Vidon Vineyard: the Pinot Noir Clone Program

Winemaker David Bellows of Vidon Vineyard discusses the three clones of Pinot Noir that grow on the estate vineyard in Chehalem Mountains AVA, Oregon. Bellows discusses the unique character of each clone of Pinot Noir and what they bring to the ‘jazz trio.’

This is Episode #66 of Understanding Wine with Austin Beeman.

Hi. I'm David Bellows. I'm the winemaker at Vidon Vineyard.

I'm here today to talk a little bit about our clone program. So, we have three clones of pinot planted out in our vineyard. We have equal parts of 115, 777, and Pommard.

Vidon Vineyard Pinot Noir ‘Mirabelle 115’

Today, I'd like to talk to you about the 115 clone, that we call Mirabelle, after Dawn's eldest granddaughter. The 115 clone has a vibrant acidity, and it a distinctive vin cherry note. This lively acidity makes it an excellent food wine. And it acts like the percussionist in the trio, laying down the beat or the pulse.

If you prefer an acid-driven, food-friendly wine, perhaps the Mirabelle would be your favorite.

Vidon Vineyard Pinot Noir ‘Brigita 777’

Today I'd like to talk to you about the 777 clone, that we call Brigita, after Dawn's youngest granddaughter. The 777 clone is our warmest, softest, most aromatic clone. It's known for having spicy kind of exotic notes, like cardamon and clove. It acts sort of like the piano player in the trio, providing the melody, and the individual notes. So, if you are interested in a softer, more aromatic wine, perhaps the Brigita would be the one for you.

Vidon Vineyard Pinot Noir ‘Hans Pommard’

I'd like to talk to you about our Pommard clone, that we call Hans, after Dawn's grandson. The Pommard clone is our biggest most full-bodied wine, with layers of tannin providing structure. It acts like the bass player in the trio, laying down the deep foundation notes. So if you like a more mouth-filling, full-bodied wine, perhaps the Hans would suit you.

Vidon Vineyard Pinot Noir ‘Three Clones’

We've mixed them together to make a Cuvee, to make a blend. And that is our flagship wine, called Three Clones. It's equal parts of the three, and it acts like the jazz trio, piano, bass, and drums all playing together, each of the clones adding a bit to the wine. So, for example, the acidity from 115, and the body from Pommard, and the aromatics from the 777 clone all combine to make a greater whole.

Growing Soave Classico with Suavia

What makes Soave Classico exceptional - and separate from Soave DOC?

In this short video, you'll join Austin Beeman and Suavia on the hills of Soave Classico to explore that question.

This is Episode #65 of Understanding Wine with Austin Beeman.

Transcript:

Two villages have Classico area inside their territory. One is Soave, so the main village, and is on this side, over here, and the other one is Monteforte and is on the other side of this hill. So our hills are right in the middle between the two districts.

And here you can see clearly what's the difference between Soave Classico and Soave D.O.C. Soave D.O.C is the flat area you see there. It's a huge area of production of white wines. It's the largest area of production of white wines in Italy, so it's very, very large. From the flat basically come all the wines that people sadly are accustomed to know as Soave, so a very cheap, low-quality, easy white wines. Very big quantities. Not very high quality. Here is another world.

This is our main territory, the basalt rocks. So these black stones that sometimes are really, really big, like masses, which we can find all around inside the soil and the color of the soil which is ... it goes from the black to gray to red, reddish. It full of minerals, so all these are characteristic like minerality and richness in element, go directly into the wine so the wines are very mineral, complex, and sometimes you have also kind of smokiness that comes directly from this kind of soil.

We grow Garganega in this way, which is particular way because yeah, I think the growing season you are more ... you see the most use of small vines, but here this method is a very ancient one, and it's called Pergola Veronese and you see that we let the vine to grow up until it is like two meters more or less, and then we leave the branches of Garganega to fall down on these iron threads.

And this is why we will follow the nature of Garganega plant because it is a plant with branches that tends to go downwards and not upwards.

Also, the berries of Garganega ... the skin of the berries is very delicate and so especially during the hot summers, it needs to have like umbrella, an umbrella to be covered.

And so in this way, all the leaves of the vine act as an umbrella on the branches, on the grapes, and so they don't get sunburned basically. So this is the most clever way to grow Garganega and it's also the historic one.

With the Trebbiano we use this system because the nature of the vine here is more to use the Guyot system. The branches of Trebbiano are very vigorous, so they tend to go upwards and not downwards so they don't need the iron threads to support the branches, and the skin of Trebbiano ... Trebbiano is a very strong variety and the skin is thicker than Garganega and so it doesn't need that umbrella that Garganega needs.

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Restoring Trebbiano di Soave: the Original Grape of Soave Classico

Trebbiano di Soave almost disappeared from the world. The high quality - low yielding grape variety had been the backbone of Soave Classico until the Second World War. Ripped out in favor of mediocre grapes that produced higher yields, Trebbiano di Soave almost went extinct.

This four minute video - shot in the hills of Soave Classico - details how the team at Suavia brought it back to life.

This is Episode #64 of Understanding Wine with Austin Beeman.

Transcript:

Trebbiano di Soave was a very used variety especially at the beginning of the last century. Then after the end of the second World War with the bad economic situation in Europe and in Italy, people needed to produce more, and so they wanted to produce more. They didn't care about quality or everything in it, and they wanted quantity.

Garganega is a very productive and a very easy to grow variety, while Trebbiano is not very easy to grow and not very generous, so they decided just to displant Trebbiano and replant Garganega, so the real Trebbiano di Soave, the ancient one, almost disappeared from the area. When people rethink about restart planting Trebbiano di Soave in the '70s or the '80s, they started to ask to the baby wine grovers where to find the ancient Trebbiano de Soave, but they didn't know, because it was almost disappeared, and so they started to sell other kind of Trebbiano instead of Trebbiano de Soave. On the flats, you can find here in Soave a lot of vineyards with Trebbiano Toscano or Trebbiano ... They grew other kinds of Trebbiano, but not the original Trebbiano de Soave.

My sister, which is the wine maker, with her professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca, an historical of the genetics of different varieties of vine, started this project to recuperate the original DNA of the ancient Trebbiano. This ancient Trebbiano was only possible to find here in this Soave Classico area, because here is where the oldest vineyards of the old Soave Classico area are. We started to go in the vineyards and ask old people where they remind where old Trebbiano de Soave vines were. We selected some vines, some very old vines, 60, 65 years old, and we took the DNA from these vines and with clonation, we recuperated this DNA and we produced all the vines in 2004. And in 2006, we planted this first vineyard. And so now it's eight years old and we are producing the third vintage of our wine, which is Massifitti, and you will taste it later. And it's this Trebbiano di Soave 100%, which is the first example in the old Soave Classico area of a pure Trebbiano di Soave.

We are very proud of us and also because many, many wine areas, now more and more, they are starting to study about Trebbiano, to plant Trebbiano, and to try to make his own wine from Trebbiano, and so they are following this project and this study, and we are very happy about it.

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