Archery Summit Winery

Archery Summit Winery Archery Summit makes some of the highest rated, best known wines in Oregon. When Gary Andrus left the winery in 2000, a new winemaker and management team stepped in. This month, that team releases the first wines they were responsible for, from harvest through release.   New Era for Archery Summit Winery By Cole Danehower Oregon Wine Report It's "business as usual" at Archery Summit in Dundee. That's both the skillfully delivered message of management and-if my recent tasting of both the 2000 and 2001 vintages is any evidence-the message of the wines. Archery Summit has perhaps achieved more nationwide fame and respect than any other Oregon winery. That's been due in no small part to the high scores and publicity their wines have achieved in recent years. But it's also been partly due to the high-profile image of their recently "retired" founder, Gary Andrus.* Gary's flair for both marketing and winemaking (he released the first widely distributed $100 bottling of Oregon pinot noir) attracted lots of attention for Archery Summit. It was natural, therefore, that many people wondered how the winery would change in his absence. As we stood outside the Archery Summit Estate Vineyard, Sean Carlton, Archery Summit's general manager, Emily Stoller, the winery's marketing and PR manager, and I talked about the winery's future. L to R- Emily Stoller, Sean Carlton, Anna Matzinger "The Vines Haven't Gone Anywhere" "There has been an interesting transition with Gary leaving," admits Sean, "because he was obviously such a strong personality and visionary for the winery. But honestly, this is why we feel," he says, sweeping his gaze out across the Estate Vineyards in full flush of veraison, "that as much as Gary's departure is significant, it's not overly significant." He continues: "Gary's real genius at Archery Summit was putting his knowledge into the vineyards. Even though Gary has left, the vines haven't gone anywhere. The management philosophy in the vineyards is continuing on. Gary did it right. He made the right selection of the newer clones and the right selection of the spacing and we have now had enough experience over the last eight years that we're confident the quality will remain the same." A Continued Focus on Quality Maintaining the quality of Archery Summit's wines has been a concern to everybody-including the financial owners of Archery Summit and Pine Ridge, the two wineries Gary and his then-wife Nancy Andrus founded. "Leucadia has been involved since the very beginning of the winery," says Emily about the winery's financial partners, "and they've always been very back seat partners-they didn't want to be seen as a corporate-type winery." "The one thing that they made really clear to us from the start," reinforces Sean, "was not to ever do anything to sacrifice the quality of the wines that are coming out of the winery." So, when the Archery Summit winemaking staff decided that they wanted to do a larger proportion of their ferments in wood, they asked for a new investment in large wooden fermenters to replace a few steel fermenters. They got it. No doubt, it helps that the President of the combined Pine Ridge and Archery Summit wineries is a wine person-not a financial functionary. George Scheppler, who was named President and CEO of the combined wineries in February, 2002, had previously been President of Baron Philippe de Rothschild (CA) Inc. and co-CEO of the Opus One Winery joint venture in Oakville, CA. "The key thing is that we continue to be focused on quality," reinforces Sean. Vintage 2000 Wines Walking through the Archery Summit winery, there are very few clear signs of change. Some space has been cleared for the new wood fermenters, and a few barrels have been moved around, but otherwise all seems normal. And so it seems with the wines. After our tour I sat down with Sean and Emily to taste through the Archery Summit 2000 Pinot noirs. No doubt about it, these were simply superb wines, continuing Archery Summit's reputation for outstanding quality. Here are my tasting notes for the four Archery Summit estate Pinots: 2000 Archery Summit Premier Cuvée Nice crimson-colored core with watery pink edges. Mellow, very soft vanilla biscuit edge to the aromas with a nice earthy foundation-and a slight stem/herb note. Tastes of soft violet with a flower-petal soft texture. Sweet dark red fruits and big tannins on the mid palate, though it softens somewhat into a deliciously sweet cherry and toasty oak finish. 2000 Archery Summit Renegade Ridge Richly hued black-purple color. Somewhat subdued earthy, dusty aromas. Bright and fresh, the wine is surprisingly light in the mouth, with lavender flower notes and candied black cherry fruitiness. A bit of a bite around the edges of the tongue and at the back of the mouth speak to a strong structure and ample tannins, but the finish carries a lot of sweet fruit nevertheless. 2000 Archery Summit Arcus Lush and velvety dark red/black color is gorgeously intense. Full smells of smoke and herbs, dried flowers and earth, with a hint of soap, Subtle and smooth in the mouth with a slow attack-no big up-front fruit-but rather a gradual warming sensation of crushed blackberries, currants, and dark cherries. Big tannins, though quite fine and elegant. Lots of black fruit and anise on the mouth-drying finish. Never an obvious wine, it has great complexity and grace. 2000 Archery Summit Red Hills Strong deep red color. High notes of sassafrass and cedar on the nose combine with lush Pinot fruit character. Plush texture with notes of vanilla crème, ripe red raspberries, some cherry, and a fresh leathery earthiness. Elegantly structured and finely balanced with acids and tannins that are crisp and strong, but never overbearing. The finish is long and shows graham cracker, mineral and leather notes sandwiched between red fruit flavors. Stylish and intriguing. *Retired from Archery Summit, at least-Gary has recently purchased a Pinot noir vineyard in New Zealand! Tasting Archery Summit's 2001 Wines With New Winemaker Anna Matzinger By Cole Danehower Oregon Wine Report Avalon Contributing Writer "We have a good system here," says Anna Matzinger, Archery Summit's newly appointed winemaker, "it's pretty dreamy, actually!" She should know, after all, her experience of winery work extends around the globe. Anna began her winemaking career working as a lab technician for Beringer Vineyards in Napa Valley, California. Her experience also includes harvests and winemaking in Marlborough, New Zealand, Margaret River and Hunter Valley, Australia and Dry Creek, California. She joined Archery Summit in 1999, becoming Assistant Winemaker the next year-and now two years later she is helping lead Archery Summit into a new era as Winemaker. "Anna has a great passion for the wines of Archery Summit," says Sean Carlton, Archery Summit's general manager. "When it became time to hire a new winemaker we did a pretty extensive search. We looked into Burgundy, we looked into California, but we decided that the uniqueness of Oregon really meant the next winemaker at Archery Summit had to come from Oregon. We soon realized that the core of Archery Summit was our 80 different vineyard blocks of Pinot noir in our four estate vineyards, and that no one knew better how they all worked in our program than Anna. The best winemaker for Archery Summit was already here!" A quietly confident woman who seems to prefer letting her wines speak for themselves, Anna nevertheless admits to a "low level of anxiety" about her new position. She is conscious of being in the public eye, following two highly respected predecessors at one of the most prestigious wineries in the Pacific Northwest. "It is good to have been part of all this for the past few years," she says of her experience at Archery Summit, "and to have seen the evolution and understand the importance of the history." Anna's 2001 Vintage Anna was intimately involved in the making of Archery Summit's 2001 wines as assistant winemaker, and as we taste through her wines still in barrel, she expresses clear opinions about their characteristics. But also, we will taste today some of the first evidence of Anna's individual style: she is now responsible for the final blends of lots that will constitute the winery's five bottlings: Arcus, Estate, Red Hills, Renegade Ridge, and the Premier Cuvée. And today, we will taste her first independent blend. Blending is one of the keys to Archery Summit's success: seventy percent of the winery's production comes from their Premier Cuvée label. This wine is comprised of lots from all of the estate vineyards, and represents the best overall expression of the vintage at Archery Summit. In past vintages, this wine has earned top scores from major wine publications, including being named as one of the 100 best wines of 1998 by The Wine Spectator. But Anna's blending challenge doesn't stop there. Even the single vineyard wines require careful melding of individual lots from within the vineyard in order to achieve both a balanced wine, and one that best expresses the site and vintage. For the 2001 vintage, Anna has compiled the Arcus blend as her first independent expression. In the 2002 vintage, all the wines will reflect the combination of her personal palate, the Archery Summit style, and the individual site expression and vintage variation. And in the wines we are about to taste, it is that vintage variability that stands out most prominently. "2001 is different-very different-from the 2000s," says Anna. "In 2000 we had a lot of tannin to deal with. We had a lot of thick skins on the berries, so we had tremendous concentration. Within the second day of cold soak the tanks were inky black with color. In contrast, the 2001 vintage had thinner skins, so a higher juice to skin ratio, meaning we got less concentration overall. We had a lot of hand-wringing as we went through eight or nine, or even ten-day cold soaks waiting for the color to show in the tanks-it just didn't happen as readily." Tasting last year's vintage in barrel just before this year's vintage is harvested can be a perilous proposition. In this case the Arcus sample that Anna had drawn has also just been racked (moved to barrel). "It's a little discombobulated," she apologized. She needn't have. The wine I tasted showed sweet red fruit flavors mixed with a healthy dose of wood tannins, along with an aroma of dried flowers. "We haven't changed the 100 percent new French oak regime," explained Anna, "but this has a greater proportion of barrels from Daumier rather than our traditional Francois Freres cooper." The result, says Anna, is that the sweeter components in the wine show more readily. "The Daumier doesn't compete so much with the floral aromatics that we see a lot of in Arcus." The next wine, Renegade Ridge, had been racked "just moments ago," said Anna as she slipped some into our glasses. "Renegade Ride is southeast facing," she explained. "It gets the morning sun, but less of the intense afternoon heat. Because of that it has a slightly different profile-more delicate, I believe." I found the wine to have an interesting fresh aspect, with higher toned red fruit than the Arcus and an intriguing leathery character. It definitely showed less color than the Arcus, and an even more flowery aroma. Perhaps not as weighty in the mouth as the Arcus, it nevertheless carried the trademark Archery Summit depth. Next up was the Premier Cuvée, which Anna pointed out had just been returned to barrel the day before. I could hardly tell. My most immediate reaction was to comment on how complete the wine felt. A bit fuller and broader than the Renegade Ridge, it had some of he intensity of the Arcus, but with additional earthiness. As the wine sat in my mouth, I couldn't help but notice that the Cuvée already seemed well balanced and integrated. Anna nodded. "It seemed like this year in the cellar, the wines evolved faster than in previous years. Not only were they changing more rapidly toward their end point, they were changing more frequently, sometimes it seemed like weekly. They were busy evolving, more than in the 2000s, I think because they are more delicate wines than the 2000s." Perhaps the 2001 wines are more delicate-and Anna's comment bears out my own experience with the vintage-but even so, the Estate sample she poured next showed a big and complex wine that left me searching for its more "delicate" parts. Full and rich, with lots of black fruit and spice, the Estate didn't seem quite as complete as the Premier Cuvée-it had more noticeable tannins and seemed a tad awkward-but definitely more dense and weighty. Saving for last what was, for me, the best, Anna finally poured a sample of Red Hills. Even in this young and awkward state, the signature spice, earth, and toast notes stood out strongly, complementing a more subdued dark fruitiness. With hints of chocolate and tobacco, the Red Hills tasted delicious, and yet it was in a teasing frame of mind, holding back some of the power that is part of its terroir, awaiting further development. All in all, the Archery Summit 2001 wines seemed to be exactly what you would expect: typical of the vintage (less concentrates, a bit fatter) and typical of their terroir (dark fruit, lots of earth and spice). And that is what put a smile on Anna's face! Archery Summit Winery   Building for The Future It is clear from the 2001 wines that Archery Summit continues to produce superb wines. And yet, over time, they are bound to evolve as Anna begins to put her personal stamp on them. But, it is unlikely that they will change dramatically: Anna has no visions of overhauling a successful formula. Rather, Anna will work to incrementally improve the wines each year, even as she reacts to each vintage's challenges. For example, one change she's already begun is boosting the amount of wine that undergoes fermentation in wood. "We like what it does to the overall mouth feel," she explains. "It's almost as if-and we haven't measured this in any particular way-it's almost as if the species of tannin you get from a stainless steel fermentation are fairly homogeneous, verses the species of tannins you get from wood fermentation, which seem to be heterogeneous. It's like at a beach where you have grains of sand of all different sizes-if those were tannins, that's what we seem to get from the wood fermenters." This added complexity Ana finds desirable. "Somehow the wood fermenters seem to stretch out and widen the palate. Instead of just one tannin expressing itself, with wood many more seem to come out. It makes the palate more complex. Yeah, we like that!" These are the kinds of evolutionary changes Anna envisions. With a heritage of quality in her hands, the judgment it takes to improve, and the confidence that she can have an impact on Archery Summit, Anna is looking forward to taking Archery Summit wines to their next level of quality.