2016 CHARDONNAY
Nautical Dawn
VINEYARDS | Bethel Heights, X Novo
blocks | Bethel Heights: High Wire (1977); X Novo: one 2-acre block (3000 vines per acre)
clones | Bethel Heights: Wente Selection; X Novo: 15 different clones, coharvested and cofermented
APPELLATION | EOLA-AMITY HILLS
WINEMAKERs | Ben Casteel and Ken Pahlow
HARVEST DATE | SEPTEMBER 15–18, 2016
BOTTLING | february 5, 2018
ALCOHOL | 13.15%
PRODUCTION | 5 cases
The Wine
Nautical Dawn begins when the sky becomes light enough to clearly distinguish it from land and water. In that twilight moment in the Eola-Amity Hills the sea seems especially close. As the marine breeze rises and blows in through our corridor to the west we can smell and taste the briny sea air, and we recognize that elusive saline quality in Chardonnay that grows in our neighborhood. That subtle hint of sea air is something we have much admired in each other’s Chardonnays and aspired to capture in this wine that we made together.
The WIneries
Bethel Heights Vineyard was established in 1977 in the Eola-Amity Hills by the Casteel-Dudley-Webb family. The estate winery was founded in 1984, and in 2006 our second-generation winemaker, Ben Casteel, came on board. Over the last forty years the vineyard has grown and evolved, but the original fifty acres of own-rooted Pinot noir and Chardonnay vines planted in the 1970s continue to provide the backbone of Bethel Heights estate-grown wines. Walter Scott Wines was launched in 2008 by partners Ken Pahlow and Erica Landon after years of living, studying and working within the Oregon wine industry. In 2009 they secured fruit from some great vineyards, primarily in the Eola-Amity Hills, and produced their first commercial wines. In 2012, they found a perfect little winery space next door to Bethel Heights Vineyard and moved in. Good neighbors and good friends: a perfect recipe for collaboration.