2021 Illahe Vineyards "1899" Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA

ABOUT THIS WINE

Our 1899 pinot noir was made without the use of modern winemaking equipment or electricity. We wanted to create a new world wine with a true sense of place that wasn’t altered by modern technology. The grapes for this wine were picked by hand and brought up to the winery by horse. Once at the winery, the grapes were destemmed by hand and the placed into wooden fermenters. The must was fermented on native yeasts, after which it was pressed by hand in a wooden basket press, bicycle-pumped into barrel, and underwent malolactic fermentation without inoculation. We bottled with a gravity filler, corked by hand and manually applied the labels and wax. The 1899 never touched dry ice, canned nitrogen, enzymes, stainless steel, forklifts, commercial yeast, electric pumps or filters. Every year we bring this wine to the Willamette river by stagecoach or bicycle from the winery, and canoe it 90 miles to Portland to our Oregon distributor's warehouse.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

At Illahe, our goal is to make wine as naturally as possible from soil to bottle. We work by hand on small lots with age-old techniques and materials. Our focus is to grow and make quality Pinot Noir and white wines that express the vintage and their varietal characteristics. We don't use enzymes or additives. Some of our wines are made entirely by hand, with no electricity or modern mechanization. We use a gentle wooden basket press and age our Pinot Noir in French and Oregon oak.

Quality wine starts with quality fruit in the vineyard. Our 80-acre, south-facing vineyard lives in shallow clay soils. Like our friends in the Deep Roots Coalition, which is committed to dry agriculture and responsible water practices, we do not irrigate mature plants. As one of Oregon’s few horse-powered vineyards we utilize a team of Percheron draft horses to mow and deliver grapes to the winery at harvest.