Le Cadeau Vineyard Diversite Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, USA

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The mere 73 cases of Le Cadeau’s 2010 Pinot Noir Diversite were fermented by Scott Shull with cultured yeasts; raised in 30% new barrels, and bottled already after only 11 months. Cherry preserves and grenadine-like sweet intensity of raspberry are allied to an, in its own way, sweet, marrowy, multi-boned meatiness, as well as an underlying sense of stoniness, resulting in a sense of depth and interplay that follows all the way through a long, juicily persistent and invigoratingly fruit skin-edged finish. In common with other wines from this estate – notwithstanding its multiple vintners and segregation of parcels – there is a combination of dark, intriguing flavors and textural allure with juicy vivacity, though I am just as prepared to say that this is a description of the unique potential of Pinot Noir as to suggest that it might be attributable to site. Look for at least the better part of a decade’s satisfaction. 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 i