From east-facing Wadenswil and Dijon Clone 115 vines, the hundred cases of Boedecker 2010 Pinot Noir Shea – fermented with around one-third whole clusters with stems – represent around one-third of their share of fruit from this famous vineyard, the rest having been incorporated into the “Athena” and ‘Stewart” cuvees. Smoked meat, burley tobacco, leather, dried cherry and cranberry form a formidably pungent aromatic display; then reunite on a firm, slightly grainy and tart-edged palate. The overall effect here is complex and penetratingly persistent, though compressed, and lacking the primary juiciness or energetic brightness of the best Boedecker 2010s; but it should be well worth following through at least 2018.
This year, I visited and tasted with husband and wife team Stewart Boedecker and Athena Pappas at their Portland facility, in an impressively neatly-kept “industrial” district that appears to favor wineries, breweries, and other artisanal endeavors. (Vienna may always retain the largest vineyard acreage of any major metropolitan area, but I can imagine that Portland might eventually rival if not surpass the Bay Area in number of urban winemaking facilities.) Boedecker opines that “2011 was a lot like 2010 in that things weren’t ripening and weren’t ripening ... and then, it seemed as though something in the plant just flipped and within a few days all of the flavors came up at once.” That said, believing that green wood spelled risk, they elected to de-stem all of their 2011 fruit, whereas from 2010 – whose Pinots they are currently selling – a significant share of stems (and yet-higher share of intact berries) was incorporated. “We didn’t have as high a malic fraction of acidity, though, in 2011 as in 2010,” Boedecker adds, so buffering was less of a concern and no tartaric acid added to the musts. A few lots from 2011 were chaptalized by a half a percent, but mostly Boedecker and Pappas worked – and stuck – with fruit of around 13% potential alcohol. (For more about the Boedecker background and regimen, consult my issue 202 report. I have once again treated white wines vinified and marketed under the name “Pappas Wine Co.” as representing a sub-label of Boedecker Cellars, and hence reviewed them under that heading.)
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