2010 Domaine Serene Chardonnay Côte Sud Vineyard

From an impressive block aptly described by its name, the Domaine Serene 2010 Chardonnay Cote Sud offers the most interesting nose of this year’s Chardonnay trio, with lemon cream, toasted almond, and a hint of flowers, all of which anticipate a creamily-textured yet positively juicy palate. Bitter-edged suggestions of huckleberry or cassis in the finish put me in mind of Chassagne-Montrachet, though their bitterness also ultimately contributes to a sense of full stop and a note of austerity. Perhaps this will be worth following for more than a couple of years, but I’d want to monitor it cautiously. The domaine of Ken and Grace Evenstad now incorporates 150 spectacularly-situated and manicured acres of vines in two Dundee sectors – Evenstad Estate and Winery Hill – a steep half mile or so apart; and a larger one – Jerusalem Hill Estate – in the Eola Hills. “The first several years were spent purchasing fruit from local growers and pulling oak stumps” in what had been forest, explains general manager Alan Carter, “so the first vines didn’t go in until 1993” and estate wines did not begin appearing until a decade ago. Ken Wright was Domaine Serene’s founding winemaker; and its latest is Erik Kramer (a former corporate geologist who arrived here last year from Adelsheim), with Joel Myers managing the estate’s vineyards – as well as nearby Two Barns Vineyard in which he is a partner and whose fruit goes exclusively to Domaine Serene. Most estate blocks are subjected at least in optimum vintages to small, separate bottlings, even if sometimes just as winery internal reference points; while the so-called “Evenstad Reserve” bottling constitutes the estate’s flagships and represents an assemblage from annually selected blocks ranging over all three vineyard sites. In the past, most Domaine Serene wines were labeled solely with the broad “Willamette Valley” appellation rather than as “Dundee Hills” or “Eola-Amity Hills,” even though in most instances the latter would have been applicable. Carter notes that this practice allowed them to hedge their bets as to final blends; but the trend now seems to be toward labeling with the more specific A.V.A.s And speaking of hedging ones bets, Kramer notes that “for me as a winemaker, having fruit from lower and higher elevations, they can offset one another depending on the vintage. The Eola-Amity Hills fruit for example can be a bit gamy in aroma but it’s been fruitier the last couple of years because it does really well in cool vintages.” (See my notes below on vintages 2010 versus 2009 of Jerusalem Hill for an apparent case in point.) Chardonnay here is whole-cluster pressed direct to (roughly 30-40% new) barrel, and undergoes full malo-lactic conversion. Pinot Noir is sorted on tables both in the vineyard and “on one of the longest sorting tables I’ve ever seen” (according to Kramer) at the winery. Fruit is destemmed but with plenty of whole berries left intact; generally inoculated; fermentatively extracted via punch-down; pressed soon after dryness; and settled for ten days before going to, on average, half-new barrel. Bottling – for white or red – takes place at 12-16 months, but the estate practices late release, so that most of the 2010 reds I tasted for this report will not be offered before early next year Tel. (866) 864-6555