+ years in the bottle, I would think…
The 2008 La Paulée will be comprised of the best lots of Ribbon Ridge and Momtazi, and a good bit of Maresh as well. Red & Black Cherries from Ribbon Ridge, Blackberries and earth from Momtazi, and a top note of red fruits from Maresh make this a really interesting and well-balanced cuvée. This proved to be a relatively easy blend to put together – the parts all seemed to just fit together harmoniously, and with much less trial & error than in some past vintages.
From 2008 we will also introduce two new micro-cuvées – both single-vineyard bottlings, one of them an exciting experiment – all the details of which will be revealed here in future posts…
Flowering continues in the vineyards under excellent conditions so far – keep your fingers crossed!
