Castle & Crown Madrona Hill Pinot Noir 2019

Castle & Crown Madrona Hill Pinot Noir 2019

Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir

ABV: 12%

Region: Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley, OR

Winemaker: Stephen Lesefko

Viniculture: Madrona Hill is a certified SalmonSafe, sustainable vineyard in northern Willamette Valley’s Chehalem Mountains region.

Winemaking: this Pinot Noir was foot-crushed, fermented with wild yeast, and aged 10 months in neutral oak barrels. No water or acid adjustments took place.

“a core of black cherries, fresh pine and damp clay”

When Stephen Lesefko isn’t co-authoring books on Chinese cuisine, or doing the day-to-day cellar and winemaking operations at Kerloo Cellars in Seattle, he’s working on his new side project, Castle & Crown Cellars. 

This 2019 bottling is Castle & Crown’s first vintage, and for Stephen to really get the fruit he wanted, he waited for the right vineyard contract to become available. This vineyard, Madrona Hill, was a special site in the Willamette Valley that he’d had his eye on for quite a while. Madrona Hill is sustainably farmed by the Bienvenue family, and Stephen had the chance to pick two adjacent blocks of Pinot Noir, representing two different clonal selections (Pommard and Dijon 777). These were blended together during fermentation.

This was foot-stomped, fermented with wild yeasts using a generous portion of whole clusters, and no watering or acidification adjustments were done. It aged on its lees for 10 months in neutral French oak.

This Madrona Hill Pinot Noir is a classic Willamette wine: a core of black cherries, fresh pine and damp clay is framed by cola, toasted vanilla bean, Morel mushroom and fresh-picked herbs.