Greetings fellow Berserkers!
We’re excited to participate in NewbiePalooza, with a limited offer of our (technically sold out) 2019 Gravity’s Pull Chardonnay!
I’ve been a member of Wine Berserkers since 2009, and I’ve learned a lot from the community here (although I don’t post often, which is something I’m trying to rectify), so the chance to participate in something like this is really special!
We missed this past BerserkerDay (we were sold out and somehow I didn’t think to offer wines that were being bottled the next month) but we’re looking forward to participating going forward!
Who We Are:
We (my wife and I) are a very small (250 case) “winery” (renting space in the corner of Vincent Fritzsche’s facility in Amity), and we’re trying to make some of the best white wines in the Willamette Valley, at prices that those in the wine business can afford to buy. (I’ve been ITB in various forms since I was 22… it’s not the most lucrative work, even if it is a blast.)
We’re loosely inspired by the wines of Friuli (especially the Collio/Colli Orientali), which we think shares a vinous link with our little corner of Oregon. We want to make wines that have bright acidity and mineral-driven personalities—they have to work with food, first and foremost. Our first proper vintage was 2018, and we’ve been slowly growing things since then, though I still haven’t been able to quit the day job.
The Nitty-Gritty:
Unfortunately, we’re sold out of our offer today. We will be participating in BerserkerDay, though (and you can always head to www.championshipbottle.com to sign up for the email list as well). Thank you all for your interest and support!
The Wine:
2019 was a classic year in the Willamette Valley, much cooler than the vintage before it. As you might expect, that’s a brilliant thing for white wines—and the ‘19 Gravity’s Pull is a highlight of what we made.
The cooler weather in ‘19 gave us longer hang time on the vine, so the fruit in the wine feels more knit-together and complex than the previous year’s, even as it retains the bright acidity and verve that defines our wines.This comes from the ungrafted, old (for Oregon) vines at Dion Vineyard—a hidden gem in the Laurelwood sub-AVA of the Willamette Valley, and fewer than 75 cases were produced.
It’s telling that across Europe, producers who are lucky enough to have ungrafted vineyards prize them supremely. From Cappellano’s iconic Pie Franco to Marc Plouzeau’s Ante Phylloxera, there’s something about those vines that gives wines a je ne sais quoi. Every time I taste Gravity’s Pull, I think that must be happening here, as well, and I’m grateful to get to work with the vineyard.
This wine fermented and aged for eleven months in older oak barrels before we transferred it into stainless steel tanks for a final six months to build tension into the wine. Just three barrels-worth were bottled and we elected to delay its release to give it time to open up, though this will definitely reward a half-decade in the cellar, if you have the patience.
(PS: If you were lucky enough to get some of the ‘18 last year, go ahead and open a bottle—it’s bloomed nicely in the last twelve months.)
Thanks again your support and all of the knowledge/community over the years!
-Saul