Chehalem

Chehalem Wines -
Harry's Philosophy of Winemaking
by Harry Peterson-Nedry

Pinot Noir

No wine is harder to “grow” than pinot noir. Site and season are critical to pinot noir quality, as are other "nurture" activities during the growing season, which ultimately give great or mediocre fruit. If you make the right long-term decisions and luck out weather wise, you can still screw up in the vines. And if you don't manage to screw up in the vineyard, you have lots of opportunity in the winery.

Philosophically, we believe in fully ripe fruit and a moderately extractive style, finished with only a moderate amount of new oak. We use only our own fruit, harvest according to taste and balance in the vineyard (rather than by numbers from analytical tools, even though we're technocrats here), and precisely control certain variables during fermentation, e.g., temperature.

We use a diverse mix of other variables for complexity, e.g., yeast, coopers, forest, vineyard sites. We've done experimentation like nerds, continue to "play" each year with a little fruit, and collect data and anecdotes continually.

Winemaking is a tough job. Not because there is too much to do, but because it is difficult to sit back and do nothing, letting the grapes and vineyard decisions project purely in the final wine. It's hard to mess around with the fruit and not screw it up.

Our conviction is that we should develop processes that allow the fruit's potential to show through, not develop a wine that is heavy-handed technologically.

Chardonnay

Dijon: more than mustard, it's Chardonnay's future.

Chardonnay is in the midst of a makeover. Long a versatile variety with faces that range from steely Chablis, to unctuous Montrachets or Cortons, to well-known sugar-laced California versions, chardonnay depends on the correct clones for optimal expression as much as pinot noir does.

For years Oregon has grown warmer climate clones to only moderate success, making people ask "If you do so well with Burgundy's red, why not their white?" Only now are proper clones available in Oregon and the results are startling.

With the new "Dijon"clones, the Burgundians replanted their vineyards in France, the clones having been developed through trials at the institute in Dijon. Over the last decade strong cooperation between Burgundians and Oregonians, led by Raymond Bernard and David Adelsheim, respectively, resulted in a number of clones being brought into OSU's clonal importation program.

From the Dijon clones evaluated at OSU and sent through disease testing, the favorites seem to be 75, 76 and 96. These best suited variants of Chardonnay have now been propagated into thousands of cuttings that have been planted throughout the valley. Enough volume has been harvested to validate our initial impressions of broad flavors, richness and earlier ripening.

Both our Willamette Valley and Ian's Reserve Chardonnays contain the new Dijon clones, the former in a blend with the higher acid Draper and 108 selections (1997 is 50:50) and the Ian's with 100% Dijon. All our chardonnays are barrel fermented in tight-grained French oak (new oak =40-50%), go through full malolactic, and stay on the lees for richness and fullness, 8-10 months for WV and 12-14 months for Ian's.

The Dijon clones mature earlier, with soft, exotic fruit flavors that should make jaded ABC palates sing with praise.

Pinot Gris- Alsace Style

Wine lovers in the know reach for Chehalem's unusually complex and rich Pinot gris. The Pinot gris varietal is hot and our style is unique, largely because our standard for emulation is Alsace.

We at Chehalem like the complex flavors, acidity and exciting textures and weight on the palate in Alsace’s whites. They are versatile food wines and yet are elegant and rich enough to merit study.

We make pinot Gris and Riesling in what we consider an Alsace style. In most vintages they are very dry, with typically less than 0.4% residual sugar, and are heavyweights texturally. To achieve this we harvest fully ripe, sometimes going to ridiculous extremes. For example, our pinot Gris is always harvested after our pinot noir, although many wineries consider it earlier ripening and their first harvest pick.

Our Pinot Gris is made in two distinct styles: a bright, crisp minerally style released early and a very weighty and rounded style intended for complexity. The fruit is the same but the winemaking differs.

The former crisp style is stainless steel fermented and projects pure fruit such as pear, lemon, and ginger (OK, so it's not a fruit). The latter is fermented in neutral oak barrels (old Chardonnay barrels which have no more barrel flavors to give) and is left on the lees, or dead yeast cells, for 8-9 months to give mouthfeel and a rich mid-palate. We also let this style go through malolactic fermentation to round it and use several different yeast strains for additional complexity.

We have friends who plant themselves in one stylistic camp or the other. We want to always give a rich, interesting wine, but realize the foods these accompany will be different and everyone's palate is a little different. In either instance, Alsace is our standard and we show it by bottle shape.

Both of our varietals use flutes (or hocks), the same thin, long-necked bottle as in Alsace. Recently, we met Jean Meyer of Josmeyer, a famous Alsace domaine, in Dallas and his first comment was "You have my bottle!"

Later, he admitted our wine was good enough to merit the bottle.

Other Varietals

Chehalem vinifies several other varietals in small quantities to stimulate hard-core aficionados and winemakers alike.

Dry Riesling

A small amount of late-harvest Riesling is fermented to a dry style that is reminiscent of thick, emollient Alsace dry Rieslings.

(Avalon note: Those in the know grab this very limited wine- it is just superb.)

Cerise™

A blend of Gamay Noir and Pinot Noir that plays off game’s innate fruitiness and higher acidity, this is a bright red pretending to be a white wine. In Burgundy this blend is called passetoutgrains.

About Harry Peterson-Nedry

Harry Peterson-Nedry is founder and co-owner of Chehalem, being principal shareholder/managing general partner of Chehalem Group Limited Partnership, the owner of two of the estate vineyards of Chehalem, Ridgecrest and Corral Creek, consisting of 65 planted acres on 167 acres. Harry began development of Ridgecrest Vineyards, the original vineyard, in 1980 and began commercial winemaking as Chehalem with the 1990 vintage.

Harry is development winemaker at Chehalem. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, with degrees in Chemistry and English, and spent 26 years in technical and management roles in high tech manufacturing industries, focusing on quality and process control. He began allocating full-time to winery and vineyard work in 1995. He lives on-site at one of the two vineyards where extraordinary gardens are being developed by his partner Cheryl Meyers.

About Bill and Cathy Stoller

Bill and Cathy Stoller are co-owners of Chehalem and owners of one of the three Estate Vineyards Chehalem uses, Stoller Vineyards, one of the most modern vineyards on a spectacular hillside locally referred to as Oregon's Corton Hill. Bill is also one of the few Oregon winery principals who can claim to be a native of wine country, having grown up in Yamhill County. He attended Pacific University in Forest Grove as an undergraduate.

Owners of an international personnel service business, Express Services, Bill and Cathy participate in strategic winery management, with their partner Harry Peterson-Nedry, and live on-site at their 360 acre vineyard estate, Stoller Vineyards, with their twin sons, Kenny and Kyle. They are designing a small, exclusive winery on their estate to make small amounts of a Stoller Vineyards brand Pinot noir and Chardonnay.