PHILOSOPHY

• Defining our terroir with our wines

• Wines both for daily enjoyment and cellaring

• Winemaking with a team of dedicated winemakers

• Excellent vineyard site with adventurous varietals

• Time-honored production methods

• Family-owned

• Local energy

Elevage

Our barrel room, tucked into the side of the hill, houses our pinot noir in cool and humid conditions. We use mainly French oak, though we have a small selection of Oregon barrels.

We age all the pinot noir in barrel for at least nine months and the reserves for at least 16.

After racking and before nine months in barrel, Michael and Brad taste through the cellar together to select the reserve and grand reserve lots. They pick these wines based on aromatic potential, aging potential, and broad, pleasing palates, then combine their favorite clones and barrels for the most complex future wine. The 2007 reserve is 50% new oak and the grand reserve 100% new oak.

Vinification

Of course, our winemaking begins in the vineyard applying what we’ve learned from the wine in our barrels to the needs of the plants. But when it’s time for harvest, we make sure each cluster is treated carefully—if it makes the cut.

We harvest by hand and deliver the grapes to the winery in five-gallon buckets, eliminating all juicing and exposure to deleterious yeast and enzymatic degradation before proc essing. We hand-load the sorting table, where we take out unripe clusters or clusters with any damage.

From the sorting table, the grapes are usually destemmed and fall, whole berry, to the fermentation level. Some grapes skip the destemmer and enter fermentors for whole-cluster fermentation. They undergo a cold soak of up to six days, then begin fermentation either by inoculation of different varieties or natural yeast depending on the batch. Illahe uses over 40 fermentation vessels to increase complexity, and punches down the cap by tool and by foot.

From there, the finished product is drained and then scooped carefully down to the press level, leaving the gross lees and seeds behind. We press gently in a wooden basket press, only retaining enough tannin in pressing for aging.

Our whites are at times destemmed and soaked overnight and at times pressed whole-cluster. They are fermented cooly and slowly in stainless steel.

Illahe Vineyards and Winery 3275 Ballard Road Dallas, OR 97338 phone : 503.831.1248 fax : 503.831.1237