Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/882780
16 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017 FORGET THE POLITICS: When even Willamette Valley producers are saying cli- mate change is exerting stylistic changes on the holiest-of-holy "somm wines," Pinot Noir, maybe we need to start rethinking things. Like the idea that Oregon produces strictly gentle, delicate styles of Pinot Nor in coparison to all those ruffians rown further south (can you spell Russian River Valley?). Or the idea that the ideal Pinot Noir is under 14% alcohol. I tasted a lot of damn good Pinot Noir at the 2017 International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon, this past July. Even more shocking was how close the wines of the two predominant states represented at this yearly Pinot orgy have shifted in terms of fruit expression and scale. There were some California Pinot Noirs (like Miner, Three Sticks and B. Kosuge) that came across as leaner and more delicate than most of the Oregon Pinot Noirs. And there were some mighty "big" Oregonians (Domaine Drouhin, Saffron Fields and Becha aon the inariable waifish tarts (among the latter beauties were Brick House, Evening Land, Lingua Franca, Antica Terra, Hyland and Stoller). I asked some of the usual suspects about the changing climate and how they're handling things. Chehalem Winery's Harry Peterson-Nedry, it turns out, has been faith - fully tracking heat accumulations over the years. "From 1961 to 1990, we averaged 1,970 degree days—a solid, lower Region I," he said. "From 1997 to 2006 the average was 2,294 degree days—higher up in the eion I scale. But durin the last fie years, we've averaged 2,572 degree days—sud - denly we're in Region II territory!" Peterson-Nedry calls these changes a "new norm" for Willamette Valley. Lynn Penner-Ash, winemaker and founder at Penner-Ash Wine Cellars, gives her take: "Even our most recent 'cool' vintage [in 2011] would have been con - sidered 'warm' by previous standards. Today we farm in expectation of warmer growing seasons—mulching younger vines, irrigating where we never did before, less leaf pulling, and leaving more crop to slow down vine growth. In the winery, we've increased whole cluster fermentation and are picking blocks in two picks to help balance sugar and acid—and ice, lots of ice, to cool down the incoming fruit." The objective, according to Brick House owner and winemaker Doug Tunnell, is to retain the "sensory profile of illaette alley of spices, inerals, salinity, oral aromatics and freshness, which can be lost in warm vintages." To achieve that, Tunnell employs late season hedging to stimulate growth and "incrementally slow down the ripening process and extend hang time." As a Biodynamic grower, Tunnell has curtailed horn silica preparation (a photosynthesis enhancement, less necessary in warm years) and increased 500 horn manure, enriching microbials in soil lost in hot, dry summers. Still, Tunnell admits it's a struggle to keep alcohols in the 13.5% range and maintain Oregon's "raison d'être . . . that bright fresh - ness, complexity and length best delivered in long growing seasons, and at lower alcohols." Mother Nature, if anything, is dictating ore laish fruit ualitieswhich you find in the 2014 Penner-Ash Pas de Nom Pinot Noir—or an even chunkier "mountain" meatiness in icons like the Chehalem 2014 Corral Creek from Chehalem Mountains. The classic svelte, acid-driven Willamette Valley character is still there, but in not as much of a delicate—or subtle—package. As usual, the best vineyards and most tal - ented winemakers will continue to produce the best wines: Just don't expect them to be the same they've always been. { bottom line } Willamette Valley Takes on Climate Change A vineyard in Oregon's Willamette Valley. WINEMAKERS ADJUST TO NEW WEATHER-DRIVEN CHARACTERISTICS by Randy Caparoso TOMWACHS VIA THINKSTOCK