2009 Pinot Noir Vineyard

Winderlea’s 2009 Pinot Noir Winderlea Vineyard incorporates not only the vines that informed their corresponding 2010 Winderlea Vineyard bottling, but also a portion of those old vines that in 2010 became part of the Legacy bottling. Cassis, sloe berry, blueberry, and botanical herbs shadowed by their distilled counterparts make for a showy nose, then inform a palate of almost liqueur-like, glycerol-rich lushness and inner-mouth volatiles, with intense concentrations of berry seeds; fruit pit; resinous, and shrubby herbs combining for a palate-staining finish more austere and less sweetly-ripe than this wine’s nose or mid-palate had led me to expect. At 14.8% alcohol – albeit blessedly free or heat or harshness – it’s forceful personality is going to remain something of an alter ego to the winery’s 2010s, but I imagine this will be well worth following for at least the better part of a decade. Bostonians Donna Morris and Bill Sweat were Pinotphiles successful in the financial sector who jumped at the opportunity in 2006 to purchase and relocate to a prime piece of vineyard land along Worden Hill Road, part of the original Maresh properties on this viticulturally remarkable stretch, contiguous with Archery Summit’s Arcus Estate vineyard to the south, and with inter alia Maresh Vineyards and Juliard Vineyard on either side. Robert Brittan – whose talents are also on display at his own estate and that of Ayoub (both profiled in this report) – is in charge of winemaking; and biodynamic consultant Philippe Armenier manages the vineyard, though it’s immediately clear from talking with them that Morris and Sweat are out to absorb as much locally available vineyard lore and follow the seasonal evolution of their vines as closely as possible. In addition to wines from the estate, contacts with an assortment of closely neighboring vineyards inform both periodic single-vineyard releases and a cuvee that constitutes by far Winderlea’s largest single bottling. As if that weren’t enough, Winderlea also has fruit contracts at several far-flung sites that issue in single-vineyard bottlings as well. Or perhaps that already is a bit much. My first impression, anyway, is that while Winderlea’s estate wines are standouts, their others are not quite as impressive as either experience with the relevant sites in other hands or the manifest talent and enthusiasm of the Winderlea team would have led me to predict. A diminishing share of the crop from Winderlea’s estate vineyard, incidentally, remains under contract to other wineries. (See under Arterberry-Maresh for another memorable 2010 from this site.) The Winderlea 2010s were bottled already at the end of August, 2011 (typical for those wines I tasted whose vinification had been overseen by Robert Brittan), though given the bright, spare cast of so many wines in the present collection, I at least wonder from my armchair whether perhaps they would have benefitted from a bit more time in barrel. Tel. (503) 554-5900