Illahe '1899' Estate Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2020 (750ml)
Price: $75.99
| Producer | Illahe |
| Country | United States |
| Region | Oregon |
| Subregion | Willamette Valley |
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Vintage | 2020 |
| Sku | 15271 |
| Size | 750ml |
Illahe Description
The difficult 2020 vintage did not faze the stalwart crew at Illahe, and we worked through it all driving horses, handsorting, fermenting in wood and pumping with the bicycle. The low yields and small berries of 2020 helped the wine attain the character of blueberry, raspberry, rich Italian plum, tangerine peel, clove, marzipan, and cocoa. The slow process delivers velvety tannins from the skin with smooth tannins from 100% new French oak. Aged in barrel for 18 months.
Our 1899 pinot noir was made without the use of modern winemaking equipment or electricity. We wanted to create a new world wine with a true sense of place that wasn’t altered by modern technology. The grapes for this wine were picked by hand and brought up to the winery by horse. Once at the winery, the grapes were destemmed by hand and the placed into wooden fermenters. The must was fermented on native yeasts, after which it was pressed by hand in a wooden basket press, bicycle-pumped into barrel, and underwent malolactic fermentation without inoculation. We bottled with a gravity filler, corked by hand and manually applied the labels and wax.
The 1899 never touched dry ice, canned nitrogen, enzymes, stainless steel, forklifts, commercial yeast, electric pumps or filters. Every year we bring this wine to the Willamette river by stagecoach or bicycle from the winery, and canoe it 90 miles to Portland to our Oregon distributor's warehouse.
