2022 Freedom Hill Vineyard Perspicacious Pinot Noir

Site History: The vineyard was established in 1982 by the people who still own and manage it to this day: Dan and Helen Dusschee. While they may not have realized it at the time, they were settling onto a site destined to be one of the top Pinot Noir vineyards in the state of Oregon. Their rigorous and professional approach to the management of the vineyard has brought about that greatness, and even though the vineyard suffered through a scourge of phylloxera replantings, expansion of the site has shown that there is a distinct and indomitable terroir. Few non-estate vineyards in Oregon can reach as far back in history with regards to being bottled as a single vineyard designated wine as Freedom Hill Vineyard. Panther Creek Winery began designating the site in the late 80s. St. Innocent began doing so in the early 90s. In 2013 their son, Dustin, rejoined the farm and began taking over day-t0-day management operations. Even while expanding to slightly over 90 acres over the years, this vineyard remains a family owned, lived upon and operated venture, something that is becoming increasingly rare and, thus, that much more special in Oregon.

Site Characteristics: Freedom Hill Vineyard lies toward the eastern edge of the Coast Range Foothills. While associated geographically with the Eola Hills, the site lies south and west of the border of the Eola-Amity Hill Appellation outside of the town of Monmouth. The vineyard is planted on a marine sedimentary type of soil known as Bellpine. The vineyard is also located just south of the Van Duzer wind corridor which allows for more consistent average temperatures due to a lack of afternoon and evening offshore breezes rolling through. This site is known for powerful or, at least, extremely intense Pinot Noirs. Wines tend to be very dark in color and operate on the blue, purple, black end of the fruit spectrum. Tannin structure can be impressive. This vineyard has the capacity to produce some of the most extraordinary wine made in the state.

The Block: Since 2012 when we initially began sourcing fruit from Freedom Hill Vineyard we have chosen a sub-set of the different blocks to bottle based upon the clone within the block. Not all blocks in this (or any vineyard for that matter) are equal. The Pommard Block is a fascinating lesson in learning that a vineyard or section of vineyard does not have to be “dramatic” looking to produce extraordinary fruit. Many of the most heralded vineyards in Burgundy, including La Tache, Bienvenue-Batard Montrachet and Echezeaux are planted in areas that don’t “look the part” of being great vineyards. The Pommard Block in the Heritage section of Freedom Hill is exactly that. Lightly sloping down from a stand of trees (now logged) all the way down to the property line separating Freedom Hill from Croft Vineyard it is simply a normal looking plot. However, the Pommard thrives here. The thinner top soil in this part of the vineyard demands that the plants dig deeper and more quickly to find more productive sources of nutrients and water. Thus, what seems ordinary on the face is actually extraordinary because of what is happening in ways we cannot perceive. At least until the wine is made.

Farming Practices: Since 2013 Freedom Hill Vineyard has been moving diligently and consistently from conventional farming practices to organic farming. While not 100% turned to organic practices it is closer to that than it is to so-called “sustainable farming.” Great attention has been paid to specific cover cropping, foliar feeding and cultivation. The result is a healthier vineyard with a greater range of blocks producing single vineyard quality style wines.  

Picking Dates, Tonnages, Tons/Acre: September 25 East Liberty Wadensvil 8.83 tons (2.93 tons/acre).

Vinification: The Perspicacious Cuvee is the synergy of vineyard, block, vinification and winemaking. For the 4th iteration of this bottling we chose the gorgeous looking and tasting East Liberty Wadensvil Block. What does not change is that this wine comes exclusively from a single fermenter that was fermented with 100% whole clusters

Winemaking: There are lots of things winemakers can do to “make” a wine into something. We consistently reiterate our commitment to making real wine. We don’t use any of the catalog of stuff that can Frankenstein wines from one thing to another. However, we don’t also do nothing. In the case of the Perspicacious Cuvee it is identifying a fruit source that can not only take an extra daily intervention but benefit from it in such a way that the resulting wine is a whole measure different and set aside from even fruit from the same block. In this case the fermenter in question is only pigeaged (never pumped over) and instead of our normal 1x/day regiment for every other fermenter it is bumped up to two. This seems like a minor change. It is not.

Barrels: 2 new Francois Freres barrels and 2 x 4 times used barrels.

Notes: Notes: Freedom Hill Vineyard is the most fascinating example of the plants rebound from the April frost in 2022. The damage by the frost looked as extensive as any vineyard we received fruit from. However, the recovery and vitality of the secondary shoots was unprecedented. Freedom Hill not only experienced what ended up being their largest crop in the site’s 41-year history, they hit quality levels on par with the best vintages we have received from them (2012, 2106, 2021). The line-up of the 6 bottlings of Pinot Noir is always expected to be extremely high given the nature of the vineyard and the quality of farming and fruit we see there. In 2022 these wines run counter to the easier countenance that most of our Pinot Noirs show. These are especially darkly pigmented, densely textured, concentrated yet precise and structured in ways that most normal domestic Pinot Noirs simply cannot achieve without being drying or hollow. These are all exceptional examples of their respective bottlings and wines that should not be missed.

The concept behind the Freedom Hill Vineyard, Perspicacious Cuvee was to utilize the rare natural assets this site possesses and to attempt to coax out an even greater level of largesse but without upsetting the natural balance of the wine. The greatest sites in Burgundy have an easy relationship between their natural biochemical makeup, their fruit intensity and their tannic structure. In the United States we have little problem with finding ripeness in most vintages but balance with the internal components and the tannic structure can be quite fine but it is usually not at the preternatural levels of the best sites in Burgundy. We have long felt that Freedom Hill, especially certain parts of it, had a specialness that was there but needed care in nursing out of the grapes. This bottling is an attempt to harness the deep natural qualities of the vineyard and display them in a way that shows off the upper ceiling potential of Pinot Noir in this country. This wine has both tremendous intensity of fruit and deep back palate tannin structure that is rarely found in American Pinot Noir. This is a wine that will require a great level of patience to get the full result from. Our first bottling of this was from the 2014 vintage and it is still many years away from full resolution. Act accordingly. This finished with a TA of 5.2, a pH of 3.54 and was bottled with under 30 ppm free SO2 and less than 85 ppm total SO2.

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).

This wine is designed to stand out. The Pommard fruit off of the vineyard in 2022 was perfect. This wine is a labor of love and devotion to the concept of the potential greatness of the best Pinot Noir fruit. Here’s what Audrey Frick, reviewer extraordinaire at jebdunncuk.com had to say, “A winemaker’s wine, the 2022 Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard Perspicacious Cuvee shows off notes of ripe wild raspberries, strawberries, herbes de Provence, and rocky earth. It fills the palate with ripe tannins and has a lush but weightless texture, with a very high level of refinement and finesse. It’s long on the palate and going to only improve with time. A seamless and fantastic red, drink it over the next 20 years. 98 points.’