huevos con vino

Lachini Vineyards is relatively new, assuming your scale of measurement is broader than the release date of the movie Sideways.  Started in 2001, this winery hadn’t registered with me until a few weeks before Thanksgiving.  I searched around for what the search engines regard as the “best Pinots in Oregon” and Lachini was one of the hits I got back.  In this case, the Internet was correct: Lachini is certainly among the best Pinot-focused wineries in Oregon.

 

Grape vines outside Lachini 

We paid Lachini a visit the day after Thanksgiving, 2006.  The winery abuts Bergstrom and is also very close to Adelsheim, so they are certainly in well-known company on Calkins Lane.  From the road, you cannot see much of anything; the road rises up to meet you, so to speak.

At the end of the lengthy gravel driveway, a lovely winery building awaited us.  When we visited, we noticed a large pavilion tent set up out in front of the winery, ostensibly to accomodate all the visitors.  The winery is typically “by appointment only” like so many of the high-end, low-production Pinot wineries in this part of the country.

When I say “low production,” I’m talking about a total harvest of about 3,500 cases of wine in 2006, up from about 2,550 in 2005.  Nearly half of that production seems to go into the Family Estate Pinot Noir, a blend of their different blocks of Estate fruit.  Other wines include the Giselle (at 100 cases, this wine uses the best barrels of the vintage blended together), the Ana Vineyard and ‘S’ releases (both under 300 cases produced), and a Pinot Gris that is extremely limited (133 cases in 2005) and sold out.

Much of Lachini’s wines will probably sell out rapidly as they rely on a mailing list and point-of-sale approach so far.  I got the strong sense at this winery that the entire family was helping out: Ron and Marianne Lachini were there, along with a couple of parents and some friends who were pouring wine and collecting money.  The following photo gives you a sense of what it was like in the tent that afternoon: 

The crowd at Lachini, 11/24/06

The good folks at Lachini figured out a few of the best tactics for a successful tasting event on a busy day:

• Provide enough parking to match the approximate capacity of the tasting area
• Provide good snack food that pairs well with Pinot Noir, such as mild olives, bread, mild cheeses, and good dark chocolate truffles
• Offer free bottled water and wine alternatives to those who must drive or who don’t really want to drink
• Let everyone in without forcing them to pay; only charge those who taste
• Give each taster a terrific wine glass as part of the fee; include your logo on the glass
• Space out the different wines so you move in a discernible, logical order from wine to wine, preventing major queues at any one table
• Place one-page wine fact briefs at each table
• Educate your helpers so they can talk about wine as much or as little as the tasters want
• If you are the winemaker or winery owner, show up and press the flesh in person

Lachini did all of these things and more: They were so friendly and helpful, it was a fun experience to be there.  Even if the wine had been subpar somehow, I would have enjoyed myself.

But let me tell you: The wines at Lachini are fantastic!  They will have no trouble selling out every vintage of these wines.

• The ‘S’ is a great crowd-pleaser, with its smooth mouthfeel and delicious fruit aromas and flavors.  Women love this wine, and men are happy because they enjoy it too and because women love this wine.  Great with dark chocolate.
• The ‘Ana Vineyard’ is a massive Pommard browbeater.  I love this wine because it’s 13.4% alcohol and because it tastes like a French wine in all the best ways.  The ‘Ana Vineyard’ is focused on supple earthy flavors and, better yet, the subtleties behind the dusty, mushroomy textures.
• The ‘Family Estate’ is an excellent blend of all the Lachini Estate fruit.  This blend is in keeping with the Burgundian style of Pinot Noir rather than some of those California blends that feature 15% alcohol content or more.  Robust, delicious, clearly meant to be opened and consumed with food.
• The ‘Giselle’ wasn’t available when I visited; the price went up a lot since 2005 because, as the winery owner told me, he needs to better distinguish his “top of the line” wine from the rest of his offerings.
• The Pinot Gris sounds interesting but it was sold out and unavailable.

As I said earlier, Lachini is moving toward the mailing list allocation model for selling their wine.  I think many more wineries will be shifting in this direction as the market continues to expand for top quality Pinot Noir.  I also think that the more this progression occurs, the less inherent prestige each new winery will be accorded simply because they sell on allocation only.  If everyone is doing it, the differentiation value of mailing list allocation diminishes, although it won’t vanish altogether.

Lachini is a very promising young winery.  They have the right focus, attitude, and range of wines: They aren’t trying to be all things to all people.  I think it is commendable that they don’t release a “cheap” ($20-$25) Pinot Noir, although their ‘Family Estate’ release lacks sufficient price differentiation from the other more limited releases (the ‘S’ and ‘Ana Vineyard’ cost $42/bottle right now, same as the ‘Family Estate’).  Compared to other fairly new wineries in the Willamette Valley AVA, I believe Lachini stands an excellent chance for future success.  I know I’m looking forward to each successive vintage from them!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 8:46 am and is filed under winery profile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.