Leah Jørgensen Cellars Tour Rain Vin Rouge 2018

Leah Jørgensen Cellars Tour Rain

VINEYARD
Two vineyards and two appellations make up the two grapes in this blend. The Cabernet Franc is from Sundown Vineyard, which is located in Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley, and the Gamay Noir was sourced from Havlin Vineyard, situated in the east end of the of the Willamette Valley’s newly proposed AVA, the Van Duzer Corridor. The cuttings for the Gamay Noir come from Seven Springs Vineyard, the iconic, self-rooted and oldest Gamay Noir vineyard in America, planted in 1984 by Oregon wine pioneer Al MacDonald, who was one of Leah’s instructors when she studied Enology at the Northwest Viticulture Center. Both vineyards are sustainably farmed and are L.I.V.E. certified.

WINEMAKING
This wine is inspired by the Touraine red blends from France’s Loire Valley that are centered around Gamay Noir. This Oregon version, whimsically called “Tour Rain”, is comprised of 40% Gamay Noir and 60% Cabernet Franc. The Cabernet Franc was harvested first on October 12th at 24 brix, went through traditional short vating (5-6 days), and was sorted, destemmed, crushed lightly (half whole berry, half crushed), with a four-day cold soak, starting fermentation at 55° F so as to have a slow, extended fermentation, with manual punch-downs twice daily, then aged in neutral French oak barrels for 10 months, with malolactic fermentation completed in two months. The Gamay was harvested on October 16th at 20 brix, and was sorted, de-stemmed, whole berry crushed, with a four-day cold soak followed by manual punch-downs twice daily during fermentation, then aged in neutral French oak for 10 months, with malo-lactic fermentation completed in two months. The wine was racked, blended, then filtered prior to bottling.

Appellation: Oregon

Vineyard: Various

Production: 338 cases

Bottled: July 22, 2019

Released: September 15, 2019

Alcohol: 13.5%

pH: 3.33