TN: 2008 Luminous Hills Estate Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton

WINE TALK
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Except for the predominant red fruit, which doesn’t speak of Yamhill-Carlton to me, this is exactly what I expected. Seamless pinot noir in a balanced style with aromatics that simply entice sip after sip. It disappeared way too easily and even stood up pretty well to a 2" ribeye.

This is the “other” label from Byron Dooley of Seven of Hearts, and consists of fruit only from his estate vineyard outside McMinnville, Luminous Hills. On one level, it’s amazing. Byron’s third vintage making pinot noir and, to my knowledge, his fifth vintage making wine period. It’s also third-leaf fruit (okay, maybe fourth) and the first viable crop from the vineyard. Given all the roadblocks, it’s just stunning but I’m learning very quickly to never underestimate Byron. Next year he’ll have some fruit from our fellow member Doug Ackerman’s Armstrong Vineyard on Ribbon Ridge. Wow.

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Byron certainly seems to have his groove on, which is a good thing for us. Looking forward to trying this as well as the Seven of Hearts 08s.

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Bob, great note. I tasted through the entire Seven of Hearts / Luminous Hills line up recently and was impressed top to bottom. Byron’s doing really good things with Oregon pinot noir. Anybody looking for recommendations on where to taste in this area – don’t miss Byron’s tasting room in “downtown” Carlton. His wife’s Honest Chocolates business samples and sells there as well. Great stuff all around. Disclosure - I’m sourcing from Armstrong along with Byron and hope to steal lots of knowledge from him as we go.

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Luminous also has a “LUX” bottling, which I think is a single-clone “blend” like Ayres Pioneer.

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Are these available on the shelves anywhere locally (Portland)? Checking the usual suspects (Liner, Vinopolis, Garrisons, etc.) and not seeing anything. Very interested in checking these out!

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I’d just drive out to Carlton and buy them at the tasting room, Mark. Right downtown on Main, north side, middle of the block. Open Fri-Sun, and you’ll get to taste the whole lineup.

Either that or ask Brian (Vinopolis) Travis (Garrison’s) or Michael Alberty (Story Teller) to order them. I know that Vinopolis has at least had the Seven of Hearts wines in the past. I don’t know about the other two.

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I picked up the '07 Eola-Amity and Crawford Beck SV at the Tualatin Fred Meyers.

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Thanks for the write up. I’ll look to try some next time I am up there. Looks like it will be November.

Jason

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I concur, Byron makes some really good stuff. FYI, Byron’s wines are distributed by Lemma in OR and should be available in many parts of the State.
Looking forward to what he does with the Pinot Noir from Jesse James vineyard (Eola-Amity Hills) in 2010 that used to go to Bethel Heights. For that matter, I especially want to see what he does with the Syrah & Grenache he got in 2009.

Regards, Ed

Edward Fus
(ITB)

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Thanks for the kind words, Bob (also, Steve, Vincent, Ed). Regarding the predominant red fruit, this is a function of the unique location and characteristics of the Luminous Hills Vineyard. It is a higher elevation site in the southwest part of the Y-CD AVA, and consequently it is in a transition zone with both sedimentary soils typical of the AVA, as well as volcanic Jory soil more unusual in this area. The make-up of the 2008 silver label Pinot Noir uses a significant portion of the 667 clone planted on the higher elevation volcanic, with supporting roles of 115 on sedimentary and Pommard on both.

As for the LUX (gold label) that you mention in a subsequent post, it is a small production (ain’t they all, though) blend consisting primarily of Pommard on sedimentary, with the other major component being 777 on volcanic.

The vineyard was indeed third leaf in 2008. My experience suggests that, if the viticulture is right, young vines can produce wines of tremendous depth and character (you may recall the '04 Harmony’s Vineyard was also a 3rd leaf bordeaux varietal blend from the vineyard I planted Howell Mountain).

I’m very enthused about working with the Armstrong and Jesse James vineyards in 2010, as well as another site that is currently under negotiation.

Indeed, Lemma is my Oregon distributor, but a point about that: they don’t carry all of the wines since many of the lots are extremely small and not practical for broad distribution (e.g. 2008 Reserve Pinot Noir, 2008 Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir, 2009 Rattlesnake Road Vineyard Roussanne). However, If a special request comes through my distributor, I happily accommodate whenever I can.

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Michele and I are honored to work with talented winemakers like Byron, Brad McElroy (Ayres) and Vincent Fritszche (Vincent Wine Co.). By all accounts, 2010 looks to be the vintage of the century (well, thus far!) so we’re counting on these dedicated producers to make some inspiring wine.

Byron’s modesty may preclude him from sharing his recent run of remarkable showings and reviews, but it won’t stop me.

Oh, sure there were the Oregon Wine Awards: Oregon Wine Awards | Oregon Wine | Oregon Wineries – Washington State Wine Awards

And then there was Alice Feiring’s recent blog posting about the Portland Indie Wine festival:
http://www.alicefeiring.com/feiringsquad/misc/portland_indie_3.html

Having attended the aforementioned Indie Wine Festival, I’m certain that the judges will heap more praise on his wines. By the way, that was a terrific wine event with the excellent food nearly eclipsing the wines.

My favorite Pinots, besides Byron’s, include:

2007 Johan WV Estate(their regular bottling, for around $25, had remarkable purity and intensity and characterized all that is good about 2007).
2007 Durant PN (from Dundee Hills) as well as the 07 Durant Chard. For $25 and $20, respectively you can’t do much better. The Chard was easily one of the best OR Chards I’ve tasted in the past year (also Anderson Family 2007 Chard, and anything from John Paul at Cameron).
2008 Antica Terra. What can you say? This is just classy, exceptionally well made wine in a polished but fully loaded, balanced style. Tight in many ways (aromatically and on the clenching finish), but remarkable potential.
2008 Aubichon WV is terrific. This is a no-brainer, with intensity and quality at half the tariff it deserves. To be purchased by the case. Disclaimer—We’re friends with the producers and will likely sell them fruit at some point down the road. Also the 07 Aubichon Reserve and the 08 Le Cadeau bottlings are extremely well made wines that will require some patience IMO.
The PNs from Wy East impressed me. This producer has a somewhat older vineyard at 1700 feet in the foothills above Hood River. Aromatically delicate and delightful, if not as structured and powerful as its Willamette Valley cousins.
Wildaire Cellars Timothy PN—nice effort!
Other great wines include the Et Fille, Lenne, Genius Loci, RR and Wahle Vineyards wines. And there were more, as I didn’t take formal notes. Gresser, Dukes Family and De Lancelloti come immediately to mind.
Yeah, there were some disappointments, to be sure, but plenty of extremely well made, interesting wines.
Another extremely worthwhile and educational event was last Thursday: the Chehalem Mountain Winegrowers association tasting at a great venue in the Pearl. The food was very good (not as exciting at the food at the Indie festival) and there were many excellent wineries pouring. Both of these events were well worth the price of admission—for you out of towners, this would be a great excuse to come visit Portland and the wine country next year in early May.

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Great stuff, Doug. Thanks.

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I’ll have barrel samples of both in the tasting room this weekend (Fri, Sat, and Sun afternoons) for anyone interested in trying them.