Best Case Scenario: Montinore Estate Reserve Pinot Noir 2010

Pinot Noir at Montinore Estate | photo: Montinore Facebook page

Located in the North Willamette Valley near the foothills of Oregon’s breathtaking Coastal Range, Montinore Estate is comprised of 240 acres of contiguous vineyards that are Demeter Certified Biodynamic and Stellar Certified Organic. Dedicated mostly to Pinot Noir, other varietals grown on the estate vineyards include Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Muller-Thurgau.

The 2010 Montinore Estate Reserve Pinot Noir has bright fruit aromas like cranberries and cherries along with a tantalizing and alluring smokiness. Flavors of dark cherry, plums and earth with a hint of pepper on the lingering, juicy finish is down-right delicious. Excellent acidity balances out this wine to perfection. It’s really enjoyable now, but definitely has the structure to age.

Owner and winegrower Rudy Marchesi has been proprieter of Montinore Estate since 2005, but discovered it back in 1992 when he was visiting from his homestate of New York. With a long history of grape growing and winemaking in the Marchesi family (dating back to his grandparents who planted a small vineyard in their backyard after moving from northern Italy to New York), Rudy had his own commercial vineyard and small winery in New York through the ’80s and ’90s. His enthusiasm for the Montinore wines led him to distribute them on the East Coast, and 1998, he began consulting on Montinore’s vineyard management, winemaking and marketing as he brokered the wines on the east coast. Ultimately, Rudy gained a permanent position at Montinore as Vice President of Operations in 2001 and President in 2003, leading to his proprietership in 2005.

Rudy works closely with the red and white winemakers at Montinore, Ben Thomas and Stephen Webber. Here’s what Ben has to say about his winemaking style and the 2010 Estate Reserve Pinot Noir:

What is your winemaking philosophy?  We make our wines from our own organic and biodynamic fruit.  We use block specific native yeast fermentation to make higher acid, food complementing wines.  Our whites are crisp and pure, our Pinots earthy and complex.

How has your style evolved over the last 5-10 years? We transitioned to Biodynamic farming and native yeast fermentations.  We also have one winemaker dedicated to whites and one dedicated to reds, which has really helped us focus our style in each area.

What do you love about Oregon Pinot Noir?  What makes it unique? We see a dichotomy with Oregon wines with elements of old world and new world.  There are often rich fruit flavors intermingling with mushroom and forest floor.  Our natural acidity levels make for more elegant and restrained yet-flavorful food friendly wines.

Tell us about this wine.  This is a barrel selection primarily of our single-vineyard blocks. We use a mix of French coopers that pair well together.  We use the analogy of a concert choir to blend this, blending barrels with bass, baritone, tenor and soprano notes for a complete expression of our estate fruit.

What is one non-flavor descriptor to describe this wine?  As balanced as an acrobat.

For the wine geeks, like me:

AVA: Willamette Valley
Number cases produced: 1,900
Retail price: $28
Alcohol: 13.3%
pH: 3.7
Acidity: 6.3
Oak treatment: 35% new oak; 100% French oak

US Markets/Distributors: Available in 50 states.

Check out the other Best Case Scenario Oregon Pinot Noirs under the Best Case Scenario tab.