Belle Pente Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley 2023
Overview
A vibrant, energetic Pinot Noir with fresh red fruit, floral lift and a lingering interplay of acidity and fine tannin.
Producer
Belle Pente
Region
Oregon
Appellation
Willamette Valley AVA
Fermentation
14% whole cluster; 5–8 day cold soak; fermented with vineyard-propagated and ambient yeasts in 1.25- and 2.5-ton fermenters; hand punch-downs twice daily; average 19-day cuvaison.
Variety
100% Pinot Noir
Farming
Estate vineyard farmed to organic standards with biodynamic and regenerative practices; dry farmed; not certified
Aging
12 months in French oak: 4% new, 36% one-to-two-year-old and 60% three-to-five-year-old barrels; two rackings; gravity bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Soil
81% marine sedimentary estate soils; 13% transitional diabase at Aileron Hill; 6% marine sedimentary soil at Foxy Rock
Age of Vines
Estate vines planted 1998–1999; Foxy Rock planted 2000 and 2002; Aileron Hill planted 2014