Le Cadeau Vineyard Equinoxe Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, USA

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The 2015 Pinot Noir Equinoxe has sautéed herbs, tree bark and berry compote characters on the nose with a hint of chargrill. The medium to full-bodied palate has mixed berry jam and herbal characters with hard, chewy tannins and a rustic finish.

The 2013 Pinot Noir Equinoxe, which was matured in 65% new French oak, felt a little disjointed on the nose when I tasted it, and with aeration there were noticeable green notes underneath the red fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with soft tannin, soy-tinged red berry fruit that form a sleek texture, though it is missing some depth and grip on the finish. Drink over the next 3-4 years.

The 2012 Pinot Noir Equinoxe was made by Jim Sanders and sees 65% in new French oak for 11 months. That new wood is neatly carried by the mixture of red and black fruit on the nose with hints of dark chocolate and smoke developing in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied and more muscular than the Diversité or the Cote Est. There is much more substance here, although I prefer the precision and finesse shown by the Diversité. Here there is a pleasant black pepper tinge on the persistent aftertaste. I would afford this 18 months in bottle to see if it can muster just a little more refinement.

Bottled in June, Le Cadeau’s 2011 Pinot Noir Equinoxe – vinified by Jim Sanders – offers intriguing notes of moss and lichen on wet stone, as well as a darker berry fruit personality that I’m coming to view as a typical expression of this parcel at the exposed crest of the estate. Caramel and smoke notes from barrel do not affect the firmness or brightness that are fundamental features of this Pinot, but there is just a hint of drying to the finish that I hope and suspect is a function of the wine’s having at the time I tasted it so recently been bottled. I suspect that it will perform well through 2020, if not beyond. “We spent around $25,000 dollars extra on farming,” relates proprietor Tom Mortimer of the 2011 vintage, specifically due to “l(fā)arge clusters that necessitated us dropping to one cluster per shoot. And as soon as there was anything to cut off, we got rid of all the shoulders. And then – since we still had more than we wanted in these very cool conditions – we went in and did individual cluster surgery, taking off ears and tails. We farmed the heck out of the vineyards,” he concludes, Aand were then super-cautious with vinification and in choice of barrels (for eventual assemblage), bottling only very small volumes: 75-150 cases of our top-tier cuvees. (In addition to Mortimer’s further collaboration with Jim Sanders under the Aubichon label that serves as an outlet for lesser Le Cadeau barrels, the two also release wines under the name “Jolete” that involves fruit from both of those other projects. Notes on recent releases will be found in this report under the name of each label.) Given this incredibly rocky site’s high elevation, it’s perhaps unsurprising, once the exceptional circumstances of this vintage are granted, that picking here continued into the first week of November. For much more about this amazing vineyard high up on Parrett Mountain; its diverse blocks; and its vinification by multiple winemakers, please consult Issue 202. (The Cote Est and Rocheux bottlings are labeled “Oregon” but not “Willamette Valley” due to restrictions imposed by their being raised in California winemakers’ facilities.) Tel. (503) 625-2777

Reflecting cultured ferment and a mere 11-month elevage in two-thirds new barrel, Le Cadeau’s 2010 Pinot Noir Equinoxe projects lightly-cooked mulberry and blackberry with attractive hints of berry skin and seed tartness as well as charred red meat, though less savory salinity or sweet carnality than characterizes other wines in the present collection. There is also a grainier and firmer sense of tannin, no doubt in part thanks to amplification through wood. That said, the sheer persistence of ripe fruit here as well as the sense of textural thickness that overlies the tannins, plus the wine’s overall sense of buoyancy, render it delightful now, and it will certainly be worth following for at least the better part of a decade, during which the tannin may well resolve itself. 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 coverin