BELLE PENTE

Vineyard & Winery

Current Releases

2007 Willamette Valley Muscat

This is our third vintage of an Early Muscat/Muscat Ottonel blend from Stag Hollow Vineyard, and we're finally starting to get it dialed in! Pure, wild floral aromatics with a touch of honey are followed by a remarkably substantial palate given it's mere 11.3% alcohol!  A great apéritif, delicious with a spicy dish, and gentle enough to enjoy for lunch! A rare treat!

99 cases produced.

2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris

Fans of our Pinot Gris will find a lot to like in the 2006 vintage, including our first Reserve Pinot Gris since 2003 (which will be released later.)  Ideal growing conditions allowed us to achieve the ripeness needed for the best expression of our rich, concentrated, definitely not "Grigio" style. Grapes for this wine come primarily from our estate, Whistling Ridge, and Walker vineyards.  All of these are planted on sedimentary formations, with soils that impart a distinct minerality that underlies the ripe apple, pear, and peach flavors and aromas.  Enjoy this classic Alsatian-style Oregon Pinot Gris now and over the next year or two with just about anything!

 668 cases produced.

2006 Reserve Pinot Gris

Pinot Gris fans take note - this is something you don't want to miss!  In 2006, we left a portion of our oldest Pinot Gris vines "hang" for several weeks beyond the normal harvest date in hopes of making a late harvest desert wine.  Unfortunately, the grapes didn't get quite ripe enough for a "stand alone" dessert wine, but they were harvested significantly riper than the rest of our Pinot Gris - so we decided to build a Reserve bottling around them.  Our style of Pinot Gris has always been closer to Alsace than Alto Adige, and this wine takes it to another level.  Although the aromatics are rather restrained, the wine explodes on the palate with rich, ripe, viscous tropical fruit, accented by an almost smoky, briny minerality (grilled mangos at a beach barbeque?).  The residual sugar (2%) is balanced with adequate acidity. A thoroughly intriguing wine - a bit "over the top," and eminently enjoyable!

 218 cases produced.

2006 Willamette Valley Riesling

Sadly, this is the last Belle Pente Riesling that will include fruit from the 1968 planting at Chehalem Mountain Vineyard.  The vineyard ownership went through a transition and we lost access to the fruit in 2007.  The good news is that it's going out in style, contributing to what may be our finest Riesling to date. A true child of the vintage, it is softer and more opulent than last years version, with more of the peach & apricot flavors and aromas than the citrus that dominated in '05.  The 1% residual sugar is balanced by good acidity, creating a perception of concentration and ripeness rather than overt sweetness.  This wine just screams for seafood in cream sauce!

 295 cases produced.

2005 Willamette Valley Gewurztraminer

After our first successful foray into "Gewurz" in 2003 with a rich, opulent, "take no prisoners" style, we're coming back at you in 2005 with a much more focused, restrained, food-friendly rendition of this classic aromatic varietal.  The grapes origaromas lead to an elegant, supremely balanced palate. Think Trimbach, not Weinbach.  Enjoy over the next several years.

146 cases produced.

2006 Willamette Valley Gewurztraminer

This is our third (and final) vintage from Hyland vineyard in McMinnville (we are actively seeking a new source).  The wine features a somewhat restrained floral, spicy, nose and a broad, rich palate. It strikes a wonderful balance between the hedonistic side of Gewürztraminer and it's more restrained, food friendly personality. This wine will make a wonderful accompaniment to traditional holiday meals.

145 cases produced.

2006 Belle Pente Vineyard Chardonnay

Vintage 2006 was very good to our 2 acre estate Chardonnay vineyard. It produced very good ripeness, which translated into a rich, concentrated wine.  But there is a fine line in Chardonnay between ripe enough and too ripe, which can make the wines flabby and seemingly sweet. So our standard procedure is to pick the vineyard in two parts, usually 10-14 days apart.  The early harvest provides freshness and acidity, and the later one brings richness and viscosity. Barrel fermentation with very modest use of new oak lets the strengths of both pickings show through. If you've shopped for high end California Chardonnay or good white Burgundy lately, you will quickly realize that this wine is a good value at twice the price! Enjoy now or cellar for a few years.

252 cases produced.

2007 Cuvee Contraire - Rose-Style

Our proprietary rosé-style blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay Noir is a perennial favorite, and this 2007 version is one of the best yet!  Although traditional rosé season is still several months away, this is a remarkably versatile wine.  Try it with traditional holiday fare, or use it to solve the meal time conundrum of trying to decide between a red and a white.  Or just stock up now and be ready for summer!

144 cases produced.

2006 Murto Vineyard Pinot Noir

This is the tenth year that we've made wine from the old Pommard block at Murto vineyard, which was planted in 1978.  Since it's first release, our Murto vineyard Pinot has seduced wine lovers across the country with it's clean earthiness, bright red fruit, and intriguing, unique spiciness.  It is often described by others as "sublimely Burgundian".

Warmer vintages are especially kind to higher elevation sites like Murto, allowing the grapes to attain more ripeness and concentration than in cooler years.  This was indeed the case in 2006, with perhaps the most intensely flavored fruit we've ever harvested from this site.  Although relatively high in alcohol, the wine maintains it's balance and elegance.

True to the vintage, this wine can be enjoyed now, and should be (in moderation, of course)!  But please, do yourself a favor, and buy enough to squirrel some away to enjoy four or five years from now.  The vineyard has a great track record for aging gracefully, and mature Murto Pinots are real treats!

828 cases produced.

2006 Belle Pente Vineyard Pinot Noir

The 2006 vintage was a "defining moment" for our young estate vineyard.  The 4 vineyard blocks planted in 1998, which contribute the majority of the fruit that goes into this bottling, really came into their own in 2006, producing what one of our well known neighboring winemakers described as an "archetypal" Yamhill-Carlton District Pinot Noir!

Although we started producing this wine in 2002, this is the first year that it is really living up to it's potential and delivering on the promise of our terrific site. The nose is deep and complex, with herbal notes of thyme, anise, and lavender accenting the wild black cherry and ripe blackberry aromas.  On the palate, the wine is smooth and suave, structured yet lively, and impeccably balanced.

As a "typical" 2006, this wine is immensely pleasurable now, and will reveal even more charms after a few years in the cellar. No longer merely a junior version of our Estate Reserve, this bottling has attained it's own identity and character.  Check it out!

896 cases produced.

2005 Estate Reserve Pinot Noir

Since it's first release in 1997, the Estate Reserve has been our flagship wine, representing "the best of the best" of Pinot Noir from our property each year.  For the past several years, the same 2 of our 8 "blocks" of Pinot Noir vines have formed the backbone of this cuvée.  The first is our initial planting from 1994, which is always the most complex wine in the cellar, and seems to gain additional levels of flavors and suppler texture every year.  The second is the steeply sloping southwest section that consistently achieves the most even and thorough ripening in the entire vineyard, and contributes an intriguing spiciness to the wines that we don't get elsewhere. Throughout the year, we give these sections of the vineyard special attention, and reserve the optimal harvest days for picking these grapes.  We then select the individual barrels from these blocks that display the best characteristics of our site: deep, dark, black fruit flavors and aromas, solid structure with firm ripe tannins, and good acid/tannin balance. This 2005 version displays not only the best of our vineyard, but also the best characteristics of the vintage.  It is complex, structured, and balanced with an underlying sappiness. Very nice today with the right food pairing, and filled with promise for even more enjoyment in the future! 

300 cases produced.

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