Hello and Welcome,
Pinot Meunier, the hidden gem
of Champagne, is the subject of our Portfolio Focus. Most prominently, Pinot
Meunier is one of three grapes grown in Champagne, along with Chardonnay and
assemblage. Pinot Noir, to make the region’s most interesting wines. While rarely a single
variety bottling, and never included in a Blanc de Blanc, Pinot Meunier is, of
course, often part of the final
And while Dena does have a
verifiable addiction to Champagne (we produce the Bellpine Pearl – more on that
in a bit) we choose to vinify Pinot Meunier as a still red wine. But never that
much of it. Our half acre of vines from Block 1 usually produces 3 to 4 barrels
of wine and that’s it for the whole year, for the whole country and Hawai’i
too!
Oh, and let’s cover the
pronunciation, it’s a French thing. Pinot
Meunier (Pee-no MUH-n’yay) 'Meunier' means 'miller' in English. The miller
is the guy grinding grain into flour. The vine has this name because the
clusters are small and pinecone shaped like Pinot Noir, but the leaves have the
appearance of a dusting of flour, hence the name miller or Meunier.
In neighboring Austria Pinot
Meunier is known as the Miller’s Burgundy. Also, the feminine form is
'meunière', which you may have seen on a menu. White fish such as sole is dredged
in flour, pan fried in butter and served with the pan drippings, parsley and
lemon. Voilà, sole meunière!
Pinot Meunier wine, however,
is our Portfolio Focus. For those of you who love the transparency of Pinot
Noir, Pinot Meunier will absolutely drive you wild! As a close cousin, or
parent of Pinot Noir, the wine’s color is often as light or even lighter and
brighter than Pinot Noir. That is the natural color of the wine and we
celebrate it!
From a winemaking point of
view, our goal is to showcase the elegance and purity of Pinot Meunier and
present it as a young wine. We ferment with indigenous yeast and without any
stem inclusion so as not to introduce harsh stem tannins that will take years
to evolve. We barrel mature in old, neutral French oak, more of a holding
vessel than to influence the aroma, flavor or texture with toasty new oak. The
wine is bottled within a year of harvest unfined and unfiltered. It can be
considered vegan.
Now, if we have done our job
right in the vineyard and winery, the aromas of ripe red raspberries and rose petals
should be prominent. Just as pretty as the day is long. On the first sip, the
wine is lithe and juicy, colonizing your palate by stimulating all the
unsatiated nooks and crannies. And while this is all proper and pleasant, the
reason Pinot Meunier is a Champagne grape is about to be revealed. The wine’s
finish is a crescendo of firm tannin and punctuating acidity, stimulating the
senses and looking for a perfect pairing. It could be with you!
Here at the vineyard, Pinot
Meunier finds a good home with salmon, a charcuterie board, warm duck confit
topped salad, or maybe just about a quarter to 5 on a Friday night. Pinot
Meunier, alone and unafraid, brought to you by Block 1.
And what about the Bellpine
Pearl? Ernie made a deal with Dena that we would not produce sparkling wine,
but instead would focus on making excellent Pinot Meunier red wine. And if that
worked out Ernie would buy Dena Champagne. Rosé Champagne to be specific and Pinot Meunier Rosé Champagne
if it could be found domestically. Or maybe a weekend shopping spree in Paris
would suffice.
Right. So, a couple years back
our 2016 Pinot Meunier earned the highest review ever for an Oregon Pinot Meunier
at 92 points from @VinousMedia
- these are people who know good wine. Dena called in her marker and Ernie went
shopping for Champagne, Pinot Meunier Rosé Champagne to be specific. And that
was the day the Bellpine Pearl took conceptual form.
Simply put, the Bellpine Pearl
is a Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir still wine. It is made from the early harvest
of the wings of both the Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir clusters. If the planets
ever align and the moon is right, there could be a secondary fermentation
leading to sparkling wine. But not yet.
The Pinot Meunier and Pinot
Noir grapes are separately, very gently, whole berry pressed with very little
skin contact time. The free run juice is then combined and co-fermented to
dryness in stainless steel. We bottle very soon after fermentation to capture
as much of the carbon dioxide in the wine as possible.
While the wine is not
effervescent it does take some time to integrate. Much like Champagne, carbon
dioxide then takes on the role of stewardship as the wine slowly unwinds
through bottle maturation until eventually the carbon dioxide is fully depleted.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
About Amalie Robert Estate:
It was the spring of 1999 when
we happened upon Bob and his Montmorency cherry orchard. We had been studying
soils and climate in the Willamette Valley and doing our level best to evaluate
as many wines as we could. It didn’t take too long before Ernie said, “Bob, I
got here too late. You have your cherry orchard sitting on top of my vineyard.”
We chose the Willamette Valley
because it was the last best place on the planet to grow Pinot Noir. All of the
other planets had one issue or another - soils, climate or the proximity to
established markets were some of the most significant drawbacks.
And so it began. April of 1999
is when we became cherry growers for just long enough to bring in the harvest.
From there on out, our singular focus was to develop our 60 acre property into
a world class vineyard and traditional winemaking operation that we would own
and operate ourselves.
The benefit of starting with a
cherry orchard is that you are not buying someone else’s vineyard and their
deeply rooted mistakes. You have the opportunity to make your own mistakes -
and learn from them. From those humble beginnings we decided on our own
rootstocks, vineyard spacing, trellis design, varieties of wines to grow and
their specific clones. We learned how to farm wine to showcase the inherent
qualities of our vineyard. We had help from some great and patient mentors
including Bruce Weber, Dick Erath, Mike Etzel, Steve Doerner, and many, many
others.
When it came time to design
the winery, we only wanted to build one, so we found the best architect with
the most experience in the Willamette Valley and that was Ernie Munch. Aside
from the aesthetics and site placement, the guiding principle was gravity flow.
Our crown jewel is the 1,200 tons of below grade concrete that maintains our
naturally climate conditioned barrel cellar and the 500 or so barrels entrusted
to mature our wines.
And what about the name? Amalie
Robert is a combination of Dena's middle name, “Amalie” (pronounced AIM-a-lee)
and Ernie's, “Robert.” We are them.
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