“Our Dundee Hills Pinot Noir wine will always be my Oregon touchstone. It reminds me of our earliest challenges, back when we started with the 1988 vintage, and also it shows me how special our vineyards are today. To drink, it has the spice, cherry, wild herbs and red fruits that say “Dundee Hills!” every time.”
– Véronique Boss-Drouhin, Winemaker
WINEMAKER NOTES
Our Pinot Noir is handpicked into 25-pound totes, then hand sorted and de-stemmed at our four level gravity flow winery. Fermentations are long and careful and by November, all of our Pinot is safely in barrel. Our barrels are custom made in Burgundy, using oak from France’s best forests, allowing the character of the soil and vintage to show through.
2017 began with record snow and rain. As a result, bud break didn’t begin until the third week of April and spring itself was cool and wet. Summer temperatures were largely warm, which led to vigorous crop thinning. By late August, moder- ate weather allowed the fruit maturation to slow and the remaining clusters rip- ened at a more balanced rate. Finally, by the middle of September temperatures were perfect. Over the course of nearly three weeks, we were able to harvest individual parcels at optimal ripeness. Though something of a rollercoaster, in the end 2017 gave us beautifully balanced fruit with delightful flavors, elegant tannins and lovely length.
FLAVORS
TASTE PROFILE
ABOUT THE DROUHIN FAMILY ESTATE VINEYARDS
Poised atop the Dundee Hills, with gentle slopes that capture the breezes and sunshine, our 235-acre estate overlooking the Willamette Valley produces some of the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit in the world.
Robert Drouhin’s vision of an Oregon estate winery that could rival the great vineyards of Burgundy has been realized at DDO. From what began as test plantings of cloned Pinot Noir rootstock, Domaine Drouhin now encompasses 124 acres of hillside vineyards. Interspersed with the Pinot Noir vines are 11 acres of Chardonnay, planted at various elevations and, like in Burgundy, planted right alongside rows of Pinot Noir.
Everything planted at DDO is unique to the estate. We also have two large blocks of rootstock planted on the estate, so we can graft the cuttings onto rootstock that we have grown ourselves. We grow and plant rootstocks that we’ve learned are well suited to the specifics of our vineyard sites in terms of site elevation, soil depth, and moisture-holding capacity. In this way we can maintain the highest level of quality control over our plant material.
Our densely planted vines are farmed sustainably, L.I.V.E. certified, and tended to by hand when leaves and fruit are thinned; harvesting is also done entirely by hand.