St Innocent Winery, Oregon - save the trees!!!!!

[Serge Birbrair]

We made the short run and visited St. Innocent Winery, Oregon. I wish we didn't. There are more wood in their wines than fit in the bottle, and this includes whites we tasted.

• 2006 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Yamhill County (8/6/2008)
  Tasted at the windery. Patricia Green, Ken Wright and others who get grapes from this vineyard and tasted by me - you can sleep well, St. Innocent is not your competition. Bitter finish was the most memorable thing about this one. (81 pts.)
• 2006 St. Innocent Chardonnay Anden - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (8/6/2008)
  Tasted at the winery. Oak masks the grape but Chard butterness still sticks out. Somebody should pinch the winemaker and tell him that this is Oregon and not California. (79 pts.)
• 2006 St. Innocent Pinot Blanc Freedom Hill Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (8/6/2008)
  Tasted at the winery. Hard to guess grape, oak masks it all.
• 2006 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Temperance Hill - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (8/6/2008)
  Tasted at the winery. Let's all join Green Party and hug the trees. This wine is made for beavers, not humans.
• 2006 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Villages Cuvée - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (8/6/2008)
  Tasted at the winery. Those oaks would be better off in the forest growing up and cleaning the air. Villages...if this is not a pretencios crap, than I don't know what pretencious crap is. What "villages" in Oregon!? Did winemaker thought he was in Burgundy? He needs to be waken up.
  Lots of heat/alcohol on the finish. This is NOT "Villages", no sirrie Bob.
• 2006 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Zenith - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (8/6/2008)
  Tasted at the winery. Feminine, rounded tannins, no muscles and less noticable oak,
  I bought 2 bottles.

[Birger Vejrum]

[*]2006 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Zenith - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (8/6/2008)
Tasted at the winery. Feminine, rounded tannins, no muscles and less noticable oak,
I bought 2 bottles.[/list]

Hi Serge,
Feminine!! I also use that word for a wine that is easy drinkable
What does the word feminine mean to you. ( Wine and not woman )

Ciao
Birger

[Serge Birbrair]

It means delicate, but not diluted, rounded and not "bony" with lots of parts sticking out, flimsy and easy to drink with no major muscles.

I say we are on the same page.

[Mark Vlossak]

As these are my wines, I would like to comment on the unkind comments made by Serge.
The amount of oak actually used does not correspond with the amount suggested in the reviews.
A plethora of comments by many reviewers over almost two decades suggest that Serge's comments are highly unusual.
I aspire to make wines that reflect the lessons learned from Burgundy and believe that my wines reflect the details of terroir and vintage.

Here are some specific comments:
The 2006 Chardonnay, Freedom Hill contains NO new oak. It is fermented entirely in used French barrels.
The 2006 Pinot noir, Villages Cuvée has 20% new oak.
The 2006 Pinot noir, Temperance Hill has 28% new oak.

Serge's favorite wine, the 2006 Pinot noir, Zenith Vineyard has 57% new oak. I believe the the major flaw of that wine is that is has too much new oak. However I initially produced 11 barrels of Zenith wine, did not like 4 of them (all in used barrels), and reduced the production to 7 barrels, changing the amount of new wood from my intended 35% to 57%. While bottling the best barrels, I would prefer to limit the oak in this wine to 30-33% in the future.

The 2006 Pinot noir, Shea Vineyard is the most complex and layered wine that I have released to date. That is to say that it needs to most aging, air, and careful consideration to understand its truly Burgundian profile. It is the wine that least relies on big, obvious fruit and excessive oak and would be the least 'American' in style.

It is my hope that others reading this thread would make their own evaluation of my efforts and perhaps reject the simplistic and inaccurate moniker "save the trees" as a descriptor that inaccurately labels the wines that I have worked for two decades to understand.

Sincerely,
Mark Vlossak
winemaker
St. Innocent Winery

[Mark Vlossak]

Another comment:
The 2006 Pinot blanc was fermented 95% in stainless steel. There was only 60 gallons out of over 1500 gallons that was barrel fermented. This was done to add texture to the purity of the stainless steel dominated wine.

The wine was aged on the lees for 8 months, which is more that most American Pinot blancs, but similar to many Alsace produced blancs. This is the style of blanc that I want to produce - a wine that is textured and compatible with a wide range of foods, especially shellfish. There is certainly a mark on the wine by the lees contact. Marked by oak is inaccurate.

Mark Vlossak
winemaker
St. Innocent Winery

[Serge Birbrair]

Dear Mark,
and why are you concerned what "Unkind Serge" thinks of your wines?
"Serge" is banned from all but 2 wine boards
Wine Pages
and
CellarTracker
and this wine board is officially closed for all intent and purposes.

"Unkind Serge" has no standing and no voice in the wine community,
as I dedicate my time and energy to crooked bankers who hurt me and the rest of us much more than overoaked wines.

As I always advised everybody who asked:
"Don't sweat the small stuff"
and me not liking your wines IS a small stuff in the grand scheme of things.

[Serge Birbrair]

Marked by oak is inaccurate.

Mark Vlossak
winemaker
St. Innocent Winery

Of course it is inaccurate, as the word I used was MASKED by oak, not MARKED by oak.

[Serge Birbrair]

It is my hope that others reading this thread would make their own evaluation of my efforts and perhaps reject the simplistic and inaccurate moniker "save the trees" as a descriptor that inaccurately labels the wines that I have worked for two decades to understand.

Sincerely,
Mark Vlossak
winemaker
St. Innocent Winery

and to sum it all up:
Mark, do you really expect anybody to make up their mind about wine based on what you wrote or I wrote and not the actual mouth-feel???
I respect your right to make wines ANY way you feel like them, but for crying out loud,
1) why in the God's name do you want the readers judge the wines based on WORDS and not TASTES??

2) I appreciate you not arguing with me that "Villages" in relation to Oregon wines is pretentious use of word and if this is any comfort to you,
I don't like Jamie Kutch's 2006 wines (tasted June 24th, 2008) too, and even if it seems I am with a vast minority, I still don't like them and can easily live with myself not being the part of the majority. This is MY taste and I am sticking with it.