The Alsea Vineyard is the only coastal vineyard in the northern Willamette Valley. When Barnaby and Olga Tuttle first planted the site in 2005 on their friend's farm, it was met with a good deal of scepticism. Unlike most vineyards in the nearby Willamette Valley (this vineyard lies just outside the AVA’s border), Alsea is on the western flank of the Coast Mountain Range, just 30 kilometres from the ocean. Consequently, it is cooler and wetter than those sites on the eastern side of the range, and for those reasons, most thought it unsuitable for growing grapes. The Tuttles succeeded and have been crafting cool, refined, complex Pinot Noir from this site for 15 years.
Alsea is home to Bellpine soils—a variant of the famous Jory soils found in the Willamette Valley— which, coupled with the rainfall levels, facilitate dry farming. No chemicals are used; farming is organic, and the Tuttles use cover crops and seed balls that act as natural fertilisers for the soil. They also keep bees but don’t harvest the honey.
The 2016 vintage saw a return to more classic conditions after the three preceding warm years. As is the norm at Teutonic, the fruit was left on the vine for as long as possible before being handpicked, sorted, mostly destemmed and fermented in open-top vessels using a pied de cuve started in the vineyard. After three weeks, the wine is pressed and settled before going to old barrels for maturation.
As with all the Teutonic wines, Alsea Pinot Noir is built to last, and we’re pleased to be able to offer some bottle-aged examples from this unique spot. Perhaps Neal Martin summed it up best: “The Pinot Noir from the Alsea Vineyard is certainly great terroir, and a vertical demonstrated its propensity to hit a sweet spot 5-6 years after bottling.”