Rare wine grape thrives in an unexpected place

Say hello to a surprising find – this Piemontese white grape was nearly extinct in the 1970s and we found it in Oregon. Join Wine Folly Club – https://wfol.ly/club

This month, we featured the 2022 vintage of Limited Addition Arneis from the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
Hear from the winemakers themselves and get a full geek out from Master of Wine, Christine Marsiglio.

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wow do I have a very special wine for you today it’s made from a grape that almost went extinct in the 1970s but we find it in a very unusual place today let’s get stuck in to Wine Folly Club hello and welcome in front of us we have quite a unique wine to be tasting today this uh is a grape that is originally from piemont Italy and was nearly extinct in the 1970s and because of the work of two producers in in Italy uh including one of one that we’ve featured in the past Viti they’ve brought this great back from near Extinction and now it’s growing in Oregon of all places and that’s exactly where this wine is from it’s coming from the lamit valley of Oregon and it’s being produced by limited edition so this is the 2022 vintage limited edition arus that’s the gra variety and uh the producer who is making it I’m pretty impressed the the makers include Bree stock who is a master of wine and a longtime advocate of Oregon viticultural potential so let’s hear from them hi there we are Bri and Chad stock from limited edition Wines in Oregon vam Valley yes we are we are excited to be part of the Wine Folly club for May and sharing out our from here in the North wamit Valley uh I why name Limited Edition comes from our wine philosophy and Ethos that we don’t add anything uh to our Wines in the cellar and that we work with organic farmers and Growers uh and when possible old Vines to create um really beautiful farmed natural beverages uh the Ares is from the Ponzi Aurora Vineyard which was brought into the wamit valley in the early 1980s and this arnes is much like its Italian relative um lots of Orchard fruit flavors uh really aromatic white blossoms and we like to ferment this in Chestnut barrels as well which gives it a really nice uh almond bitterness which is similar to How It’s Made and how it presents uh from pimonte in Italy where the grape calls home so we love this wine we hope you love it as well please enjoy and thank you wine FY and the winey wine club for your support Cheers Cheers hey everyone so let’s discuss a bit more about this wine and where it’s from and as always don’t forget to scan that barcode for more information so we’re talking about our our Nace and this wine comes from uh the wamt valley in Oregon and Oregon is actually much cooler than its uh better known neighbor to the South California H and it’s a perfect place for growing grapes that don’t actually need that much heat to ripen so like P Noir for example and uh the wamt valley is actually Oregon’s largest and most visited wine growing region and it actually has 11 sub avas and it’s one of the coolest and wetest areas in the state but it does have really quite warm and dry Summers and because of its Northerly latitude it actually has extra daylight hours during the growing season which allow for really perfect ripening of grapes during the growing season and the particular area within the wamit valley where this wine is from is called the Aurora Vineyard and that sits within the Laurel Wood District which is actually a very new Ava it was only approved in 2020 and it’s actually located within the chalum mountains Ava and it includes more than 70 wineries uh sorry 70 Vineyards and 25 wineries in total so you can see it’s just at the the northern section of the willamet valley there now the lur wood district is quite cool compared to other regions within the wamt and that’s because of its elevation it kind of receives morning sunshine it doesn’t face West it face Northeast and it also has some of the highest elevation Vineyards within the willite valley sitting at around, 1600 ft it also has some unique soils called Laurel Wood soils which are 15 million years old it has a base kind of Bedrock that’s over 15 million years old and on top of that Bedrock we have uh Lo soils which are wind blown soils and these wind blown low soils um can give kind of elevated aromatics to the wine and then of course we have the grape arace and arace has quite a story uh it’s actually a a grape from piamonte and it nearly went extinct uh in the 1970s uh but then there were two producers including Vietti who decided not to pull out this grape and replace it with the much more popular nebiolo grape which is used in bro H and they decided to kind of continue growing it and trying to make really great wine out of it and that continues today now this variety was actually given to the Ponzi family here in will AMT by the Vietti family uh in the early 1980s after the families had visited each other in their homes of bro in and in the jahala mountains here in Oregon it’s a really quite kind of unique story about this particular Variety in this wine now there’s a nice nuttiness that comes from aging uh in Chestnut barrels which are quite different from Oak barrels Chestnut is much more porous than oak and therefore it lets in a little bit more oxygen over time meaning we’re going to have these more nutty flavors and perhaps a deeper color as well you’re also going to find some subtle herbal and floral notes and that’s from the elevation that these grapes are grown at but also from the grape itself and AR is actually one of Italy’s lower acid grape varieties which means means you can definitely have this with or without food as well all right it’s time to taste with meline so get ready to get your glass ready cheers all right it’s tasting time take a moment to try to identify before tasting this wine five flavors at least five flavors and write them down and we’ll get started into tasting and talking about what we’re getting in this glass right here so on the nose I really get get this nice lemonade apple skin almost like baked apple note with a little bit of herbal I like to call out pepperoncini is my herbal character it’s like a pickled pepper and a little bit of raw almond and then if you really smell it and kind of back out of the glass it’s ripe fruit so maybe pineapple so citrusy pineapple Appley lemonade uh those are notes coming from the grape variety this is an Aras and this is AR Naas produced in maybe ripe style it’s lots of plenty of Sun coming in during the growing season in Oregon even though it has full seasons in this climate here but we’re getting proper amount of ripeness here that note of of almonds or raw almonds if you heard from the wine makers that’s coming from the use of chestnut barrels aging and Chestnut barrels can help add a unique flavor to the wine and you get that on a lot of Italian white wines and I love that um the wine makers here in Oregon are actually using Chestnut barrels it’s actually very rare to find that uh so they must have found some Chestnut barrels from Italy to bring in to produce this wine fantastic um let’s give it a taste on the palette what I like about this wine is it puts all its fruit right up front we’re really tasting an explosion of fruit of front a really good mid pallet with acidity although the acidity isn’t super high in AR naus it still has enough to carry it through to the end of the palette this is a richer white wine in that respect so fantastic wine fantastic choice uh this month and uh just if this wine was interesting to you there might be a couple of others that you would also like so if uh this this like raw almond note and you’re interested in more Italian varieties I have a couple of other recommendations I love gargan from Italy wow uh gargan is a great variety but a region that you might look for is called Suave that’s a great another find another one with more of this like explos of fruit that you get on the palette and a little bit of that raw almond gretto gretto is a great variety it grows in Tuscany and um across the I think in latzio like across that’s like right on the border in latzio you can find some incredible gretto wines and another one to look out for is vermin Tino so again I hope you enjoy this uh a little Oregon Italian connection this month and until next time happy tasting if you enjoyed learning while tasting check out this next learn by tasting video and if you’d like to taste along be sure to join Wine Folly Club to get wines like this delivered to your door until next time happy tasting peace out