R. STUART & CO. LAZY RIVER VINEYARD PINOT NOIR

The Lazy River Vineyard, in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, is owned by the Lumpkin Family. Without a doubt, it’s one of the most picturesque vineyards around – and that’s saying something! Lazy River is in a cooler location nearly touching the foothills of the Coast Range. The outcome is that the vines have less vigor, ripen at a slower pace, and have less plant energy ( which controls leaves and vine height). The clone mix is roughly two-thirds Wadenswil, a slow-ripening Swiss clone which was grafted onto old Riesling vines in 2012, and Dijon 667. The vines are planted in Jory soil. We particularly love this site for the Wadenswil because it allows us to enjoy a really long hang-time for the Pinot, while maintaining the acidity that we love.

 

We watch the vineyards particularly closely in the last month before harvest. We make our picking decisions based primarily on flavor, although of course we consider acid, ph, TA and brix. We taste the fruit every week and as we get closer, sometimes every day. When we decide the flavors are right, we call for the pick. The fruit comes in from the vineyard and the first thing we do is destem – without crushing – into small one-ton fermenters. We use natural proprietary yeast, which we’ve cultured for weeks from the vineyard samples. Including strains from our many vineyards in the yeast gives the wine welcome complexity, just like with a blended Pinot. Later in the fermentation process we delestage The result is large, soft tannins – which are just the kind we like. After delestage, we press off the juice and let it settle for before barreling. We rarely use new oak in our cellar, as we much prefer the gentle aging achieved with neutral French oak. Our goal for each wine is to have just the right amount of soft tannins, balanced with luscious fruit and bright acidity.