Great Wines at User Friendly Prices From Oregon
OAK KNOLL
2006 Pinot Gris
Willamette Valley
This wine exhibits an amazing purity of fruit flavors, an elegantly rich mouth feel, and a clean, vibrant finish. Fermented in small stainless steel barrels on the yeast lees, the absence of oak allows the subtle floral, mineral, and spice notes to deftly balance the wine’s melon and apple fruitiness.
Suggested Retail: $14.00
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Willamette Valley
TASTING NOTES
This wine exhibits a dark garnet color and aromas of cherry, clove, and leather. On the palate the wine is supple and round with integrated flavors of berry and cinnamon spice, framed by subtle notes of vanilla and smoky oak. The wine possesses mouthwatering acidity with spice and berry in the lingering finish.
VINIFICATION
The Pommard clone of Pinot Noir is dominant in this wine comprising 92% of the blend, the balance is the Wadenswil clone. After 100% destemming, approximately 80% of berries were crushed. This is our second vintage for us of a new winemaking style. The must was moved to an open top ferment which releases CO2 faster to aireate the wine to enhance fermentation. The wine was left to cold soak for 1 week before fermentation to extract flavors from the skins, this brings out the fruity characters of the grape. After 1 week in the tanks the yeast was then added to begin fermentation. Two different styles of yeast were used, 60% fermirouge, which creates more body in the wine and 40% Ruby which intensifies the fruit flavors. Each vineyard lot was separately pressed, settled, then racked into small French Oak cooperage. These subtle changes that our winemaker has made are to create a more approachable wine at an earlier age and decrease the hard tannin that our earlier vintages had, which can take years in the bottle to mellow. The winery relies primarily on Tonnellerie Remond and Francois Freres for its Pinot Noir barrels. These Burgundian coopers, along with Saury and Sansaud, are utilized to provide the winery with predominately medium-toast barrels from the Nevers, Allier, Borgogne, and Vosges forests. After eighteen months in barrel, the vineyard lots were racked and individually tasted. After blending three individual vineyard lots together, the finished wine was bottled unfined.
WINEMAKER NOTES
Prime vineyard sites and dedicated growers are the basis of Oak Knoll. Making wines in excellent vintages is much easier when the groundwork has been laid in the vineyard.
The 2005 growing season was a fifth consecutive year of glorious weather in the Willamette Valley. The wines turned out in “classic” Oregon style with lovely perfumed fruit and spice aromas, almost Burgundian acidity levels, and silky tannins.
Suggested Retail: $18.00
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2005 Oregon Chardonnay
Unwooded
TASTING NOTES
An elegant dry white wine with subtle notes of green apple, melon, and spice. This Burgundian style Chardonnay emphasizes finesse and balance rather than power, with a pleasing crisp texture and long, clean finish. The absence of oak brings out the true flavors of quality chardonnay grapes. This delicious wine will complement a wide range of foods, particularly poultry and seafood.
TECHNICAL DATA
Alcohol:12.3%%
T.A.: 705g/L
pH: 3.05
Production: 1,048 cases
Our 2005 Oak Knoll Chardonnay is the third vintage we’ve produced in all stainless steel barrels and no oak at all. A carefully blended wine from the Dijon 108 and 76 clones and different vineyards throughout the Willamette Valley. All of the vineyards have a south to southeast orientation to maximize the available sunlight potential and are situated off of the valley floor between 400 to 700 feet in elevation. Laurelwood soils predominate in this area and provide a rich and fertile base for the vines. All grapes arrive within hours of picking and are quickly destemmed, crushed and pressed.
THE GROWING SEASON
The 2005 growing season was the second low cropped season in many years for Oregon, with the year starting out with a very rainy spring. The summer once again was one of the hottest. Growing conditions were great all summer long, providing us with all the quality weather we needed to produce a chardonnay with no oak and bring out and express the true flavor of the chardonnay grape. A long hot summer gave the energy of nutrition for vibrant flavorful fruits.
