Nose of dark baker’s chocolate, dried cherry, red current, bramble, vanilla bean, earl grey tea, and tobacco. This wine has gripping tannins with a finish of clove and nutmeg that feels like it could linger until 2099.
Illahe is a Chinook Jargon word meaning “earth,” “land,” or “soil.” We feel this reflects both our location in Oregon, as well as our desire to craft wines which express the variety of soils on our beautiful 80 acre estate. Illahe Vineyards was established in 2000 by Lowell Ford, grower of Oregon grapes since 1983.Illahe is a LIVE-certified, Salmon Safe vineyard. We use cover crops on the entire vineyard. We are part of Oregon’s Deep Roots Coalition, and as such do not irrigate mature plants. We do extensive green pruning and conduct plant topping. We prune by hand and harvest by hand. We use sulfur spray to control for powdery mildew and botrytis.
Our 1899 pinot noir was made without the use of modern winemaking equipment or electricity. We wanted to create a new world wine with a true sense of place that wasn’t altered by modern technology. The grapes for this wine were picked by hand and brought up to the winery by horse. Once at the winery, the grapes were destemmed by hand and the placed into wooden fermenters. The must was fermented on native yeasts, after which it was pressed by hand in a wooden basket press, bicycle-pumped into barrel, and underwent malolactic fermentation without inoculation. We bottled with a gravity filler, corked by hand and manually applied the labels and wax.
Pairs well with beef, veal, deer, venison, and poultry dishes,