From Dick Ponzi’s 1975 planting that represents a field blend of those clones and selections he could acquire, the Ponzi 2005 Pinot Noir Abetina displays an aromatic mingling of smoky black tea, leather, fish oil, and dried cherry. Juicier and fresher on the palate than the nose had led me to suspect, this carries considerable sap into a lingering, still faintly roughly tannic finish whose smoky, leathery aspects are last to fade. This will be best enjoyed over the next year or two.
Dick Ponzi founded planted his estate in 1969 at what has since become the suburban edge of Portland, soon thereafter – in consultation with fellow pioneers David Adelsheim and David Lett – expanding into less-fertile nearby hillsides. After formal studies in Beaune and stages at more than one prestigious Burgundy domaine, his daughter Luisa began working alongside her father in 1993, and nowadays takes the lead in winemaking. A spacious new facility was completed several miles south of the homestead vineyard in 2008, spectacularly overlooking a string of estate vineyards on the north side of the Chehalem Ridge (on so-called Laurelwood soil of mixed basaltic and sedimentary origin), the oldest of which was planted in 1975, but a significant share of whose acreage has been part of an accelerated expansion over the past decade. Ponzis don’t hesitate to chaptalize in all but warm years, in which, on the other hand, their breezy, hilly, and largely southeastern-facing sites serve to moderate potential alcohol. Pinot is generally destemmed (though the 2011s involved a notable percentage of whole cluster); fermentation lots are (in Luisa Ponzi’s words) “ridiculously small;” extraction is via punch-down; pressing with few exceptions takes place at dryness or just-before; and after brief settling the young wine goes to at least 20% new barrel. The Ponzis render a range of wines from Italianate varieties which I was unfortunately not able to take time to taste on this occasion.
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