If the truth be told, the origins of Carlton Hill’s first Estate Reserve can be traced to a nasty wind storm in 1997, well before the first grape was ever picked in our vineyard.

     The storm severely damaged one of the great oaks that stood on the top of Carlton Hill, and rumor had it that Oregon’s native white oak – “Quercus Garryana” – was fast becoming a very desirable source for making oak wine barrels. I took the bait and was determined to spare this tree from the fireplace. After five years of air drying, the wood was moved on to the capable hands of Oregon barrel maker Rick DeFerrari, and the rest is history.

     Utilizing Francois Frere’s medium-plus toast, one of the two barrels used in the making of this 2005 Estate Reserve is made exclusively from that great oak. The other barrel was a new, three-year-aged Tonnellerie Sirugue, one of my favorite oak barrel producers. By now you may have guessed that only two barrels of this extraordinary vintage exist. To be even more precise, only 45 cases are available for sale.

     For making the wine, our fermenter was filled with equal amounts of the 777 and 115 Dijon clone grapes which, at the time, were in their fifth and sixth leaf, respectively. Cropping was held to just a little over a ton to the acre. After five days of cold soak and an additional fermentation period of fourteen days, the free run wine from this fermenter was moved directly to barrel. After a challenging barrel tasting session in the Fall of ‘06, the Carlton Hill and Sirugue barrels were chosen for the Reserve. Now, after sixteen months of aging in these barrels, the 2005 Carlton Hill Estate Reserve makes its debut. 

     I believe this wine, to be officially released over the Memorial Day weekend, is a classic Pinot Noir with great structure and age worthiness. Herbaceous, dark fruit aromatics intertwine with bright forward flavors of ripe raspberry and black cherry. The wine has a chewy quality as well, revealing meaty, unctuous flavors in a rather pronounced mid palate, with spicy notes of clove and cedar wood lingering on the finish. The additional aging in wood also gives the wine a voluptuous mouth feel along with hints of vanilla and smoke.