Resonance Resonance Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017
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Résonance is Maison Louis Jadot's first wine project outside of Burgundy, France, since our founding in 1859. This Pinot Noir is our debut release from the beautiful, tree-lined Résonance Vineyard, in the Yamhill-Carlton wine region. From un-grafted vines first planted in 1981, this single vineyard bottling shows the elegance and complexity Oregon Pinot Noirs are famous for.
Maison Louis Jadot, one of the most venerable, trusted and revered wine houses in the world, has been producing wines from the heartland of Pinot Noir, the French region of Burgundy with its first purchase of the Clos des Ursules vineyard in 1826. For its first venture outside of France, the Louis Jadot team became interested in the terroir and wines from Oregon. In 2013, the ideal location was found and a vineyard bought in the Willamette Valley, specifically the Yamhill-Carlton AVA region. The Résonance project is led by famed Jadot Winemaker, Jacques Lardière, who takes 42 years of experience in winemaking from the beautiful Pinot Noirs of Burgundy to the world’s most up and coming Pinot Noir regions.
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”