Established in 1982 by our friends Dan and Helen Dusschee , Freedom Hill is one of very few vineyards planted in the foothills of Oregon's Coast Range on ocean floor (Bellpine) soils. The wines grown there are distinctively different from wines grown on the volcanic soils of Bethel Heights estate vineyard in the Eola Hills; more robust and structured with firm tannins, the wines from Freedom Hill age extremely well. For years Freedom Hill has provided fruit for highly acclaimed single-vineyard wines from such notable Oregon producers as Panther Creek, Ken Wright Cellars and St. Innocent.
Bethel Heights made its first Freedom Hill Vineyard designated Pinot noir in 1997, breaking with our long standing tradition of making only estate grown wines. The suceess of that experiment convinced us to continue the program in subsequent vintages.
The Pinot noir we received from Freedom Hill in 2000 came primarily from Pommard clone vines planted in 1988 and trained on the exotic "wishbone trellis." It also includes a small amount of Wädenswil clone.
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1999 Freedom Hill Vineyard "Shows plenty of juicy strawberry, rose petal and red plum flavors on a bed of fine-grained tannins, nicely balanced to let the flavors ring through the finish." Score 90, The Wine Spectator. |
1999 PINOT NOIR
FREEDOM HILL VINEYARD
Harvest date: October 15-18, 1999
Grapes at harvest: Brix: 23.5, pH: 3.10 , TA: 8.0 gr/liter
Barrel aged 10 months in Center of France oak, 40% new
Finished wine: Alcohol 13.0 %, pH: 3.5, TA: 6.2 gr/liter
Bottled unfiltered in September 2000
552 Cases Produced
Suggested Retail $ 35
The 1999 vintage: Cold rainy weather throughout the spring and early summer left Oregon vineyards a whole month behind their normal timetable. The crop was thinned drastically in July to give it the best possible chance to ripen, then an unprecedented stretch of warm sunny weather that lasted through the end of October brought the fruit to peak maturity under optimal conditions. Outstanding vintage.
Winemaker notes: The fruit was hand-harvested and was 100% destemmed but not crushed. Following a four-day pre-soak, the must was inoculated with a proprietary yeast from Burgundy. After primary fermentation, the new wine was pressed gently and barreled in center-of-France oak, 30% new. The wine finished malolactic fermentation the following summer, was racked once, and bottled unfiltered ten months after harvest. We decided to bottle this wine relatively early in order to capture its youthful fruit.
Tasting notes: This is a big wine, intensely aromatic, balanced and complete with well-integrated tannins. Juicy plum and berry flavors linger on the palate. Delicious now, it has everything it needs to age beautifully.