Evesham Wood Winery and Vineyard
3795 Wallace Rd. NW, Salem
(503) 371-8478
The certified organic Evesham Wood Winery is not open to the public. Tasting is by appointment only and they will not be having a Thanksgiving party.
Instead, there will be a Thanksgiving Open House the preceding weekend, November 20th and 21st, from noon to 5 p.m., during which Evesham will be pouring the recently released 2009 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley. According to Owner Erin Nuccio, “It was a warmer vintage than we’ve seen in the past recent years and that comes through in the wine. It has a restrained style, with lower alcohol content and higher acidity. It was aged in minimal amounts of new oak. We try to go for the fruit flavors rather than the oak flavors. This year it has more strawberry notes and bright cherry flavors.”
The 2009 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is not made from the organic estate grapes, but Nuccio said the fruit was nonetheless grown sustainably, without irrigation. and bought from vineyards within a ten-mile radius. The Pinot was also made with the same winemaking techniques as the organic wines, which Nuccio described as, “Hands off. We try not to manipulate the wines at all; let the wine speak for itself. We don’t filter or refine any of our wines. We try to not touch the wine at all.” Other practices include hand bottling all wines, smelling and tasting and racking the barrels twice a year, an old-world method which is slower and more labor-intensive. It entails slowly tipping the barrel until cloudy wine starts coming out, stopping it and removing the sediment, explained Nuccio. He described the whole process as “being more connected to the wine and each bottle.”
Evesham wood will also be tasting some estate organic wines, such as the 2008 “Le Puits Sec” Pinot Noir (the vineyard was named Le Puits Sec because the first well came out dry).
The 2009 Pinot Noirs are still in the barrels and will be released eight or nine months from now. Tasting takes place in the underground winery, built under the house.
