2023 Walter Scott - Chardonnay Willamette Valley Cuvee Anne (750ml)

Walter Scott Wines was founded in 2008 by husband-and-wife team Ken Pahlow and Erica Landon, who left careers in cellar work and fine-dining wine service to build a winery around their shared belief in Willamette Valley Chardonnay. Cuvée Anne is named for the grandmother who helped the pair get the winery off the ground in its earliest days, and it stands as a barrel selection meant to distill Ken and Erica's overall vision for the variety rather than spotlight any single vineyard. Their approach treats Chardonnay with the same site-driven seriousness most Oregon producers reserve for Pinot Noir.

This bottling blends fruit from several of the winery's most trusted sites, including Freedom Hill, X Novo, Sojourner, and Justice Vineyards, each contributing its own character to the finished wine. The grapes were fermented with ambient yeast and only minimal bâtonnage, then aged for twelve months in a mix of new and neutral French oak barrels sized at 350 and 500 liters. Before bottling, the wine spent an additional few months resting in stainless steel, a step that helps sharpen its focus and preserve freshness.

The wine offers aromas of golden apple, nectarine, beeswax, and warm holiday spice, with a savory edge of flint underneath. On the palate it is medium-bodied and silky, layered with ripe stone fruit and a persistent minerality that carries through an unusually long finish. Its richness and structure make it a strong match for roasted pheasant, buttered pasta with truffle, or a wedge of aged Comté.