Torii Mor Pinot Noir Olson Vineyard 2022

The 2022 Olson Vineyard begins with a warm and sweet inviting aroma followed by dark cherries, floral notes of roses and violets, light earthy note, and a hint of black tea. The flavors are bright and sweet displaying a mixture of high tone red fruit and dark cherries, floral notes, hazelnuts ending with sweet oak spiciness and peppery zest. The texture is rich, round, and sweet, the entry is bright and instantly pleasing, the tannins round and sweet and integrated providing great structure and elegance. The finish is very long, graceful, velvety, rich, and spicy. It displays classic Dundee hills character with all the elegance and grace. This wine doesn’t need decanting and can be enjoyed now. Tasted May 3, 2024.

The Vineyard:
Olson Vineyard is Torii Mor's Estate vineyard, located in the Dundee Hills appellation, in Yamhill County, was planted in 1972 and 1983 with 1.5 acre added in 2005 - 2006. The volcanic Jory soil, South-Southeast slope, along with the 825 foot top elevation, produces beautifully balanced, elegant Pinot Noirs. The 9.5 acre vineyard is planted with a massale selection of Pinot noir originated from Eyrie, Erath and Coury vineyards, and later, clones of Pommard, Dijon 667 (some grafted on Chardonnay in 2000), 777 and 114, and also includes one acre of Pinot Gris and half an acre of Draper Chardonnay. Olson Vineyard is LIVE certified.

The 2022 growing season started with an average bud break in early April, following a cold and wet winter with a few snow events. It was a typical cold Oregonian winter. In mid-April turned colder than average with an unreasonably late snow/frost event that damaged some of the buds which led to smaller yields. We had to wait for secondary buds to appear which pushed back the forecasted harvest dates to October. The cold wet spring also amped up the pressure of mildew in the vineyards. After getting off to a less-than-ideal start the growing season flipped to the other extreme with record setting temperatures in July, August and September. Bloom occurred during the warm dry weather flowering went well offsetting some of our previous concerns about the low yield. Expecting an October harvest date led to some worries about underripe fruit, rain, birds, and disease pressure. Those worries all went away with perfect weather late in the summer into October. The grape yields were on the low side with fruit displaying perfect balance of flavors, sugars, and acid. Torii Mor’s harvest started on October 7thth and finished on October 26th.

Harvested October 17th at 22.8 to 25 Brix, the fruit was handpicked, sorted, destemmed, then fermented without cold soak, in wood tanks and small 1.5-ton bins for 19 to 23 days, with RB2, Barolo 97, and 3001 yeasts, and punched down 3 times a day. The wine was aged for 17 months, the first 10 months in 27.7% new French oak, the balance neutral oak. The barrels were racked in August when the blend was put together before returning to neutral barrels until bottling.

The name ‘Torii Mor’ is an integration of the Japanese the word for a gate to sacred place and the ancient Scandinavian word ‘Mor’ which means: "earth."  By integrating these two distinct languages, the metaphor of the vine as a sacred gate to the earth through which beautiful things come is formed.  Perhaps no other varietal expresses the sense of place from which it comes more elegantly than Pinot Noir, and Torrii Mor’s Pinot Noirs are carefully crafted with minimal handling and native yeast fermentation to express what the earth offers in the most nonintrusive and purest style possible.
Torii Mor views wine, especially Pinot noir, is a priceless, non-reproducible work of art created by the cooperation of people with nature and people with each other.  It is both art and a story to be enjoyed with family and friends.  We think that you will agree.