2011 Pinot Noir Lia's Vineyard

Suggestions of sassafras, ginger and root beer mingle with fresh plum and cherry in the J. Christopher 2011 Pinot Noir Lia’s Vineyard, whose richness of texture, subtle creaminess and expansiveness mark the riper character of this site, but are combined with a bit less refinement or high-toned complexity than harbored by many of this collection’s other Pinots. There is a vintage-typical bit of tartness in the finish, for now slightly detached. But this has length and depth already and is likely to gain in interest and harmony over at least the next half dozen years. (See under Longplay for an account of the corresponding wine – from 21 year old, ungrafted Pommard and Wadenswil vines – as well as several others that Somers vinifies for Lia’s proprietors.) Jay Somers – for much more about whom, and about his J. Christopher project with the Mosel’s Ernie Loosen, consult my Issue 202 account – picked from October 21 through November 2, 2011. He chaptalized certain lots – though not those from the estate’s immediate Calkins Lane neighborhood – and finished alcohols vary between 12.8% and 13.2%. As usual here, an extremely restrained regimen of punch-downs or pump-overs prevails. All of the Pinots received – and typically will receive in future – one-quarter each of new, once, twice, and thrice previously used barrels, so as to put the emphasis on terroir character, while keeping other things close to equal. A full tier of A.V.A.-designates was bottled, which – as with the vineyard-designates – did not occur until April and May of this year. “I’ve been making wine here (in the Willamette) for a long time,” says Somers, “and something I’ve learned is that we have cool vintages from time to time” – prior to 2010 he adduces 1997, his second commercial vintage – “and my feeling is that you have to go with the vintage, and not try to screw with it too much trying to make the wine what you want to make, but something it’s not.” As Somers remarked to me apropos his A.V.A. series – though this could be applied to all his work – “We’re not constructing wine, but representing something with it.” Incidentally, the first two barrels of Pinot came off of the two-year-old estate vineyard in 2012, likely destined for that vintage’s Chehalem A.V.A. blend, with the return of Appassionata (the name formerly used for a late-bottled, late released cuvee, henceforth for the estate vineyard) likely to come with 2013. Tel. (503) 554-9572