2021 Limited Edition Vitae Springs Pinot Noir/Pinot Gris Co-ferment

Region: Salem Hills < Willamette Valley < Oregon

Grapes: Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming; 45-year old own-rooted vines on volcanic jory soil; whole cluster co-fermentation in stainless steel and aging in acacia casks; zero added SO2; bottled unfined/unfiltered with 35ppm So2; 110 cases; 12.9% ABV

Winemaker: Chad & Bree Stock, MW

Lady in charge: Bree Stock has been a Master of Wine (MW) since 2016, holding one of the highest qualifications in the wine industry. She is Oregon’s first MW and the only female MW in the Pacific Northwest (and only around 400 total in the whole world)!

LTD.+ is the evolution of Chad Stock's (formerly made the Minimus wines) work with unique varietals and Oregon terroir.  This small-scale project is done in 50/50 partnership with his wife Bree, a badass Master Somm, wine educator, board member of Demeter Biodynamic, and now winemaker.   This project showcases Oregon’s unique and ever-changing grape diversity, while allowing Chad and Bree to go deeper into low-intervention winemaking.  They partner with inspired farmers to source organic++ fruit, mostly alternative varieties, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Ltd.+ Wines are unconventional even by Oregon standards. Each wine is a non-repeating experiment with assorted varieties, fermentation, and/or maturation techniques that break formal winemaking conventions.  And Chad Stock, quietly intense, with a laser-sharp focus and insane memory for details, is somewhat of a mad scientist -- Bree, with her formal training, farming focus and hands-on experience in storied vineyards around the globe, keeps him grounded. But not too much -- as with Minimus, at Ltd.+ there are no rules and they get to play with whichever grape, method or fermentation vessel they fancy.

This pretty chillable red is fairly straightforward as far as our Ltd.+ experiments go -- here red and white grapes are co-fermented, whole cluster, in stainless steel, with some carbonic action.  Bright and juicy, it tastes like a harvest bounty of cherries, strawberries and sunshine, its late summer bounciness tempered by a refreshing orange peel bitterness and a jolt of minerality.  It retains all of the Pinor Noir feels, but lightened, lifted by the Pinot Gris.  Pinot lovers will totally dig this.  

SERVE LIGHTLY CHILLED