J Wrigley Vineyard
John Wrigley
McMinnville AVA
Willamette Valley, Oregon
14 acres of the finest Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
John Wrigley, hales from Burley, Idaho, where his family have worked their original pioneer land claim for over 100 years. John knows hard work, farming and extracting the best from the land. In 2005 John left Idaho for Oregon to pursue his winemaking dream. He soon settled on the Willamette Valley as the place he’d pursue making fine Burgundian style Pinot Noir. The hills and climate of Willamette Valley are perfect for Pinot Noir. The varied soils, higher elevations, ocean breeze, and diurnal shifts are ideal for developing exceptional fruit. John purchase his vineyard property in December 2006. Careful preparation and planting of the vineyard took an additional two years. The 2011 harvest was the first opportunity for John to offer mature fruit and make wine from the estate.
Bellpine and Gellatley soils tend to produce bolder black, cola, and chocolate fruit flavors. Jory soil on the other hand delivers brighter, red fruit, perfumy and mixed berry flavors. Western Oregon was once the floor of an 8000 foot deep sea. About 15 million years ago the Pacific and North American tectonic plate collided, lifting up the ocean floor creating the Coast Range and the Cascade Mountains where both the Willamette Valley and Anderson Valley AVAs are located. As the hills of these mountain ranges were formed the top layer of volcanic soil was exposed in some places and lower layers of sedimentary soil was revealed in others.
The vines are 100% Grafted Root Stock 3309 and 101-14, Sustainably Farmed, Non-irrigated, using a VSP Trellis method. The vineyard is Southeast facing at an elevation 600 to 725ft with a 12% slope. Combined this vineyard is laid out to maximize sun exposure as well as the cooling effects of the evening breeze and fog that rolls in from the Pacific coast.
In 2021, vintner Ludovic Lacourte and winemaker G.W. Lussier were seeking the finest Pinot Noir grapes from the Willamette to launch the Black Oak Ridge label. Our goal was to set the bar high for Black Oak Ridge. We wanted to make an exceptional Burgundian style wine that would age gracefully for a decade or more, be delicious upon release, and establish Black Oak Ridge as a label making exceptional wines. And so the search began for exceptional fruit that would become the 2022 vintage of Black Oak Ridge. We reached out to farmers, winemakers, and barrel suppliers asking for help identifying fruit for our purposes. J Wrigley vineyards and John Wrigley’s 828 clone keep surfacing as highly sought after fruit we should get our hands on if we could.
There are many legends and myths in the winemaking world and the legend of Dijon clone 828 is well known in Pinot Noir winemaking circles. It is known as a “Suitcase Clone”, hard to find vines that were smuggled into the US in 1964 and John Wrigley had cuttings from the original clones. 828 gives intensely flavored fruit with good color. It grows in small bunches and small to medium berries, and generally has a lower pH combined with high sugar production with earlier maturity than some clones. It possesses a fruit-forward character of blackberry and plum. Paired with Wadenswil for a more complex and balanced finished wine, 828 has the potential to make an elegant, sophisticated Burgundian Pinot Noir. Precisely the style of wine Ludo aims to produce for Black Oak Ridge.