Domaine South
California & Oregon Wine Tasting
Spectacular new releases from Stolpman Winery of Ballard Canyon and delicious Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs. All perfect accompaniments to your holiday spread!
Special Guest, Allaina Nielsen of International Wines
Friday, November 13th, 4pm - 6pm
$20 per person
256-759-9952 to Reserve
The Wines
2024 Stolpman Vineyards Estate Grown Chenin Blanc, Ballard Canyon, California $41.99
In 2016, we sought out a rare strain of “yellow” Chenin Blanc that turns color before it reaches peak ripeness. Once yellow, the resulting wine becomes substantial and mouth-filling rather than creating a leaner, crisper style. We spent six vintages refining our winemaking approach to Chenin Blanc under our experimental “Combe” label. We then launched the 2023 Stolpman Vineyards Estate Chenin Blanc and anyone who tasted the massively rich, decadent white wine fell in love. With our 2024 follow up effort, the wine is fancier and more delicate, another rockstar in the ever so compelling quiver of Stolpman white wines!
Healthy winter rain, almost mirroring 2023 precipitation pattern, set us off on a relatively late bud break. The vines naturally set a lighter crop than 2023, and minimal cluster thinning was needed as the vines had already balanced themselves. Summer proved beautifully moderate and weather didn’t warm up until the second week of September. We took two harvest passes through the Chenin rows, an early pass, cherry-picking yellow fruit before the grapes lost acidity, and then we gave remaining clusters another 3 days to tan.
High-toned apple and lemon-lime with taut melon flesh streaking through the palate. The firmness softened with fizzy, titillating citrus. Kissed with a richer Armagnac and crem flair, always a “tell” of a fine Chenin. Deceptively rich and mouth-filling as the wine floats through the palate so easily. An effortless, graceful swoosh through the mouth, the 2024 Chenin beautifully fits the bill for a smooth, medium-bodied white wine.
2024 Stolpman Vineyards Vin Gris, Ballard Canyon, California $27.99
Stolpman’s Unfiltered Vin Gris
Unbridled with concern over categorizing this wine as a Red or a Rose, we’ve pursued the heights of pure deliciousness in our Vin Gris since 2017.
Uncrushed, left whole cluster for two weeks. The untouched grapes sit exposed to air, not carbonic, to allow for supple roundness and secondary flavor and texture to naturally evolve.
For the second vintage in a row, we’ve settled on the blend of 70% Gamay and 30% Trousseau, but the 2024 shows more ripeness and depth due to the vintages low yield.
Healthy winter rain, almost mirroring 2023 precipitation pattern, set us off on a relatively late bud break. The vines naturally set a lighter crop than 2023, and minimal cluster thinning was needed as the vines had already balanced themselves. Summer proved beautifully moderate and weather didn’t warm up until the second week of September. Trousseau and Gamay both steadily marched towards ripeness together, and we snagged both in the wee hours of September 6th. The lower yields of 2024 are especially apparent in the augmented ripeness and concentration of the 2024 Vin Gris.
High-toned fruit punch perfection over firmer cranberry and boysenberry crunchiness. With a quenching zip of acid and tannin, the wine blazes a streak straight through the mouth to a lightweight carbon fiber framework finish. Warming up with air, more piercing, deeper red fruits emerge and the wine becomes weightier: a heavy ground fog wrapping around the hills beneath an ultra-bright sunrise overhead. The perfect hybrid between rosé and red.
2024 Stolpman Vineyards Estate Grown Trousseau, Ballard Canyon, California $32.99
Stolpman’s Jura Inspired Trousseau
Trousseau’s typical large, thin-skinned grapes deliver one of the lightest, most delicate red wines from the entire estate. First produced in 2014 under our experimental “Combe” line of wines, the Trousseau vines have slowly adapted to life in our arid limestone, producing slightly denser, riper wines now that they are mature.
Healthy winter rain, almost mirroring 2023 precipitation pattern, set us off on a relatively late bud break. The vines naturally set a lighter crop than 2023, and minimal cluster thinning was needed as the vines had already balanced themselves. Summer proved beautifully moderate and weather didn’t warm up until the second week of September. We nailed the early-ripening Trousseau harvest on September 19th just a week into the warm weather.
A lavender haze hangs below billowy clouds of tropical and red fruit essence. One of the lightest, easiest, most effortless wines produced out of any varietal grown on Stolpman Vineyards. The barrels selected for the 2024 Trousseau show a refined smoothness, no arms or legs, no perceptible tannin – just the magic touch!
So light and airy it rises above typical fruit and juice descriptions, as the sensations remain so delicately aromatic through the mouth. While such a light profile could be fleeting, a captivating tang and energy beckons one back.
A dangerous parallel to draw, the 2024 trousseau contains the delicate prettiness I chase in Premier Cru burgundy from cool vintages.
2022 Fullerton Winery Five Faces Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon $34.99
This wine is a true Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. We blend barrels from our best vineyards to make a wine that showcases the diversity of the valley both in terms of climate and soils. About 50% of the wine is grown on marine-sediments, 43% on volcanic basalt, and 7% on windblown loess. The vineyards spread from the very north to the south of the valley, including some of the warmest and coolest growing regions. In the winery we use varying techniques depending on the block the grapes come from, some 100% whole cluster fermentations, some roto-barrel fermentations, some extended maceration, and a mix of punchdowns, pumpovers, and rack-and-returns. The wine was aged in 5% new oak for 16 months before being bottled unfined and cross-flow filtered.
Brilliant garnet ruby in the glass. The nose is complex with strawberry preserves, blackberry, oregano, toasted sage, mushroom, wildflowers, and graphite. The palate is balanced with medium mouthfeel, smooth tannins, and inviting acidity. It shows darker fruits than the aromatics suggest backed by tilled soil, grilled game, rosehip and dark chocolate, with a mineral-saline finish.
92 Owen Bargreen
The 2022 ‘Five FACES’ is really well-done value from this slightly cooler vintage. Medium-bodied tart red fruits march on the palate, alongside bergamot and forest floor accents. Smooth and silky, with good minerality, enjoy now and over the next eight to ten years. Drink 2025-2032
92 James Suckling
Juicy and expressive, with layers of pomegranate, black raspberries, hints of cedar and a touch of baking spice. Medium-bodied with a gentle tannic grip, while bright acidity keeps everything in balance. Soft, lingering finish. Drink or hold.
92 IWR (International Wine Report
The 2022 Fullerton Pinot Noir Five Faces from the Willamette Valley bursts from the glass with vibrant notes of ruby plum, crushed strawberry, and subtle forest herbs, framed by a hint of Christmas spice. Medium-bodied and supple, it delivers bright, well-integrated acidity with fine tannins and a smooth, gently persistent finish that keeps the wine lively and effortlessly drinkable.
2023 Purple Hands Lone Oak Ranch Pinot Noir, WIllamette Valley, Oregon $28.99
Purple Hands Lone Oak Ranch is a classic example of an elegant and balanced Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Featuring notes of rhubarb, watermelon, cassis, cocoa, cinnamon, clove, pomegranate, raspberry, cherry, wild flower, sage, and bramble. Very food friendly and will pair with a wide variety of dishes.
93Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Pinot Noir Lone Oak Ranch is a blend of fruit from the West Wind and Haakon Lenai vineyards. It pours a ruby/magenta color and is sunny and expressive, with notes of black cherries, raspberries, dark wet stones, crushed purple flowers, and light peppery spice. It fills the palate with ripe tannins, balanced acidity, and an expansive feel.
93James Suckling
Aromatic and elegant, this has aromas and flavors of wild mushrooms, cloves, cedar and wild cherries. It’s medium-bodied, bright and fresh, with excellent tension and a tight tannin frame.
93Wine Spectator
Expressive and handsomely sculpted, with rich raspberry and guava flavors accented by dusky spices and black tea. Builds tension toward refined tannins.
2024 Stolpman So Fresh Love You Bunches Red, Santa Barbara County, California $26.99
Carbonically Fermented Sangiovese. Primarily from Stolpman Estate Vineyard and Ruben Solorzano’s vineyard (Ballard Canyon AVA and Happy Canyon AVA)
Love You Bunches Sangiovese represents a decades long evolution in our winemaking as we grew more confident in the raw concentration of our arid limestone terroir. Through experimentation, we learned that our red wines remained dark, coating, and rich even with the gentlest skin extraction. The wines had more delicate aromas, purity, and the tannin was finer and more integrated. This led us to ponder, “what if we didn’t crush our red grapes at all?”
We first produced a Carbonic Sangiovese in 2013, and those that tried it fell in love with the delightful, light bodied, chillable profile. After a friend’s wedding in 2016, the name “Love You Bunches” was born, a pun about the delicate hand-harvesting required to keep every grape whole for fermentation. All “So Fresh” carbonic wine labels are written by our beloved vineyard manager, Ruben Solorzano.
Healthy winter rain, almost mirroring 2023 precipitation pattern, set us off on a relatively late bud break. The vines naturally set a lighter crop than 2023, and minimal cluster thinning was needed as the vines had already balanced themselves. Summer proved beautifully moderate and weather didn’t warm up until the second week of September. We harvested Sangiovese for 2024 Love You Bunches throughout the steady warm spell.
Nailing a high wire of open, lovely, inviting ripeness backed by a taut tangy crunch. 2024 is one of the denser vintages of Love You Bunches Sangiovese, harkening back to the origin vintages of the teens. Tasting the wine upon release, I’m brought right back to tasting whole grapes as we dug out the carbonic tanks. A whimsical cherry cola note gives the wine broad appeal over a more serious “sangre” carnal note.
From the aromatic, juicy nose and front palate, the wine levitates into a lighter form through the mid palate. In the purity of its youth, an adult tannin structure punctuates the finish and that dryness will integrate beautifully through the summer of 2025; perfect timing for these happy bottles of love to be consumed with sunshine and grilled meats.