The Essence of Lonesome
Our vineyard is our home…but also home to barn owls, a deep wellspring, underground streams, young walnut and old olive trees, wildflowers, mirabelles, crimson clover, and a rare collection of organically-farmed pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot meunier vines grown in volcanic and marine sedimentary soils teaming with life.
We chose this site on the edge of the Willamette Valley because it challenges pinot noir (and chardonnay too!) to ripen slowly, taking tiny steps to soak in every last drop of the late-season sun and warmth needed to reach full maturity. The cool nights temper the beautifully ripe and sweet fruit with a snap of pure freshness and energy from the underlying natural acidity.
When it comes to cool-climate winegrowing, there are no easy vintages. The vineyard adapts to Mother Nature's wild ride here in Oregon, and the resulting wines tell a unique story every year. We rely on the health of the vines and the land, plus the wisdom of seasoned vineyard managers and winemakers who usher in each vintage through sunshine and adversity alike.
Vintage Notes
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“Wine-the only thing that asks you to care about yesterday’s weather” - Unknown.
2022 was our second vintage. Even coming from Chicago, it felt like a long, rainy winter. I can only imagine how it felt to Grandpa, who moved here on December 16th, 2021 from Florida. As new inhabitants of Lonesome Rock, it became clear during our many conversations about the temperature, the fog, the rain, and the vineyard that the gray deluge under which we now lived needed to be reframed in a positive light.
“It’s good for the grapes” became our mantra.
Spring presented itself with a whole new slate of more consequential challenges — ominous, freezing temperatures throughout the Northern Willamette Valley in mid-April — temperatures that could decimate a vintage, killing fragile, emerging buds in their infancy. As much of the chardonnay and pinot noir in Yamhill-Carlton had already begun bud break, doom and gloom was announced.
Minutes after the coldest night, the estimates were all over the board expecting anything from a 10%-90% reduction in crop. Vineyard-owner friends tell me that frost hasn’t shown its face around here since 2001, so it was hard to predict how the vines would fare.
Our little weather station up here at Lonesome showed 28-30 degrees for several days in a row.
I called Zak, our vineyard manager. We asked friends. We checked the vineyard with headlamps at 3:00 in the morning. After the frost, we went straight to the most vulnerable vines that were approaching budbreak — the chardonnay. We plucked tiny buds from the vines and sliced them open to see inside. And some were visibly damaged. Instead of layers of green folded-up leaves, 3 or 4 of the 20-odd buds we plucked had turned a dark gray-brown indicating they were unrecoverable.
The next few nights we woke up asking how Lonesome Rock would fare if we had such a small harvest. We tried to remain positive by taking comfort in our location. Being a relatively high elevation site and miles west of Carlton up in the Coast Range, our growing season typically starts a week to 10 days later than the ‘valley’. Up here, our chardonnay had just started to show green points in the buds, but the pinot noir was still closed and tight, sleeping in cocoons, giving them a good shot at withstanding the frost. We were thankful to be late bloomers — but still concerned about the final outcome. Nothing to do but wait and see. Farming is gambling.
Late spring was warm, and with all of the rain over winter, the vines turned on with a vengeance. You could literally see the vines growing from day to day. It was turning out that we would have a bigger crop than had ever been seen here in the history of the property.
How was it possible to go from thinking we’d have a tiny harvest to carrying such healthy loads on these vines? Felt like a roller coaster!
The rest of the summer was a dream. It was only over 90 degrees a few days in July, August and September and so by the time October rolled around, the grapes were still not quite ready to be harvested. It was time to start our sunshine dances and pray for NO RAIN.
Our first pick was the full acre of the rare-in-Oregon, but lauded-in-Champagne, Pinot Meunier. We harvested just 1.88 tons from our 1 acre+ young vines and blended it with pinot noir from the coolest spot at Lonesome to make the 1st-ever Sparkling Wine/Methode Champenoise/Methode Traditionelle. Mark your calendars for Spring of 2026 for the release of the 2022 Lonesome Rock Blanc de Noirs.
Chardonnay came in on October 4th, and we were so happy to have what appeared to be a big crop for Lonesome Rock and harvested a full 3 tons. Pinot needed more time as usual, and, As we let it ride, Lonesome was sunny and mid 70’s October 10-20th but mid-40’s at night. A very lucky end to a wild ride of a growing season. We had the biggest harvest in Lonesome history and picked pinot noir early morning on October 16th and October 21st.
2022-best roller coaster we ever rode!
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The excitement of being a new vineyard owner has still not gone away, but it didn’t take long for the weather to become our #1 concern. So, when three consecutive 100+ degree days were announced for the last week of June, we were worried the crop would be damaged — but because the tiny, green clusters were past bloom and not yet to veraison, they were in the ideal stage to remain protected from the heat.
The summer unfolded with one hundred days without a drop of precipitation, but a classic Willamette Valley fall followed with warm days and cool nights — especially in the Pacific Coast Range where nighttime temperatures started falling to the low-40s three days before our first harvest. Sunburned but cold never felt so good!
We harvested our youngest vines on September 21st and our 2007 plantings on September 29th, averaging a “normal-for-Lonesome” yield of 2.1 tons per acre, on par with Grand Cru Burgundy yields. Many of our friends and neighbors in the Willamette Valley talk about 2021 as being one of the vintages of their careers; while 2021 kept us on the edge of our seats, we’re fortunate to launch Lonesome Rock with such a well-regarded 1st vintage.