Oregon Winemakers Collaborate on First Ever 5 x 5
“Cellar Crawl” Experiment
25 Pinot Noirs Showcase ‘The Hand vs. The Land’
Willamette Valley, Oregon (July 22, 2009) - Five renowned Oregon winemakers have tapped five Willamette Valley vineyards to create 25 unique expressions of Oregon’s signature Pinot Noir – these are the wines of the Cellar Crawl. Designed to explore how soil, geology and the winemaker’s approach impacts the expression of wine, this collection of 25 Oregon Pinot Noirs will be unveiled at the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC) held in Oregon’s Willamette Valley on July 24 – 26, and available for purchase as a set at the participating wineries.
“This is the first time that winemakers have joined forces and created a platform to help us better understand the influence that soil and individual style have on Oregon Pinot Noir,” says Ted Casteel of Bethel Heights Vineyard. “This project is about education and transparency, so we’re bringing it out of the cellar and making it available to the public.”
The five vineyard sources include Bethel Heights Southeast Block, Cristom Eileen Vineyard, Ken Wright Abbott Claim Vineyard, Penner-Ash Lia Vineyard and Soléna Willakia Vineyard, representing three Willamette Valley AVAs – Chehalem Mountain, Yamhill-Carlton and Eola Amity Hills – all known for their signature soil compositions.
“Both independent and collaborative, the Cellar Crawl concept is uniquely Oregon,” says Lynn Penner-Ash of Penner-Ash Wine Cellars. “We’ve been tasting wines as a group for more than a decade but our styles are quite different, so we started toying with the idea of stripping away all the variables to focus on the land, the grape, and the hand that crafts it.”
This limited edition set of 25 wines costs $1250, with $250 from each set sold going to the Parkinson Center of Oregon in support of winemaker Terry Casteel’s battle against Parkinson’s disease. Cellar Crawl wine sets will be available for purchase beginning July 24th at the participating wineries. For more information about the Cellar Crawl or the wineries, please contact:
Bethel Heights Vineyard
6060 Bethel Heights Road NW
Salem, OR 97304
Ph: 503.581.2262
Cristom Vineyards
6905 Spring Valley Road NW
Salem, OR 97304
Ph: 503.375.3068
Ken Wright Cellars
PO Box 190
Carlton, OR 97111
Ph: 503.852.7070
Penner-Ash Wine Cellars
PO Box 1207
Newberg, OR 97132
Ph: 503.554.5545
Soléna
213 South Pine
Carlton, OR 97111
Ph: 503.852.0082
Cellar Crawl Winemakers Pictured From Right: Ted Casteel (Bethel Heights Vineyard),
Laurent Montalieu (Soléna Cellars), Lynn Penner-Ash (Penner-Ash Wine Cellars),
Ken Wright (Ken Wright Cellars), Terry Casteel (Bethel Heights Vineyard)
& Steve Doerner (Cristom Vineyards).