The 2022 Commuter Cuvée

  • Vineyards

    The Commuter Cuvée is a blend of 11 of our favorite vineyards in the Willamette Valley. We work with farmers who respect the land and farm sustainably.

  • Vintage

    The 2022 started with bud break in early April, with a record breaking frost on April 15th. The spring and early summer were very cold and wet, and it was the rainiest spring in 80 years.

    Summer truly began in mid-July. We had the hottest August and October on record for the region. Once we arrived at the lag phase (the halfway point of grape ripening), we found we had a very large crop on our hands. We had to drop close to 50% in some vineyards to ensure ripeness at harvest.

  • Harvest

    Due to the cool weather at the beginning of the year, we started harvesting a full 20 days later than in 2021, on September 26th, and we didn’t finish picking until October 23rd.

Winemaking

The Commuter Cuvée is a blend of 11 vineyards, located all over the Willamette Valley. Each vineyard lot is fermented separately and aged in a mix of 70% French oak, 15% stainless steel, and 15% concrete tanks.

The wine is aged for 9 months before bottling. We use very little new oak in this wine, as we are aiming to make a fresh and pure expression of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

The palate is medium weight, with juicy acids, and structuring tannins. Due to the cool nature of the vintage, we did a light fining on some of the lots in this blend. We used a pea based protein for fining, so the Commuter is vegan-friendly!