While the focus of SommSelect will always be Europe, we never hesitate to jump on a truly unique American wine when it becomes available. I opened this bottle with a close friend two weeks ago alongside a lineup of high-ticket grower champagne and boutique French reds, and it quickly became the star of the show – no small feat given that it was also the lowest priced wine on the table.
The wine shows vivid Vosne/Chambolle-esque fruit, energy, intense perfume, and freshness that recalls my favorite examples of Red Burgundy. This bottle proves again that Bow & Arrow founder Scott Frank is creating some of the most vibrant and effortlessly delicious domestic wines out there. Scott’s wines offer balance and class seldom found outside of Europe. So if you appreciate the purity of young Burgundy – but you also wish to support US organic farmers and winemakers by drinking locally – I can think of no more ideal a place to start than Bow & Arrow.
Scott Frank lives with his wife and daughter in Portland, Oregon. By day, Scott is a one-man-show wholesale wine distributor and by night, a stay-at-home father. His wife, Dana, trades off daytime parenting duties and at night she moonlights as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most respected Sommeliers at her restaurant, Dame. On top of all this, Scott still finds a way to make wine every year. I don’t hide my affection for Bow & Arrow, but the 2014 “Hughes Hollow” Pinot Noir reaches a new standard of depth and complexity over their previous wines we’ve offered on this site. After a brief conversation yesterday with Scott as he drove a truck full of freshly harvested grapes through the Willamette Valley, I’m beginning to understand why that is.
For starters, Scott explains that the Hughes Hollow vineyard enjoys an unusual, north-facing aspect. 30 years ago when the vineyard was planted this probably meant that the parcel was neglected by the sun and therefore produced underripe fruit in cooler vintages and maybe less-than-stellar fruit in warmer ones. But today, Hughes Hollow is ideally situated for growing Pinot Noir that even in a hot vintage like 2014, still sings with definition, electricity, and a palate-whetting 12.5% alcohol. Keep in mind that in this same vintage many Oregon Pinot Noirs came in at high alcohol levels and at least to my taste – some very rich and very overripe. Of course, aspect alone doesn’t explain what makes this wine uniquely delicious. The Hughes Hollow vineyard is planted to what Scott firmly believes is the top Pinot Noir clone for his region – Pommard. Furthermore, the same vines that produce this wine have been maturing in this vineyard for 30 years without ever receiving one drop of irrigation. That means root systems are continually digging deeper every year, drawing more from the vineyard’s mineral-rich subsoil -- and if you believe in the concept of terroir as firmly as I do, then you understand how crucial this is.
Despite his relative youth, in the cellar, Scott works with the wisdom and restraint of a wise old French vigneron. After ensuring that only pristine fruit makes it into his fermenters, Scott is confident and experienced enough to pull back and let nature take its course. I can’t stress enough how rare this is in the US, and how much it elevates and distinguishes the character of Bow & Arrow’s wines. Many “new school” Oregon or California winemakers working in ever warmer climates go to great lengths to engineer increased freshness in their wines. This can take the form of carbonic maceration, egregiously early harvests, and many winemakers even add water to fermenters. The most common result of this faddish and short-sighted tinkering in the cellar is uninspired, mediocre wine that possesses little soul or sense of place. Scott, on the other hand, does it the old fashioned way. He works with this same perfectly situated and organically farmed vineyard each vintage, and then he gets out of the way. Following fermentation with 20% whole clusters, this wine is aged in old, neutral French oak barrels. There is no filtering, no fining, and no unusual additives will end up in your glass – just real wine.
In the glass, the 2014 Bow & Arrow Pinot Noir “Hughes Hollow” has a concentrated dark ruby core moving toward crimson tones on the rim. There is a lovely richness to the wine’s hue that makes clear that it has never been filtered. Fruit and savory aromas erupt from the glass – ripe black cherry, pomegranate, red strawberries, strawberry compote, and rose water candy all sit perfectly against a backdrop of wet clay, green tea, dried herbs, and distant baking spice aromas from the well-seasoned barrel. As with all of Scott’s reds, there is a rustic, meaty directness that pays homage to the finest Loire Pinot masters in Cheverny and Sancerre. Still, with this Hughes Hollow bottling, Scott reaches a new standard of purity and definition with Pinot Noir. Here, for the first time, I sense the perfume of Chambolle or Vosne, the muscle and intensity of Morey-Saint-Denis. This wine manages to encapsulate many of my favorite expressions of Pinot Noir into one bottle. I recommend decanting this wine for 45 minutes prior to serving in large burgundy stems and starting this wine at 55 degrees, letting it slowly evolve up to room temperature. On an upcoming cool autumn or winter evening,
prepare this Duck Cassoulet. It takes some time, but the results will take you into gastronomic paradise.
