2017 PINOT NOIR
LOT 63
An End, A Beginning
VINEYARD | Bethel Heights
CLONE | POMMARD
APPELLATION | EOLA-AMITY HILLS
WINEMAKER | Ben Casteel
HARVEST DATE | OCTOBER 9, 2017
BOTTLING | JANUARY 21, 2019
ALCOHOL | 13.5%
PRODUCTION | 60 BOTTLES / 5 cases
The Wine
In the beginning, when our current generation of winegrowers was just learning to walk, we cleared 25 acres of abandoned walnut trees at Bethel Heights and planted 25 acres of Pommard Pinot noir cuttings from Dick Erath’s vineyard. There, being ungrafted, they put down their own roots and flourished for almost four decades until phylloxera finally began to nibble around the edges, even as the vines were giving us the greatest wines of their entire career. Finally, following the 2017 harvest, the first two acres of original vines had to be pulled out. The fruit of their final vintage is in this wine.
Replanting will begin in the fall of 2019, and not one but three generations of the Casteel/Dudley/Webb family will see new plants put in the ground. With replanting comes excitement in the boundless potential of something new, but also the bittersweet recognition of something that will never again be the way it was.
The WInery
Bethel Heights Vineyard was established in 1977 in the Eola-Amity Hills by Ted Casteel, Terry Casteel, Pat Dudley and Marilyn Webb. In 2006 Ben Casteel, son of Terry and Marilyn, took over from his father as winemaker. Over the last forty years Bethel Heights has grown and evolved, but the original 50 acres of own-rooted Pinot noir and Chardonnay vines planted in the 1970s continue to provide the backbone of our estate-grown wines. Gnarly old vines, geologically complex hillside soils and direct impact from Æolian winds all conspire to create highly energized wines with depth of character and distinctive personalities.
Learn more about Bethel Heights Vineyard
Follow: @bethelheightsvineyard