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Philosophy
Husband and wife winemakers Stewart and Athena hand craft local, sustainable and critically acclaimed wines grown is Oregon's Willamette Valley. Our focus is quality, our love is the elegant, food friendly Oregon Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc, grown by the finest vineyards in the Willamette Valley. We sell the wines we make-no bulk or tank farm mistakes please!-and we craft the Pinots naturally, with indigenous yeasts, no enzymes or thickeners are added. The Pinot Noirs, our heart and soul, are crafted in the old world style, in small fermenters, so during harvest we can put our arms in the fermenter to feel the temperature. We base our decisions on smells and flavors and the Pinot Noirs are put to barrel 'dirty', we lees stir each barrel by hand. French oak is all we use, the Pinot Noirs age at least 18 months before they are bottled, and we hold them for 6-9 months before they are released to the public.
Founded in 2003 in Carlton, Oregon, we set out to craft elegant food oriented Pinot Noirs. With care and time our Signature Cuvees have come to reflect not only the terroir and vintage, but also our own individual palates.
Classic and refined, the Stewart is our Pinot Noir full of red fruit and bright acidity with soft tannins and herbal aromatics that come mainly from Wadenswil and Pommard. The essence of the Athena cuvee is a bolder, yet elegant Pinot Noir, with a black to blue fruit core, heartier tannins and spice, components redolent of the clones developed in Dijon.
As the climate, the vineyard and the clones all influence the distinctiveness of the wine; our goal is to not only preserve these differences but let them shine.
For example, while the grapes are hand sorted in the vineyard, we once again sort them in the winery. We ferment in small lots, maintain each vineyard separately and monitor each lot by hand, by smell and by taste.
Once in barrel, the wines age for 18+ months. The barrels are all French oak, the wine is aged 9-10 months sur lie, on 30% new oak, the aged another 9-10 months off lees in all neutral barrels.
In order to determine which barrel of wine will bear the name of Stewart or Athena, we blind taste through each barrel,as many as 60 barrels at a time, discussing and arguing getting tipsy and learning from each other as we discuss the body, character, the aromas, the flavors...what it is in the wine that makes us ‘see’ and ‘feel’.
After 5 years of making wine in a rented space with 10 other winemakers, we built our own winery in Portland, Oregon. We have 1 roomate now, as sharing expenses means you can buy the best equipment! But our focus has stayed true: small lot, naturally crafted with minimal intervention, small production, world class Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs.
Reducing our carbon footprint
Boedecker Cellars have bottled our wines in lightweight bottles with screwcap closures since our beginning. For us it is a practical matter; we guide the wines with care diligence from vineyard to bottle. Our wines reflect our passions; lightweight packaging honors the environment, stelvin closures honor the wines.
We are also offering wines on via kegs to restaurants throughout the West coast and soon in NYC. Wines in keg save bottles, labels, closures and waste. And the risk to the wine? Well that depends upon the winery. We ensure our kegs are sterile, sparged with nitrogen and fitted with the correct metals. Attention to detail helps us protect our environment and produce quality wines.
Screwcaps
We admit it, they are not romantic. But we give our heart and soul to the wine for over a year and a half and to allow a percentage of the wine to go bad because of the packaging, just to make the bottle pretty is heartbreaking, devasting and ridiculous.
Wine Spectator's Dr. Vinny explains in this article: What's your feeling on screwcaps vs. corks on wine bottles?
Here's a good article by Wine Spectator on a study done with corks: