2017 PINOT NOIR
LOT 38
Son of a Bear
VINEYARD | Björnson
BLOCK | Kristjan's
clone | 777
APPELLATION | Eola-Amity Hills
WINEMAKER | Alex Fullerton
HARVEST DATE | SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
BOTTLING | MARCH 2019
ALCOHOL | 12.9%
PRODUCTION | 60 BOTTLES / 5 cases
The Wine
Born in Scandinavia and raised in Oregon, Alex Fullerton thought it prime to make a play-on-words bridging English with Scandinavian when labeling his inaugural vintage of Björnson Vineyard Pinot Noir. Björn is Scandinavian for “bear,” and son a suffix indicating patronymic lineage. Born of a corrupt but playful translation, Son of a Bear was written in masking tape on the fermentation tank. It proved popular enough with visitors to the winery that it made its way onto the barrels filled with the finished wine, and now graces the 2017 Auction bottles tapped from the best barrel of the lot.
Clocking in at 12.9% alcohol by volume, the wine is 40% whole cluster and 100% 777 Clone from Kristjan’s Block within Björnson Vineyard. It was allowed to cold soak for a week, after which native yeasts slowly started to ferment the grapes. We left the wine on skins post-fermentation for a one-month-long extended maceration, giving it over two months of total skin contact. The barrel selected for the Auction was a beautifully integrated new barrel which lends elegant structure, while letting the wine shine through uninhibited. The only additive is sulfur.
The Winery
Great wine speaks profoundly, a universal language transcending any one culture. Hailing from Northern Europe, the Fullerton family speaks many languages, and delights in sharing the language of wine with others. Fullerton Wines crafts elegant and distinctive Pinot noirs and Chardonnays that transport you to their place—Oregon’s Willamette Valley.