VINIFICATION
All grapes were destemmed, crushed and pressed. The juice was allowed to settle overnight, and then half of it was racked into small stainless steel barrels for primary fermentation in small batches on its yeast lees. The remainder was fermented in tanks and blended prior to bottling.
WINEMAKER NOTES
Our winemaking approach with the Chardonnay grape focuses on careful fruit selection, minimal juice handling and minimal sulfur dioxide use. True to our style, attention to detail throughout the aging of our wines influence the final quality of our products. We’ve produced an elegant, sophisticated style of Chardonnay with crisp and complex fruit flavors and Burgundian-like structure.
Suggested Retail: $9.95
info@oakknollwinery.com
29700 SW Burkhalter Rd.
Hillsboro, OR 97123
Toll-free
(800) OAK KNOLL (800) 625-5665
Phone: (503) 648-8198
Fax: (503) 648-3377
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Oregon Niagara
White Wine
TASTING NOTES
This wine is made from the Niagara grape, which is a native American (Labrusca) grape variety grown in the cooler climates of the United States. The temperate growing season of the Pacific Northwest produces Niagara grapes with an intense grapy aroma and distinctive flavor.
TECHNICAL DATA
Alcohol:11.5%
T.A.: 6.9g/L
RS: 2.8%
Native American grape varieties have strikingly different physical (and flavor) characteristics than their European (Vinifera) counterparts. A Niagara grape cluster is large with loose, individual berries. The grape skin is thicker and the inside of the grape is fleshy. While the majority of Niagara grapes are grown for grape juice purposes, Oak Knoll has been making wine from this grape since the early 1970’s and it has developed a large “cult” following, which continues to grow.
The American Niagara was made from grapes grown in vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and, for the first year ever, some purchased from Washington State. This was a unique year in Oregon, as the year started off with an intense ice storm which damaged some of the bud set of clusters in the spring. Summer was long and very hot and the sporadic small clusters of grapes from the winter freeze thrived in the heat. The result was small clusters with intensely flavored fruit. The previous vintage was burned by extreme summer heat and lost the nose of the bouquet, this year IT’S BACK. Niagara is a true Oregonian as is prefers the cooler climate, which in turn produces the particular aroma and distinct flavor known as Niagara.
Suggested Retail: $8.00
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2005 Oregon White Riesling
Willamette Valley
TASTING NOTES
This semi-sweet, Spatlese-style Riesling exhibits aromas of honeysuckle and pear followed by crisp apple-like flavors accented by honey and floral notes. A cold, wet April delayed bud break, but then came the scorching July heat wave. We had 21 days over 90 degrees, which was only two days short of the all-time record. These vineyard blocks of Riesling were some of the oldest in the Willamette Valley (planted in the mid-1970’s).
TECHNICAL DATA
Alcohol:11%
T.A.: 8.2g/L
pH: 2.81
RS: 3%
Production: 2,500 cases
THE GROWING SEASON
What can we say–2005 was an unprecedented seventh vintage in a row where our northern Willamette grapes reached full maturity through the temperate summer weather, and the winter rains held off until after the harvest was completed. Nature once again gave us fully ripe fruit with concentrated flavors and excellent sugar levels.
VINIFICATION
All the grapes used in this wine were destemmed, crushed, and immediately pressed. The juice was then moved to temperature controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks and inoculated with Prisse de Mousse yeast. The ability to control the cool fermentation temperature during the next two months was critically important for enhancing the finished wine’s delicate aromas and flavors. After eight weeks at 52 degrees F., the fermentation was stopped with 3% residual sweetness in the finished wine.
WINEMAKER NOTES
Our winemaking approach with the Chardonnay grape focuses on careful fruit selection, minimal juice handling and minimal sulfur dioxide use. True to our style, attentions to detail throughout the aging of our wines influence the final quality of our products. We produced an elegant, sophisticated style of Chardonnay with crisp and complex fruit flavors and Burgundian-like structure.
Suggested Retail: $9.95
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