Cellar 503 Tasting Notes

Leah Jørgensen Cellars, Newberg, Oregon
2017 MALBEC PéTILLANT

Lycanthrope

The history of the werewolf or lycanthrope is incredibly diverse, with stories from Germanic pagan cultures, Slavic Europe, and classic Greek mythology. Generally speaking, a werewolf is a human who can transform or shapeshift into a wolf, though stories may differ depending on lore. The full moon may or may not be involved.

This Lycanthrope wants to howl at the moon and run through the forest. In the warmth of the sun she is bold and complex and shows her rich red fruits. But under the chill of a full moon, she sings an elegant song built to lead any pack of flavors into the night.

2017 MALBEC PéTILLANT

Is Sparkling Red new to you? Wine Folly called it “Liquid Caviar”. Sparkling Red Wine is trending! And with just a handful of domestic producers making serious sparkling reds, they’re a kind of “unicorn wine” that’s shimmying onto the scene this holiday season. We decided to make ours after learning about a couple of coveted (and expensive!) sparkling Malbec wines from Argentina and California. This is an exciting wine to savor with a slight chill (we recommend leaving it in the fridge for about an hour). But, don’t just take our word for it (although we hope we have earned your trust!).

VINEYARD & VINTAGE Crater View Vineyard is farmed by Quail Run Vineyards, where we source Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Malbec from this beautiful site with a distant view of Crater Lake. Four acres of FPS Clone 09 Malbec are planted on 101-14 rootstock in silty loam soils, which has had a successful start in Southern Oregon, showing reliable yields with an even cluster set to produce grapes of exceptional quality. Planted in 2007, the vines are trained on the Scott Henry trellis system, native to Oregon, which is a modified version of vertical shoot positioning designed to create additional leaf surface area to feed the fruit, where the density of the canopy is lessened, thereby reducing disease pressure and exposing more of the fruit. In 2015, an excavation of 250 million year old blue schist rocks, as well as other ancient ocean bottom rock, including limestone and clay loam containing ancient marine shellfish fossils and imprints, was revealed while clearing for a new block ready for planting - a remarkable discovery! This vineyard is L.I.V.E. Certified. The vintage started out just ahead of historically cool vintages - a wet, cool spring from March through May and reaching normal heat conditions by July for continued ripening into September and October in Southern Oregon. The growing degree days this vintage was actually among the coolest of the decade. Grapes were showing excellent concentration, complexity and natural acidity with overall exceptional fruit quality.

WINEMAKING The Crater View Malbec was harvested more than a week later than the previous two vintages on October 12th at 23.2 degrees Brix, and was sorted, de-stemmed, crushed lightly (half whole berry, half crushed), with a four-day cold soak, starting fermentation at 55° F so as to have a slow, steady fermentation with manual punch-downs twice daily. The wine was pressed and blended with the free run wine, then settled for four days before it was racked into neutral French oak barrels and stainless steel drums. A slow, steady malo-lactic fermentation completed in just under four months. After aging for nine months, the wine was racked, blended, then filtered with three separate carbon stone applications to add carbonation to this wine prior to bottling. The intent was to create a slight fizz, a pétillance found in festive red wines like Lambrusco or Brachetto d’acqui. This particular style is dry, tannic with its moderate acidity amplified by the slight fizz in the glass.

WINEMAKER NOTES “This experiment was inspired by the cool vintage, marking a lower pH for this site, offering a rustic, blackberry and cassis farm style of Malbec with it’s beautiful, intense dark aubergine color in the glass and opulent bright magenta bubbles on the surface. This wine is tart with minerality and complexity from the clay loam and limestone rich soils in the vineyard. On the palate, it opens with ample acidity, and offers flavors of blackberries, brambles, cassis, spice, hints of leather, cigar box and forest mushroom - a savory, earthy, and dark berry wine that finishes with moderate, soft tannins. The pétillance here augments the perception of acidity, adding an interesting prickle on the palate. Think of Lambrusco or even Spanish txakoli wines - not enough Carbon pressure to warrant a cap or Champagne cork with cage, but, enough to change the the mouthfeel experience.” Red wines with pétillance are the ultimate holiday wines - they open up a dinner party in an exciting way and also make for exquisite sparkling cocktails - look for our suggested winter cocktail recipes! This wine holds up to pair perfectly with roast beef, slow braised leg of lamb, lamb shanks, braised beef stews, dry rub barbecue ribs, pheasant, duck confit, Cassoulet, pork and bean dishes, sausages with garlic, and mellow blue cheese like Barkham Blue or Stilton. A wine to play with!

A Cellar 503 selection in October 2024, Monster Mash Rogue Valley | Malbec