2020 The Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay Estate

Made with organically farmed grapes. Picked 19 September. Fruit sourced from The Eyrie vineyard’s 1968-planted Draper clone. Dry-farmed and own-rooted on untilled basalt soils. Certified organic. Jason Lett offered Seth Morgen Long this fruit in his third vintage (2016) and Morgen Long has been making it since. From Morgen Long's website, 'Crushed into the press, the juice was allowed to brown for 12 hours before being sulfured. No press cuts were made before a maximum juice yield was reached. After 24 hours of settling, the juice was racked off solids into a new stainless tank. Once ambient yeast fermentation started, the must was racked into 100% new oak and chaptalised 0.5%. It was bone dry in less than 10 days and malolactic engaged, completing in late December. Eyrie aged for 11.5 months in 100% new French oak from a 265-litre Damy Allier Long Light barrel before being racked off of lees into steel for a second winter. Cold stabilised outdoors in early 2022, Eyrie was polish filtered before bottling in early February 2022. Closed with 54 x 25 mm Aquitaine Liege “Flor” punch cork.’ TA 6.93 g/l, pH 3.21, 50 ppm SO 2 . Drink now (smoke taint can develop in bottle). So different from past vintages – Morgen Long changed his winemaking dramatically because of the fires. Lemon blossom, cinnamon bark, vanilla, oatmeal cookie, chalk, ripe yellow apple and honey butter. Round and opulent on the palate, quite silky, with rolling waves of lemony acidity. Roasted chestnut finish. I do think this wine is a bit muted from recent SO 2 and bottling. Seth tells me that it was bottled last week. Do decant and drink ASAP, as Willamette Valley 2020s are not wines to age, so these Morgen Longs are built to drink now. (SCJ)