2024 St. Innocent - Pinot Blanc Freedom Hill (750ml)

St. Innocent is named for Mark Vlossak’s father, John Innocent Vlossak, a wine importer who was born on All Innocents’ Day and started talking wine with his son when Mark was about seven. Mark came to Oregon to work in pediatrics. In 1983 a magazine article on American sparkling wine pulled him toward winemaking, and he spent the next five years apprenticing with Oregon pioneer Fred Arterberry. He founded St. Innocent in Salem in 1988 and left medicine in 1998 to make wine full time. Today he’s one of Oregon’s leading champions of Pinot Blanc.

Vlossak has made Pinot Blanc from Freedom Hill Vineyard since 1997. The vineyard sits in the Coast Range foothills about 10 miles southwest of Salem, in the Mount Pisgah AVA, on old marine sedimentary soils. The Pinot Blanc vines were planted in 1993 on southwest-facing slopes at 520 to 580 feet. Warm days ripen the fruit and cool ocean breezes at night preserve its acidity. The 2024 season started with two April frosts after budbreak. About a quarter of the wine fermented in an acacia cask and the rest in stainless steel, and it then aged eight months on its lees.

The wine offers peach and green papaya with nutty undertones over a firm mineral core. It’s rich and fleshy, with a long, poised finish and just a touch of sweetness. Serve it with roasted squash, root vegetables or goat cheese.