Zena Crown Vineyard Confier Pinot Noir Willamette Valley – 2016

Today, Zena Crown Vineyard comprises 115 acres of vines and 48 vineyard blocks. From it, four Pinot Noir wines are produced – one for each season, to capture the vineyard’s changing moods and expressions just as if it were a living, breathing thing.

Wines are created with an end goal, a purpose, in mind. Some percentage of whole clusters are used in fermentation depending on the vintage, the clone, and the intended wine. The wines are fermented in open tanks, with daily punchdowns. Aging and malolactic fermentation occur in French oak. In the style of Burgundy’s grands crus, most of the barrels are new—75-90% in any given year and wine. New barrels breathe, permitting more oxygen ingress than wine-soaked neutral wood, and limit excess reduction without racking the wines. After a year and a half in oak, the wines only move once: into the bottle. Fining is not practised as a rule, and bottles are closed with a Diam cork, eliminating any chance of TCA contamination. With each vintage, preserves a clear moment in time, even a feeling, for the wine can project colour and light; it is a camera obscura, faithfully recreating the hands, the vineyard, the hills, the valley. [ZC]

• Zena Crown Vineyard Slope Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills
• Zena Crown Vineyard Confier Pinot Noir Willamette Valley
• Zena Crown Vineyard Sum Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills
• Zena Crown Vineyard Vista Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills
• Zena Crown Vineyard Block 14 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills
• Zena Crown Vineyard Block 6 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills