2020 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley
“It gives aromas of lemon cream, honeysuckle, toasted hazelnuts, and brioche with ripe Red Delicious apple and a whiff of quince paste. Medium-bodied, it has a lovely creamy texture in the mouth, giving flavors of ripe orchard and stone fruits with floral, honey, and nut accents. It has great juicy acidity and a long, layered finish.” – Erin Brooks, Wine Advocate.
Specs
Vintage: 2020
Varietal: Chardonnay
Appellation: Amity Hills, Willamette Valley
Elaboration: The 2020 Chardonnay is made from Dijon 76, Musque, and Old Wente clones, barrel fermented and aged in new and used French oak barrels for 12 months.
Alcohol: 13.5%
pH: 3.6
TA: 6.7 g/l
Residual Sugar: <0.1 g/l
Production: 60 cases
Winemaker: Kirk Ermisch
2021 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley
Tasting Notes
Celebrating our 10th vintage as an Oregon winery. A wine of independence made from grapes from a single vineyard in the Cascade foothills near Silverton in the Willamette Valley. Harvested by hand, destemmed, and cold-soaked on skins 24 hours. Pressed and fermented in new French oak barrels and held on its fine lees 6 months.
Specs
Vintage: 2021
Varietal: Chardonnay
Appellation: Willamette Valley
Clonal Selection: Dijon 76
Alcohol: 13.5%
Production: 54 cases
Producer Info
After making wine at BODEGA CALLE in Argentina for more than a decade, but having built our import business from Oregon, we thought it important to finally try our hand with the challenging varietal of Pinot Noir and soon thereafter added this Willamette Valley Chardonnay.
About the Wine
Our aim for this wine is to present a single facet of the Willamette Valley’s terroir in a standalone bottling of Amity Hillside Chardonnay. This is very much a hands-on project, Ermisch now does everything from crush to bottle at the new facility in Bend. We like that Oregon is known as the most similar growing region in the USA to Burgundy. Thus, our wines will grow and develop in the bottle for many years and will always be wines made to enjoy with food.
What’s Included
4-bottles:
2x 2020 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley
2x 2021 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley Case:
6x 2020 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley
6x 2021 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley
Price Comparison
Not all vintages for sale online, $371.88/case MSRP
At Elixir we take pride in our ability to produce a number of the wines we sell.
With our own Argentine winery stronger than ever (Bodega Calle & La Yunta), and more than 20 harvests under our belt, we decided to take our love for cool climate Pinot Noir to the logical next step making some here in our home state of Oregon.
Through the years, industry veterans, Robert Brittan and Steve Ryan have acted as our consulting winemakers. Today, winemaking is a collaborative father-daughter effort between Elixir President, Kirk Ermisch and his daughter Hannah, a trained winemaker. In 2019, production moved to Elixir Headquarters in Bend, OR upon completion of Ermisch’s boutique commercial winery.
Everyone in our small company has lent a hand in this project, from the sorting table, to cellar work, to bottling. We’ve always preferred complexity and character over power, and the Willamette Valley vineyard sources we’re utilizing reflect that with each passing year.
As with all the wines we make. Grapes are hand-picked, carefully fermented in separate lots in open top fermenters and then aged in French oak barrels for a year prior to bottling.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Ermisch Cellars Mini Vertical Chardonnay
4 bottles for $69.99 $17.50/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $169.99 $14.17/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
The best way to describe this is going to be pulling notes directly from the winery provided notes:
Creamy
Stone-fruited
Medium-bodied
All of those are true. This isn’t “buttery” on the taste – i don’t get any acetyl, but it does coat the tongue and is “creamy”. So yeah, it has a nice mouth feel.
Now to tease out the acid comments is a little more difficult – i want laser beam acid in my Chardonnay, which this doesn’t have. It’s bordering on plump and the 3.6 pH jives.
Gonna be up front and recommend a slightly above fridge temp on this bottle. Too cold and it seems it’s nothing but grapefruit pith and under ripe peach. Too warm and it gets gamey and green.
Alone, the wine works well. It’s easy drinking but still serious. I absolutely tried with every cheese i have open, and it worked best with Parmesan. The softer cheeses (Chevre, Fontina, Jack, and Pepper Jack) brought out the pithy nature too much. The Parm held its own nicely.
The label is very nice, the wax is difficult, and the cork is a beast! What is most stunning is how microscopic the production is – 60 cases? Have we had one quite that small before on Casemates?
Thanks all! I’ll leave the bottle corked in the fridge and see what it’s like tomorrow with lunch!
Interesting chardonnay. I don’t know about this winery and it’s unusual to be based in Bend (not a wine-growing region) but from their company page sounds like they were/are an international importer and many people do move to and retire in Bend as a great place in Central Oregon to live.
It says they do their crush at a facility in Bend meaning they are getting the fruit from Willamette Valley and trucking them over the hill. A few hours drive, no big deal, but unusual it seems. As their site mentions, Amity Hills is well-known for Pinot Noir but much less so for Chardonnay. AVA listed is the broader Willamette Valley and not a specific vineyard or sub-region. Would be interesting to know more about the chardonnay especially the various clones mentioned in one of the bottlings. I’m accustomed to Washington State chardonnay from various AVAs, but ones from Willamette Valley are fairly rare it seems. (and for white wines will often be Pinot Gris or Pinot Blanc rather than chardonnay.)
@pmarin writeup above mentions “a wine of independence made from grapes from a single vineyard in the Cascade foothills near Silverton”
Don’t know if that’s one or both. Cascade foothills was an area of evacuation in 2020.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
Ermisch Cellars Mini Vertical Chardonnay - $40 = 19.04%
2020 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley
Specs
2021 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay, Willamette Valley
Tasting Notes
Specs
Producer Info
About the Wine
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not all vintages for sale online, $371.88/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Jul 17 - Tuesday, Jul 18
Ermisch Cellars Mini Vertical Chardonnay
4 bottles for $69.99 $17.50/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $169.99 $14.17/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2020 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay
2021 Ermisch Cellars Chardonnay
Good evening fellow 'mates!
2020 Ermisch Willamette Valley Chardonnay
The best way to describe this is going to be pulling notes directly from the winery provided notes:
All of those are true. This isn’t “buttery” on the taste – i don’t get any acetyl, but it does coat the tongue and is “creamy”. So yeah, it has a nice mouth feel.
Now to tease out the acid comments is a little more difficult – i want laser beam acid in my Chardonnay, which this doesn’t have. It’s bordering on plump and the 3.6 pH jives.
Gonna be up front and recommend a slightly above fridge temp on this bottle. Too cold and it seems it’s nothing but grapefruit pith and under ripe peach. Too warm and it gets gamey and green.
Alone, the wine works well. It’s easy drinking but still serious. I absolutely tried with every cheese i have open, and it worked best with Parmesan. The softer cheeses (Chevre, Fontina, Jack, and Pepper Jack) brought out the pithy nature too much. The Parm held its own nicely.
The label is very nice, the wax is difficult, and the cork is a beast! What is most stunning is how microscopic the production is – 60 cases? Have we had one quite that small before on Casemates?
Thanks all! I’ll leave the bottle corked in the fridge and see what it’s like tomorrow with lunch!
@radiolysis the other one in this offer says only 54 cases!
@radiolysis @TimW Ok, so who’s wedding party at the vineyard drank up the other 6 cases?! Maybe it’s the better vintage
@radiolysis @TimW @ttboy23 I’m not referencing this wine but 2020 was a problematic vintage….
@kaolis was that the smoke taint year? unfortunately those are becoming far too common out here that i can’t really keep up.
@radiolysis Thanks to Woody Allen I can never think of the words ‘pith’ and ‘pithy’ the same way again.
/youtube Wood Allen pithy
EDIT The ‘it has great pith’ is about 2 1/2 minutes in.
@radiolysis Yeppers, lots of folks didn’t bottle 2020 or very little. Again, don’t know about this wine
Interesting chardonnay. I don’t know about this winery and it’s unusual to be based in Bend (not a wine-growing region) but from their company page sounds like they were/are an international importer and many people do move to and retire in Bend as a great place in Central Oregon to live.
It says they do their crush at a facility in Bend meaning they are getting the fruit from Willamette Valley and trucking them over the hill. A few hours drive, no big deal, but unusual it seems. As their site mentions, Amity Hills is well-known for Pinot Noir but much less so for Chardonnay. AVA listed is the broader Willamette Valley and not a specific vineyard or sub-region. Would be interesting to know more about the chardonnay especially the various clones mentioned in one of the bottlings. I’m accustomed to Washington State chardonnay from various AVAs, but ones from Willamette Valley are fairly rare it seems. (and for white wines will often be Pinot Gris or Pinot Blanc rather than chardonnay.)
Here is online page for 2020 chard:
https://www.elixirwinegroup.com/product/ermisch-chardonnay
Winemaker comments always welcome here!
@pmarin writeup above mentions “a wine of independence made from grapes from a single vineyard in the Cascade foothills near Silverton”
Don’t know if that’s one or both. Cascade foothills was an area of evacuation in 2020.
Well just fyi…the tasting note attributed to Wine Advocate/Erin Brooks is for the 2016, not either of these offerings.
fwiw
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
Ermisch Cellars Mini Vertical Chardonnay - $40 = 19.04%
Not a fan of the wax - not really a fan of capsules in general - maybe starting a “ban the capsules” website - but probably not.
Did anyone get a 2021 for ratting?
My next-day follow up. It’s more enjoyable after a re-cork in the fridge overnight. Less pithy, a little more balance, more acidic.
(2020 bottle)
@radiolysis
suggesting upside cellar potential?
@rjquillin Yep. That’s what I would think.