2022 Anderson Family Vineyard, Pinot Noir

95 Points, Jeb Dunnuck

Site History: For Cliff and Allison Anderson, their perfect location to grow wine grapes was not what popular opinion would dictate. The naysayers said the site they chose was too steep, too dry and too rocky. Cliff thought differently about it – he knew he was smack-dab at the crossroads of some the most venerated Dundee Hills vineyards. Situated on the most northeast hill in Dundee, in the Dundee Hills AVA, Cliff and Allison can enjoy both the panoramic view and excellent grapes growing on their site. More rock than soil, the hilltop is an old landslide of broken lava flows.  It is hard to farm.  The boulders and lack of rich soil did not deter Cliff Anderson. He knew he had a piece of land similar to some European vineyards that are planted on rocky, fast-draining soils that stress the plants to send their roots deep.

So, despite the advice of others, the Andersons went for it and started planting their 16.5 acres in 1992. 12.5 acres are pinot noir using clones 115, 777, 667, Pommard, and Wadenswil. 3.25 acres are planted to Dijon clone chardonnay and .75 acres are planted with pinot gris.

Site Characteristics: Anderson Family Vineyard is a wholly unique vineyard site in the Dundee Hills AVA. It is the most northeastern-ly located vineyard in the AVA and while it does have Jory soil the distinguishing aspect of the site is that it is a tiny butte created by an ancient rock landslide. It is essentially a hill of softball sized rocks. The vineyard wraps 270 degrees around the hill side leaving only the northwest aspect uncovered in vines. The vineyard was originally planted back in 1992 with multiple clones of Pinot Noir and some Chardonnay. It is farmed organically with a no-till philosophy firmly in place. There is no familial relationship between these Andersons and the Patricia Green Cellars’ Anderson! It was just a great situation where they were looking to sell some fruit and the winery was in the market for some unique, well-farmed, old-vine Pinot Noir.

PGC Blocks: This vineyard is uniquely situated and with a 270-degree facing, all across moderately to quite steep slopes, there are a wealth of blocks with distinct attributes to them that make the site interesting beyond its locale. Our main block is a south facing section of Dijon 115 at the bottom of the vineyard. The block is very wide with relatively short rows. Due to the width of the block and the location of a stand of trees we actually pick the 2.75 acre block on separate days to allow for more ripening in the plants that see more afternoon shade. On the eastern slope we receive small amounts of Pommard and Wadensvil. These are planted in long rows in the middle of the slope. Lastly we receive Dijon 667 from the north block of the vineyard. This falls at the very bottom of the vineyard and is the least steep of the four blocks.  

Farming Practices: The vineyard is dry farmed, organically farmed and farmed with a no-till philosophy. The latter owing largely to the rubble pile that this vineyard sits upon making tilling either a near impossibility or an expensive, equipment-destroying reality.

Picking Dates, Tonnages, Tons/Acre: October 17th and 20th. 3.04 tons of Dijon 667 at 2.41 tons/acre, 4.4 tons of Dijon 115 at 1.60 tons/acre and 1.64 tons of Pommard/Wadesnsvil at 1.72 tons/acre.

Vinification: The Dijon 115 and the co-fermented Pommard/Wadensvil were done 100% destemmed with some very rigorous sorting on the Dijon 115 resulting in only 2 fermenters of fruit out of the nearly 4.5 tons. The Dijon 667 was done at slightly over 50% whole cluster.

Winemaking: Fermentations were managed exclusively by pigeages to ensure gentle handling, extraction and delicate tannin construction. Cold soaks were generally 4 days across all five fermenters. Full fermentation from beginning to pressing was 18 days. A 48-hour settling of pressed wine occurred prior to being racked to barrel. All wines were on full lees until assemblage for bottling. Bottled without fining or filtration.

Barrels: This 12-barrel bottling used 2 new Cadus barrels and 1 new D&J barrel (25%). There are 4 once filled barrels and then a combination of 2-6 times filled barrels rounding out the selections.

Notes: 2022 is a spectacular year in the Dundee Hills. Despite the major frost event in April all our vineyards in this AVA recovered exceptionally well and produced both bumper crops and wines of incredible concentration, focus, drive and elegance. Spread across our Volcanic, Anderson Family, Balcombe, Balcombe Block 1B, Durant Bishop Block, Durant Madrone Block, Lillie’s, Mysterious (Arcus Vineyard) and Weber we have our largest and most successful selection of Dundee Hill wines in our 23 year history. All of these wines operate at or around apex levels for each bottling. Not a vintage to be missed from this important Oregon AVA.

This will be our last bottling of Anderson Family Vineyard. This has been a short (2019-2022) but productive run with this interesting site. While we do not have older vintages of this bottling our suspicion is that over time the underpinning elements will really come to the forefront and make for a wine with great capacity to carry fruit but with an interesting austerity to that fruit that provides a level of complexity that will be, at the very least, different than our other Dundee Hill bottlings. This is a combination of all 8 of the Dijon 667 barrels and the 4 Pommard/Wadensvil barrels. The wine finished with numbers of a TA of 5.5, a pH of 3.53, a free sulfur level below 30 ppm and a total sulfur below 75 ppm.

Tasting Note: Please be aware that I am loathe to write tasting notes on our wines. Each person has an individual palate and therefore unique experiences with every wine. Also, what a person has tasted in their life and what they enjoy informs them on what a wine is like. If I tell you a wine tastes like cherries and you either have never had a cherry or don’t like cherries what I am saying is irrelevant information. That being said I have been asked to include my thoughts on each wine (since we have so many).

The 2022 Anderson Family Vineyard Pinot Noir differs significantly in makeup from its 2019 and 2021 predecessors in that those two wines primary fruit source was the Dijon 115 block and this wine contains no Dijon 115 fruit. So, even in a year where the Dundee Hill wines show beautifully high-toned red fruit this site, which has always leaned towards the reddest end of the fruit spectrum, has a delicious darker fruited profile that suits it well in 2022. The Dijon 667 provides a rich, fruit heavy background and the Pommard/Wadensvil combination comes in over the top with a wealth of fruits, earth-bound tones and the lean structural aspects that make this bottling unique. This wine will evolve to take on enormous complexity over time as the dense fruit and mineralized tannins work things out over the years.