This wine is intensely concentrated and fruit-forward, with cherry and cinnamon on the nose and black plum and cranberry on the palate. It’s intensely juicy and full with a long finish.
Elk Cove Wine Club Members: 15% off on six bottles/25% off on a full case
The 2024 vintage here in the Willamette Valley was a winemaker’s dream: well-paced with idyllic conditions for cool climate vineyards.
The growing season started and ended cool and mild, with short heat-spikes in mid-summer. Winter and spring were wetter than average, giving the vines a head start underground. Budbreak in mid-April was followed by steady growth into June, when rains during bloom naturally lowered yields for us, lessening the need for thinning fruit. July and August were punctuated by several heat-spikes. Thankfully, the hottest temperatures occurred during the green phase of fruit maturation, while clusters are sunburn resistant. Toward the end of the growing season, a late August drizzle left our vines clean and refreshed, ripening a moderate quantity of very beautiful fruit. We looked forward to harvest with keen anticipation.
The 2024 harvest had a slower pace than typical. With the exception of some early sparkling wine picks, all fruit came in over the course of 40 days. We brought in our first Pinot the second week of September and harvest continued at a steady beat, allowing us to give each vineyard block and fermentation our optimal attention. After a very mild October with plenty of sunshine and wonderful diurnal swings in temperature, the first cold snap of November brought so much cold air, the cellar required extra heating during our white wine fermentations. The timing of harvest was close to our historic average, but within a longer window contributing to great hang-time.
Expect concentrated, fruit-forward wines with great complexity. We are hopeful that the 2024 will come to be considered a classic Willamette Valley vintage.
Condor is sourced from Elk Cove Vineyards’ esteemed La Bohème Vineyard West Block’s 36-year-old vines. In 2024 we used traditional methods and included some whole cluster fermentation for spice and structure. The wine was aged for 10 months in French oak. It’s ready to drink now, but will improve with additional time in bottle.
In 2007 Elk Cove co-founder Joe H. Campbell M.D. volunteered in a small medical clinic in Arequipa, Peru. Before returning home to Oregon, he asked his colleagues how he could continue to help. They told him the most critical health need was for food assistance.
The community had a kitchen that provided a meal to 600 of the neediest, but an additional 4000 often went without a daily meal. Because of Joe’s experience as a winemaker, he came up with a plan to produce a limited production wine each year, all proceeds of which would contribute to the hunger relief program.
Cheryl and I have been buying Condor since Joe and Pat first started producing it. First we gave the wine to my clients, and when I retired, we gave it to very grateful friends. There hasn’t been a bad vintage in the bunch and we have kept at least one bottle of each vintage to sample with the Campbells and Fr. Alex the next time he is in Portland. Extraordinarily good Pinot Noir for an extraordinarily important cease.
Enjoyed this 2019 Pinot Noir. It had a little sweetness on the palette and was very smooth.
I’ve been sending Condor, along with its story, to my clients for several years. It gives them the opportunity to enjoy a glass of wine for good! Of course, we also order a case for ourselves. It is consistently excellent and we look forward to purchasing it every year.
Review Condor.