From a sandstone- and siltstone-dominated site on unusually east-west oriented Savannah Ridge east of Carlton, Wright's 2010 Pinot Noir Abbott Claim exhibits a penetrating, high-toned combination of coniferous resin with greenhouse-like suggestions that connect up with his impression of this site as promoting floral perfume - though this wine does so in an at once decadent and highly pungent way that's liberally mixed with scents of green foliage. There is a certain underlying hardness of texture here, though the finish is as penetrating as the nose and consists of a sappy, resinous cling that incorporates a quite confitured impression of dark berries. This is surely going to prove an acquired taste.
Louisville native Ken Wright has long since become one of the iconic and most influential figures of the Oregon wine scene, a go-to for countless winery start-ups as well as valuable projects to benefit the Willamette wine community. Wright's career evolved from one of negociant-winemaker (founder of Panther Creek) and farmer of other people's vines to that of vineyard owner. "It was twelve years before I bought my first vineyard," he notes, "because before that I was in the exploratory phase of trying to find the best sites in the valley." Today, in addition to the three vineyards he owns, Wright holds 15- to 30-year leases on five others, and 80% of the vines that supply him are farmed by his own extensive (and in places site-specific) team. Wright is passionately vocal on myriad aspects of Pinot production, but one he emphasized especially in our recent session was "nutrition-based farming," which he characterizes as "a whole nother level beyond biodynamics" focused on "the uptake of minerals," which he believes is especially critical in the Willamette to encouraging ideal ripeness. It's thus the soil's microbial life he nurtures, he says, in order to get at the vine, with annual block-by-block soil and tissue analyses employed to establish what's needed and what's been accomplished. Wright makes clear that he sees ripeness as reflecting optimal harnessing of the sun's energy in the form of sugar, but indicates that he considers the use of must concentrators a more than acceptable alternative to chaptalization if grapes don't reach an optimal level of sugar. I was left with an uneasy impression from most of Wright's recent line-up of ripeness to be sure, but variously allied to phenolic stridency; firm, at times rustic tannin; or opacity of flavors. Wright appears from my limited research and my conversations with him to be the source of a considerable consensus that, in his words "as a result of doing single vineyard bottlings for so long, a pattern has emerged that basalt sites " Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills - generally tend to be more fruit-focused - (whether) red, blue, or black - and marine sediments (exhibit) more spicy and floral. And since these marine soils, mostly sandstone, are so dry, that triggers a hormonal response in the vine much earlier in the year to begin the process of ripening; where with (eroded basalt) volcanic soils there's more clay, more water-holding capacity, and so the vine remains vegetative longer. And for whatever reason - I don't quite understand that - we have higher acidity in the volcanics.- I don't share that consensus - I can't say that my admittedly limited experience even entitles me to judge it - but I wanted readers to be aware of it.
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