R. STUART & CO. MATTERI VINEYARD PINOT NOIR

Owned by Dr. Robert Matteri, a reproductive endocrinologist, this is a new project and a new lifestyle for him. He does much of the vineyard work on his own. As far as we can tell, working on his vineyard is his down time from his real life in Portland. His goal is to establish the best vineyard possible and to provide grapes only to wineries that he believes will make great wines with them. He likes the idea of working with several talented winemakers to see what they can do with this beautiful fruit.

When the fruit comes in from the vineyard to the winery, the first thing we do is destem it – without crushing – into small I-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 (a kind of rack and return). 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 achieved 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, balances with luscious fruit and bright acidity.