Winemaker Notes: Lively and focused on the nose, displaying mineral-tinged red berry and cherry pit scents and subtle floral and earth nuances. Subtly sweet strawberry and cherry flavors put on weight and take a darker turn toward licorice with air.
Perhaps I will regret this later, but let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Man and nature tried their damnedest to burn Oregon to the ground in 2020. A lot of wineries opted not to make wines in 2020, because smoke taint was a problem for many.
It was a problem for us too, because the smoke was impossible to avoid. A lot of our 2020 wines will never see the light of day. We didn’t make any single vineyard bottlings, because in the end we didn’t have enough barrels of 2020 to do so. We changed some of our techniques in the cellar for 2020. You’ll notice the wine is more delicate – we did no punch downs at all, no pump-overs – only lightly turned the cap by hand. We racked some of the reds off their own lees very early and added the lees from our white barrels and puncheons. Other things were the same as every year – early pick and crop management to keep the pH low. Lots of time (relatively speaking) in barrel.
As barrel aging progressed and we approached the time to bottle we needed to make the decision: do we bottle or do we dump? We had sniffed, swished, gargled, hemmed, hawed and discussed for 18 months, but we were still uncertain. Is that smokey, bacony, maybe some barbecue? Is that skin-tannin or ash?
Finally, we sent the wines out to the lab. The results came back and we had passed with flying colors. Yes, there were some volatile compounds related to smoke-taint present, but they were well below detectable thresholds (by people). The best news was that there were no traces (below the detection capability of the equipment) of the more problematic bound compounds – the ones that show up as the wine ages.
Winemaker and co-owner Akiko Shiba received her engineering degree in Enology and Viticulture from the University of Geisenheim in 2009. Akiko's practical experience is split between the vineyard and cellar as well as between Germany and Oregon. Amongst the wineries where Akiko has gained her practical experience are in Oregon: Evesham Wood, St. Innocent, Ayres and Domaine Serene. In Germany: Franz Keller, Schamari-Muehle, Heyl zu Herrnsheim, Chat Sauvage and Rudolph Fuerst. Before her career change to the wine industry Akiko graduated from the prestigious Keio University and worked in Tokyo as an editor and journalist in the food and drink sector.
Country USA - Oregon
Region Willamette Valley
Winery Shiba Wichern
Grape Varietals Pinot Noir
Size 750 milliliter
