Cameron sources red grapes from 4 vineyards, two in the Dundee Hills, two in the Ribbon Ridge AVA. Each exhibits quite unique terroir and therefore, depending on your taste, preferences can vary significantly. All of the wines are fermented with the indigenous yeasts in open top tanks in which beautiful women immerse their nude bodies in the warm must to keep things exciting in the cellar. The resulting wines are aged for nearly 2 years in a mixture of French oak barrels varying from new to completely neutral and bottled without filtration.
Abbey Ridge Pinot Noir Year after year Abbey Ridge produces some of the best Pinot noir in Oregon. It is not the richest or the ripest but it is clearly one of the most elegant sites in the state. Most vintages cast forth an initial fragrance of rose petals followed by lavender and rosemary (note that the Chardonnay from the same block has similar scents…terroir is real!). Abbey Ridge always starts subtly in the front of the mouth and builds to a crescendo on the far back of the palate. A small portion of Abbey Ridge (1 acre) is planted with the fabled Martin Ray clones of Pinot noir. Fruit from this block is fermented separately in a small batch. When it produces something truly outstanding, we bottle it separately, its eponym Julia after Abbey Ridge’s Julia Wayne.
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Arley’s Leap Pinot Noir Named after Bill & Julia Wayne’s beloved dog, this block of grapes is located at the highest point within Abbey Ridge Vineyard. Composed of a handful of old red burgundy clones, grapes from this 25 year old section are typically the very last Pinot noir to be harvested in the Dundee Hills. The resulting wines therefore tend to have relatively high acidity and old world aromatics such as cigar box, tar and black cherry.
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Clos Electrique Rouge The estate vineyard consists of at least 15 different clones of Pinot noir on a mere 2 acres (less than 1 hectare) of land. The yields are always very small averaging between 1 and 2 tons per acre (that is less than 25 hl/hectar). This wine is typically gnarly and intense, changing constantly in the glass and has fooled many wine-lovers into declaring it to be an old world wine. Part of our Clos Electrique vineyard is composed of vines collected almost 40 years ago from Martin Ray’s fabled massale near Saratoga, California. This mixture of clones has been responsible for some of the greatest vineyards in California. On rare occasions, we produce Massale, an extremely limited production of Pinot noir made exclusively from those vines.
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Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir Fruit for this wine is sourced from White Oak Vineyard in the Ribbon Ridge AVA. White Oak Vineyard was planted in 2006 and is lovingly tended by famed cider apple grower Alan Foster. Fruit from Ribbon Ridge is always intense with loads of structure in the wine. Part of this vineyard has been planted with Martin Ray clones which go into a separate bottling of White Oak Pinot noir.
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Nebbiolo The original Cameron Nebbiolo was planted in Clos Electrique in 1993 and expanded in 2000. Because the soil at White Oak Vineyard is so reminiscent of Montforte in the Barolo area of Piedmont, Italy, John convinced Alan Foster to plant Nebbiolo here in 2006 and Ribbon Ridge Nebbiolo is now included in our blend. Because this grape requires a great deal of aging in both barrique and bottle, these wines are always considerably older at release than our Pinot noirs.
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Supernatural This light red wine is vinified from late harvest Pinot gris that is fermented for 1 month in amphora, then aged in neutral barrels for 2 years.