Old vine Chenin blanc

I started my brand with the goal of making a minerally white wine to pair with the seafood and shellfish of the Pacific Northwest. A big part of my inspiration has been to honor Washington’s viticultural heritage with Chenin blanc. To craft a wine to celebrate our heirloom vineyards.

Rothrock Farms, in the heart of the Yakima Valley, is where the whole Orr Wines project began, back in 2013, walking that gnarly vineyard with my friends Linn Scott and Dick Boushey and tasting the saline snap of a bottle of Chenin blanc from that site. This old vineyard was torn out this spring and it’s bittersweet to see it go.

My 2019 Chenin bottling is a blend of three wonderful old vine vineyards (Rothrock- planted 1974, Upland- planted 1979 and Roza Hills- planted 1982).  While six years ago I focused on blending together multiple heritage plantings, this is the last blend to include Rothrock vineyard.

Last fall, each vineyard parcel was hand-picked, whole cluster pressed and natively fermented in a mix of neutral oak hogsheads, old barrels and stainless steel drums. The unhurried dynamics of slow native yeast fermentations demand patience but I feel strongly that this is the only way to achieve the flavors I'm looking for. This spring, the wines from the three vineyard lots were blended together, lightly fined with bentonite clay and sterile filtered before bottling under TCA-free DIAM corks.

Tasting notes: Aromas of green fruit like crunchy pears, cucumber peel and honeydew fill the nose. It’s fresh and dry and low alcohol with a mineral finish and mouthwatering acidity.