St Innocent Pinot Blanc Freedom Hill 2023

Alcohol: 13.5%

Grape(s): Pinot Blanc

Localization: Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA

Tasting Notes: Imagine sticking your nose in a box of fresh, ripe peaches on an ocean beach smelling the salt in the air and about to swallow a fresh oyster. Yup, that is this wine. The palate follows a similar theme: peach followed by pear flavors with a particularly lovely rocky, salinity and broad textures around your tongue. The fruit is a result of long hours of sun kept precise by cool nights. The salinity is the result of the very old ocean floor; sedimentary soils affect the Pinot blanc vines and the resulting minerality captured in the wine.

Food pairing: With this vintage I am drawn to oysters or clams on the half shell, freshly cooked Dungeness crab, and sashimi with yuzu – less about cooking with shellfish and more about the shellfish itself.

The Domain: St. Innocent Winery was founded in May 1988 by Mark Vlossak, the current winemaker and president, and eight investors. Ten tons of grapes were crushed the first fall, producing 396 cases of still and 176 cases of sparkling wine. Production increased to our full capacity of 6800 cases in 2004. The winery is located in Salem, Oregon, at the southeast corner of the Eola Hills, in the mid-Willamette valley.

St. Innocent produces small lot, handmade wines: seven single vineyard Pinot noirs and a blended Pinot noir called the Villages Cuvée, two Chardonnay from Dijon clone plantings, two Pinot gris, and a Pinot blanc.

The philosophy behind the winemaking at St Innocent is that the function of wine is to complement and extend the pleasure of a meal. The characteristics of a wine should enhance different food and flavor combinations - this interaction amplifies the pleasure of a meal. To this end, St. Innocent wines tend toward higher acid levels, and more diverse and balanced flavors.