In early September of 2009 I was walking the vineyard with David O'Reilly of Owen Roe fame and a thought hit me; what if it rains? The answer was clear, turn off the lights, the party is over. Lucky for us we didn't have any early rains like 2007. In 2007 the fruit could sustain rain with smaller berries and thicker skins than in 2009. In 2009 the vines set grapes with thin skin and large berries. Hot weather in July dehydrated a percentage of berries in each cluster, compounding our worries. After an inch or two of rain you could have stood in the vineyard and imagined those berries sucking up water and popping like bubble wrap under a steam roller. Luckily the rain didn't come early in 2009.
2009 was certainly one of the more trying vintages in our brief history. It was a warm vintage with excessive ripeness because of the dehydration and warm weather. In warm vintages you have to make a choice between flavor development or higher alcohols. Grapes need to hang on the vine to attain flavor but the sugar in the grapes rise quickly in warm years. Yeasts gobble up that sugar during fermentation and convert it to alcohol. But when faced with leaving grapes on the vine to develop flavors or picking early to control the alcohol, I always choose flavor development.
That was a difficult choice in 2009 and was made worse by the low tannin content and low natural acidity of the wines. I was worried that the wines wouldn't be balanced and the alcohol would be dominate. But then a funny thing happened, the wines seemed to integrate the alcohol with some time in the bottle. I still can't argue that the 2009 wines from Oregon are balanced, nature just didn't give us wines that had the perfect amount of fruit, acid, alcohol and tannins like the 2008 vintage. But I can say that while the alcohol's are high, the wines are full of flavor and not as hot as I expected.
In fact most consumers prefer them the the 2008 wines as I thought they would. I suppose because is they are flat out delicious. The wines are fruit forward, soft on the palate and ready to drink now. They are some of the fastest selling wines we have ever produced at Lenné. And the biggest, most fruit forward wine we made in 2009 has also been the fastest selling clonal designate ever: 2009 Lenné Kill Hill Pinot Noir. It is big and explosive on the palate and while my customers favorite right now, I prefer both the Lenne 2009 Eleanor's 114 and the 2009 Lenne Jill's 115 Pinot Noirs.
Whatever your preference, you have to keep in mind that the 2009 wines will be short lived. If you have them in your cellar 5 years from now you have made a mistake though they should get aromatically more complex with 2-3 years of bottle ageing. Also, with summer upon us, it is important to serve the wines at a cool room temperature as the alcohol will stick out if they become warm. Just remember to drink the 09's and let your 08's sit in the cellar at least until late fall, but longer if you have patience. The 2008 wines are in the toddler phase, starting to show some personality, but very undeveloped still.
