2010 Pinot Meunier

TASTING NOTES
The 2010 Pinot Meunier is rich and red in color tinged with purple. Pleasing aromas of forest floor, wildberry, clove, and black licorice tickle the nose. The entry is round and full, proffering flavors of pie cherry and red currants then builds to notes of dusty white pepper, anise, earth and delicious raspberry compote. Notes of caramel and cassis linger on the tongue for a long and indulgent finish. The WillaKenzie Pinot Meunier is delightfully open and pretty for its young age. Drink now or age for 5-7 years.

We recommend pairing the WillaKenzie Pinot Meunier with charcuterie, short ribs, lamb or roasted goat with chutney.

 

 

VINTAGE
The 2010 vintage caused much anxiety in Oregon although it featured a relatively warm winter, especially February. Spring, however, was cold and wet, with May and June temperatures 8-10 degrees below average on most days. Budbreak occurred in the third week of April, but very little growth took place in the following weeks. Veraison was one of the latest on record, beginning at the end of August and completing in mid-September. The vintage was saved by a sunny and fairly dry October, contributing to good phenolic maturity, albeit at a lower than usual Brix level. Harvest started on October 19 with Terres Basses and finished on November 1 just before the rainy season. The 2010 WillaKenzie Estate Pinot Meunier is balanced with a lower level of alcohol, typically around 13.8, and exhibits an excellent fruit profile.

 

VINEYARDS
WillaKenzie Estate has four acres of Pinot Meunier, all planted in 1992 on Willakenzie soil, known for its excellent drainage. Pinot Meunier is a native of the Champagne region of France and belongs to the Pinot family. It is named Meunier (‘Miller’ in English) because of the powdery, flourlike appearance of its foliage. The Pinot Meunier plants are grafted onto phylloxera resistant rootstock and trained into an upright, double guyot trellising system.

2010 Pinot Meunier Technical Details at Harvest:
Yield:  2.7 tons per acre / Brix:  23º / pH:  3.5 / T.A.:  6.7

WINEMAKING
We used our state of the art, gravity-flow winery to achieve a fully extracted and complex Pinot Meunier. During this process, no whole clusters were used and the grapes were 100% destemmed. A cool maceration preceded the fermentation for a total of 20 days of skin contact with daily punch downs by ‘Bigfoot,’ our mechanical punchdown device. After pressing, the Pinot Meunier settled for a few days in tank and was then moved by gravity directly into barrels where it underwent Malolactic fermentation during the next 7 months. The Pinot Meunier spent a total of 10 months in French oak barrels (20% new) from a selection of coopers. It was bottled entirely under screwcap closures.

2010 Pinot Meunier Technical Details at Bottling:
Alcohol:  13.5%  /  pH:  3.6 / T.A.:  5.4

 

To see tasting notes from previous vintages of the WillaKenzie Pinot Meunier please visit our Trade Toolkit