Willamette Valley Vineyards Whole Cluster Pinot Noir 2022

The idea of Willamette Valley Vineyards began long before its founding in 1983 by vintner Jim Bernau. His Dad, a Roseburg attorney, was hired by California winemaker Richard Sommer to secure one of the first winery licenses in Oregon since Prohibition. Jim’s dad allowed small tastes of Richard's wine at the dinner table, lighting a path that led Jim from home winemaking to studies at UC Davis and eventually Beaune, France. In 1983, with the encouragement from winemakers making their move from California, Jim cleared an old pioneer plum orchard in the Salem Hills, hidden underneath scotch broom and blackberry vines to plant Pinot Noir. Unable to afford drip irrigation, he watered the vines by hand using 17 lengths of 75’ garden hose to get the grapelings through their first summer.

Willamette Valley Vineyards has collaboratively grown its estate vineyards through partnerships like the merger with Oregon wine pioneer, Bill Fuller of Tualatin Vineyards (established in 1973), the O'Briens for Elton Vineyard (established in 1983) and Loeza Vineyard (planted in 2015). The winery sources all of its barrel-aged Pinot Noir from its estate-grown vineyards and meticulously farms by hand nearly 500 acres in the valley. Since the winery was founded in 1983, stewardship of the land has been a key principle in their winemaking. Willamette Valley Vineyards practices environmentally sustainable farming and were part of the founding of the Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE) program.

Today Jim’s vision of organizing wine enthusiasts to help build a world class winery in Oregon has, over time, resulted in the winery being named “One of America’s Great Pinot Noir Producers” by Wine Enthusiast. Among the winery’s unique distinctions is that it's owned by more than 20,000 wine enthusiasts (NASDAQ: WVVI & WVVIP). Their approach is to grow, by hand, the highest quality fruit using careful canopy management and yield balance, to achieve wines that are truly expressive of the varietal and the place where they are grown. WVV ferments and barrels each vineyard lot separately and then displays the best of these into single vineyard designate bottlings. Their stylistic emphasis is on pure varietal fruit characters, with attention to depth, richness of mouthfeel and balance. The wines are truly a collaborative effort of the entire vineyard and winemaking staff.

The 2022 Whole Cluster Pinot Noir was crafted from years of experimentation by founder Jim Bernau, when he would gently drop hand-picked whole clusters in a chilled stainless fermenter, pushing all the oxygen out with CO2 and sealing the vessel tight. What happened next was magical — the berries started to swell and turn pink. When they burst, they released the most aromatic, fermenting Pinot Noir. This was how WVV's Whole Cluster Pinot was born! 

“Our mission in growing cool-climate varietals is to create elegant, classic Oregon wines from the Willamette Valley Appellation. As native Oregonians, we treasure our environment and use sustainable practices in growing and vinifying our wine grapes.” - Jim Bernau / Founder