Zelko

A note from the winemaker:

My wife and I moved to Portland in 1983 and quickly became enamored of the local wines. We toured many of the wineries and sampled as many as we could. We bought a lot of our wine at Great Wine Buys and met Rachel Starr. When Rachel and some friends started a new winery at Matt Kinney's old location in Linnton, they invited us to crush and bottling. Over the years, while helping at Starr Winery, I started buying grapes from John Davidson and David Duncan, and made a barrel or so a year at the Starr facility. These amateur efforts were acceptable, sometimes surprisingly good, but it was clear to me that making great wine required great grapes.

In 1995, we purchased a 40-acre site in the Eola Hills with the intent of growing a variety of Pinot Noir clones using the best viticultural practices. We started planting in 1996. Six acres of 115 on 3309 rootstock were put in with drip irrigation in the top bowl of our property. The soil there is shallow, rocky and of the Yamhill A & B series. We spread the plants 1 meter apart and the rows 2 meters apart. This gave us 2,000 plants per acre, which seems to be a good balance between plant density for flavors and air circulation to minimize mildew, thus allowing less spraying.

In 1997, another 6 acres were planted further down the slope, all 777 clones on 3309 rootstock. The soil is also Yamhill A & B, but slightly richer. The grapes didn't struggle as much as the top block. In 1998, we added another 3 acres of 114.

In 1999, we had our first harvest: 3.5 tons of 115 with great flavors with that typical Eola Hills herbaceousness found in young vines. We sold all but a half ton to Starr Winery, and made our last amateur wine.

In 2000, for our first official release, we continued to keep the yields low to concentrate the flavors: 6 shoots per vine, 1.5 clusters per shoot, less than 1 ton per acre. We harvested 7.5 tons, a mixture of 115 and 777. Again, we sold 3 tons to Starr Winery and kept 4.5 tons. We opted for a long cold soak prior to fermentation, fermentation with wild yeast, and used 8 once-filled Francois Freres heavy toast/toasted head barrels, obtained from Archery Summit. The wine was unfined and unfiltered, and bottled after 1 year in oak, a total of 200 cases. The wine has a good balanced structure, tannins with black fruit flavors, vanilla, anise, and smoky tones.

In 2001, we planted another 3 acres of 114. The harvest was greater than 2000 but only 1.25 tons per acre. The wine in barrel is luscious, rich, and complex. We increased the amount of new wood to 50% with a mix of Francois Freres, Billon and Rousseau barrels in 2001once we were reassured that our viticulture program could produce grapes with the complexity and concentration that we were looking for.
Our goal is simple; make small amounts of hand -crafted wine that bring out the best of the site and are a pleasure to drink.

John And Kathy Zelko

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