Placeholder Image

Haden Fig, “Croft Vineyard” Pinot Noir

Oregon, United States 2017 (750mL)
$35.00
/
Your cart is empty.
  • In stock, ready to ship
  • Inventory on the way
Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Haden Fig, “Croft Vineyard” Pinot Noir

What Haden Fig winemaker Erin Nuccio has shown, again and again, is that organically grown, site-specific Pinot Noir with real backbone and complexity can be had in the $30-ish price range. This is no small feat, given the difficulties inherent in growing Pinot Noir, but Nuccio and many others in the Willamette Valley achieve it with refreshing regularity.


As I’ve said before, Oregon really owns this price tier right now—with Exhibit A being Haden Fig’s “Croft Vineyard” Pinot Noir. It isn’t merely a pleasant drink but a thought-provoking wine brimming with energy, a testament not only to Nuccio’s ever-growing talent but to the top-tier grower-partners he’s cultivated in his relatively short time in the region. As he’ll be the first to tell you, it all starts in the Croft family’s perfectly positioned vineyard at the edge of Oregon’s coastal range: Organically farmed and planted to an assortment of Pinot Noir clones, it provided impeccable raw material for today’s 2017, which is a wine to consider stocking up on by the case. I cannot think of a classier “house” Pinot Noir than this one, be it from Oregon or Burgundy—get some!


Nuccio’s story should be a familiar one by now, given how many Haden Fig wines we’ve offered over the years: He got his start in wine at a retail store in Washington, D.C., then worked in distribution in Boston before following the siren call of the West Coast. He went to enology school in California while also working in vineyards, but he knew his ultimate destination would be Oregon’s Willamette Valley—a place that captured his attention since his first sips of Willamette Pinot back in D.C. He found work with Russ Raney at Oregon’s Evesham Wood (where he remains the winemaker), and simultaneously built a network of vineyard sources with which to launch Haden Fig.



The Croft Vineyard, a southeast-facing slope nestled in the eastern foothills of Oregon’s coast range near Salem, is the most recent addition to the Haden Fig vineyard-designate lineup. Spanning 90 acres (with 65 in production) and farmed organically for 30 years, the site is not far from the “mouth” of the Van Duzer corridor, the break in the coast range that funnels cooling Pacific breezes into the valley. The soils are a classic Willamette mix of Bellpine (sedimentary rock) with some Jory (volcanic basalt), lending the resulting wine a firm structural backbone to complement its bright, high-toned aromatics. It is just one hill south of the Ilahe Vineyard, which Nuccio works with at Evesham Wood, and will be part of the new “Mount Pisgah-Mistletoe” American Viticultural Area (AVA), the application for which is currently under review.



Many wines at this price point are perfectly tasty and ripe but lack nerve—this one stands up straight and gives you a firm handshake, one of the characteristics we love about Pinot Noir from Burgundy as well. Nuccio fermented the hand-harvested Croft fruit (100% destemmed) in open-topped vessels on ambient yeasts and aged it in French oak barrels (just 10% of which were new) for 16 months before bottling. In the glass, it’s a deep, bright ruby moving to pink at the rim, with deep and expressive aromas of black raspberry, wild strawberry, red and purple flowers, hibiscus tea, baking spices, and underbrush. Medium-bodied and nicely framed by freshness and very fine-grained tannins, it offers an enlivening mix of richness and refreshment. Although you could consider aging a few bottles over the short term, it’s ready to drink: Pull the cork about 30 minutes before serving at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems, pairing it with some Pacific salmon draped with a sauce full of fall mushrooms. This is what Pinot Noir was made for! Enjoy!




Placeholder Image
Country
United States
Region
Oregon
Sub-Region
United StatesWillamette Valley, Croft Vineyard (Salem)
Soil
Marine Sediment w/ some Volcanic
Farming
Certified Organic
Blend
Pinot Noir
Alcohol
13.5
OAK
10% New French
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now-2025
Decanting
Optional
Pairing
Salmon w/ Mushroom Sauce

United States

Washington

Columbia Valley

Like many Washington wines, the “Columbia Valley” indication only tells part of the story: Columbia Valley covers a huge swath of Central
Washington, within which are a wide array of smaller AVAs (appellations).

Oregon

Willamette Valley

Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become an elite winegrowing zone in record time. Pioneering vintner David Lett, of The Eyrie Vineyard, planted the first Pinot Noir in the region in 1965, soon to be followed by a cadre of forward-thinking growers who (correctly) saw their wines as America’s answer to French
Burgundies. Today, the Willamette
Valley is indeed compared favorably to Burgundy, Pinot Noir’s spiritual home. And while Pinot Noir accounts for 64% of Oregon’s vineyard plantings, there are cool-climate whites that must not be missed.

California

Santa Barbara

Among the unique features of Santa Barbara County appellations like Ballard Canyon (a sub-zone of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA), is that it has a cool, Pacific-influenced climate juxtaposed with the intense luminosity of a southerly
latitude (the 34th parallel). Ballard Canyon has a more north-south orientation compared to most Santa Barbara AVAs, with soils of sandy
clay/loam and limestone.

California

Paso Robles

Situated at an elevation of 1,600 feet, it is rooted in soils of sandy loam and falls within the Highlands District of the Paso Robles AVA.

New York

North Fork

Wine growers and producers on Long Island’s North Fork have traditionally compared their terroir to that of Bordeaux and have focused on French varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Others We Love