2012 Windhill
Earthy on the palate with saddle, curry and peppermint components, this wine has a sturdy fruit and oak tannin component that will mellow with age. Windhill always has a rustic, old-world feel and produces age-worthy wines.
Vintage
VINTAGE 2012 will go down as one of the finest in Oregon history in terms of quality of the raw materials. Mother Nature really smiled on us with not only a rain-free harvest season but perhaps more importantly with tiny berries and clusters. The small fruit allowed us to effortlessly and gently extract concentration and ripe tannins from the perfectly formed grapes.
According to owner/winemaker Adam Campbell “The wines from 2012 remind me and my folks of classic vintages like 1998 and 1994. Small clusters and berries give us an amazing skin-to-juice ratio, allowing us to be incredibly gentle through fermentation and still come up with powerful concentration and ripeness of fruit.”
Early reviews of the 2012 vintage use descriptors like “Stunning”, “Amazing” & “Epic” making Oregon winemakers giddy that 2012 could go down as the best vintage in our 50 year winemaking history.
Vineyard
Elk Cove has produced single vineyard pinots from this beautiful hillside vineyard in Banks, Oregon since 1979. Wind Hill Vineyard was planted near the Hartwick Resevoir in 1974 by the Reese family, Oregon winegrowing pioneers, and was purchased by Elk Cove in 1996. South-facing slopes, volcanic soils, mid-level elevation (500 feet) and low yields make Wind Hill a superior vineyard site. We have farmed this vineyard using completely organic practices since 1999. Our Wind Hill Pinot Noir is produced from 4 acres of the oldest Pommard clone Pinot Noir vines on the property.
Winemaking
All of Elk Cove’s delicate Pinot Noir fruit undergoes the same gentle handling through our gravity flow system. This allows us to achieve the elegance, texture and luscious quality that are the hallmarks of exquisite Pinot Noir.
We produce this single vineyard wine using only pommard clone Pinot Noir grapes from our Wind Hill Vineyard. The wine is fermented in small, temperature controlled steel tanks, hand punched down twice daily then aged for ten months in 50% new French oak. Finally, our winemaking team blends only those barrels most representative of the spicy character and herbal tones of Wind Hill’s classic pinot noir fruit.
Viticultural & Enological Data
- Vine Age 38 years
- Yield 1.75 tons/acre
- Harvest Sugars 23.5 brix
- pH 3.49
- Vatting Fermentation in small open top steel fermenters. 10 months in French oak.
- Cases Produced 186
