2017 PINOT NOIR
LOT 12
Age Gets Better With Wine
VINEYARD | hyland
blocks | 1D, 1F, 6
clone | coury
APPELLATION | McMinnville
WINEMAKER | ANNE SERY
HARVEST DATE | SEPTEMBER 23–OCTOBER 18, 2017
BOTTLING | JANUARY 15, 2019
ALCOHOL | 13.9%
PRODUCTION | 120 BOTTLES / 10 cases
The Wine
It’s a proven fact, 60% of the time, all the time, age gets better with wine. Self-rooted Coury Clone vines have called the gently rolling south-facing bench of Hyland Vineyard home since 1970-something, and they are definitely showing their age. They’re just getting better. As wisdom comes with age, our vines only exert the right amount of energy each vintage and they produce pristine pine-cone-sized clusters packed with depth and intrigue. This wine was selected from our oldest block, and is set to only get better with time.
Owner and winemaker Laurent Montalieu practices a “land not hand” philosophy. For a vineyard to truly speak, it must be left wild and untamed. Laurent wants to bring you to a specific row amidst hundreds. He wants you to taste a block, the elevation, the growing season and the individual expression of every vine. Quiet and self-sufficient, the vines produce a textually mature, high-concentrated juice that come with decades of establishing oneself firmly into the land.
The element of surprise in a first sip. Autonomy in a bottle. Each wine made off Hyland vineyard tells its own story. Sometimes it’s shy. Sometimes its boisterous. Every bottle produced is a story told by its biographer, a proud winemaker who knows just how good he has it.
Shining with bright marionberry, sweet tobacco, rose petal and exotic spices, this single-barrel Coury Clone saunters out of your glass with poise and class. It delivers a powerful personality yet it invites you to explore all of its subtleties and nuances. With juicy elegance and refined tension this wine carries hints of cranberries, orange zest, vanilla bean and freshly dried tea leaves. Lively and precise, it finishes with effortless tannins and brilliant length.
The Winery
Hyland vineyard has been a part of the Willamette Valley since 1971. You can’t talk about the origins of Oregon winemaking without mentioning the gentle giant overlooking the Van Duzer Corridor. Untouched, unmoved and self-rooted, Hyland’s gnarly 47-year-old vines remain entrenched in red volcanic Jory soil. They’ve been there since the beginning, watching as new neighbors have moved in and planted their own vineyards.