R. STUART & CO. LAZY RIVER 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 is Wadenswil, a slow ripening Swiss clone, which was grafted onto old Riesling vines in 2012. These vines are planted in Jory soil.

When the fruit comes in from the vineyard to the winery, the first thing we do is destem it – without crushing – into small 1-ton fermenters. We use proprietary yeast, which we’ve cultured from that year’s vineyard samples. Using strains from our many vineyards gives us some complexity. Later in the fermentation process we delestage. The result is large, soft tannins – just the kind we like. We rarely use new oak in our cellar as we much prefer the gentle aging acheived with neutral French oak. In addition, our reserve wines are never filtered. Our goal for each wine is just the right amount of soft tannins, balanced with luscious fruit and bright acidity.