Le Cadeau’s 2007 Pinot Noir Diversite was crafted – in a notoriously difficult vintage that Tom Mortimer nevertheless likens, for his property, to 2010 – by veteran Oregon winemaker Sam Tannahill, best known for his current assignment directing the several branches associated with Rex Hill. What tannin remains here shows slight brittleness, and what was doubtless never a fleshy – let alone flashy – wine, shows on the light side today. That said, a haunting, ethereal sense to the evocation of berry fruit is allied to more than enough remaining juiciness for it to delectably compliment the pecan, cocoa powder, leather, and forest floor notes that keep this interesting all the way through a long finish. I’d plan on savoring this Pinot soon.
Tom Mortimer and his wife Deb fit a pattern familiar from modern American viticulture in that their desire to plant vines arose from first falling in love with a landscape and a place (“the gift,” he explains, for which he eventually named his vineyard). Besides a spectacular view and breezy exposure, the 28 forested, scrubby, gently sloping acres on the south slope of Parrett Mountain – at the eastern edge of what’s now the Chehalem Mountains A.V.A – that they purchased in 1997 harbored rocks: fist-sized, head-sized, at times chest-sized cobbles taxing the heaviest of earthmoving equipment and even today leaving large parts of the vineyard superficially reminiscent of Chateauneuf or Cayuse. “Even back then,” relates Mortimer, “I knew just enough about wines to know that some of the best grow on rocky soil,” and to a trained eye today this is one of those places about which one immediately thinks “if great wine isn’t grown here, it won’t be the place’s fault.” Enlisting several veteran viticulturalists who have continued to form his team of advisors (notably vineyard manager Buddy Beck, ex-Drouhin, and California’s Daniel “Dr. Dirt” Roberts), Mortimer wisely elected to plant from 1999 through 2008 a wide range of vine material, including not just traditional Pommard and fashionable recent Dijon clones, but also – unusually for Oregon – numerous historical Californian selections including those associated with Calera, Hyde, Mount Eden, and Swann. Thanks to a spirit at once cautious and experimental – and, as he admits, to considerable sheer serendipity – different winemakers were (and still are, though the roster has changed) paired by Mortimer with different blocks in the vineyard. Biodynamic counselor and former Martinelli winemaker Steve Ryan is presently responsible for the self-explanatorily named Cote Est, Mortimer’s exploration of cool microclimate potential which, since its fruit – from diverse Dijon clones – has to travel to California, can only qualify for a generic Oregon appellation. (The same is true of the Rocheux, while other bottlings carry a Willamette Valley appellation rather than that of the Chehalem Mountains in which they were grown.) Ryan also oversees Merci – which was first essayed in 2009 but I haven’t yet sampled – named for the generosity of those who made it possible for Mortimer to plant the stony lowest section of Le Cadeau with a who’s who (as well as a hush-hush or two) of California heirloom selections. Equinoxe – from diverse clones, separately vinified, at the exposed crest of the property – is the purview of Jim Sanders (a protegee of Beaux Freres’ Mike Etzel, and Le Cadeau’s sole remaining charter winemaker). Diversite – named for one parcel’s wide array of selections, clones, and rootstocks – is vinified by Scott Shull, winemaker for Raptor Ridge. Rocheux – from the rocky West-side of the vineyard and interpreted by Jacqueline Yoakum, former assistant to Ted Lemon at Littorai and since winemaker at Nicholson Ranch – is based on Pommard and Clone 777 vines, and the only instance where the selections or clones are not co-fermented. (I mention a bit about each winemaker’s approach in the text of tasting notes covering the relevant 2010.) Incidentally, des
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