2005 Archery Summit Premier Cuvee Pinot Noir

Archery Summit is a 115-acre estate in Dayton, Oregon. It was founded in 1993 by the late Robert Gary Andrus, a former Olympic skier who started his winemaking career in 1978 when he founded Pine Ridge in Napa Valley. Andrus sold his interest in Archery Summit in 2001 to Crimson Wine Group, a Napa-based portfolio of small, artisanal wineries. Under Andrus and now Crimson, Archery Summit has built a reputation of outstanding Pinot Noirs. Wine Spectator has written that Archery Summit’s Pinots “rival Burgundy” in quality. Harvey Steinman of Wine Spectator has called Archery Summit “the Rolls Royce of Oregon Pinot Noir.”

Oregon is the fourth largest producer of wine in the U.S., after California, which produces nearly 90% of all wine made in the U.S., Washington State and New York State. Though winemaking in Oregon started in the 1850s, thanks in part to several German immigrants who planted German wine grapes, as in other American wine regions the Oregon industry folded in the beginning of the 20th century during Prohibition. Starting in the early 1960s modern winemaking pioneers planted vineyards in south central Oregon and the more northern Willamette Valley. Pinot Noir did well in the cool microclimates of Oregon, and by the late 1960s the state was already earning a reputation for its artisanal Pinot Noirs. By the 1970s innovative Oregon viticulturalists were traveling to Burgundy for Pinot Noir clones, and to Alsace for Pinot Blanc clones. Today the state has about 20,000 acres planted to wine grapes and more than 400 wineries. Pinot Noir remains the state’s most celebrated wine, followed by Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Gris. The Willamette Valley just south of Portland is Oregon’s most acclaimed wine producing region.

This red wine is relatively light and can pair with a wide variety of foods. The grape prefers cooler climates and the wine is most often associated with Burgundy, Champagne and the U.S. west coast. Regional differences make it nearly as fickle as it is flexible.