Notes from the producer:

"Championship Bottle is a winery working in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, inspired by the wines of Friuli in northeast Italy. Oregon’s cool climate and the unique soils of the Willamette Valley allow us to produce (mostly white) wine with texture, bright minerality and elegant acidity."

About the cuvee:

"We love making light, fresh reds—the kind of wines that make you wonder where the rest of the bottle went and seemingly pair with everything. Lusty Little Crushes in the newest incarnation of that paradigm, a co-fermentation of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris that reminds us of bottles from the Loire or Beaujolais in its red fruited, vibrant personality.

The two grapes come from two sites in the Chehalem Mountains that sit on Laurelwood soils. They were harvested a day apart and the wine fermented on the skins until dry, which took twenty-odd days. The source of the Pinot Gris, Dion Vineyard, is LIVE certified, and the Pinot Noir from La Cantera is farmed organically.

As with all our wines, we did not innoculate the fermentation, and about half of the Pinot Noir was fermented as whole clusters, while all of the Pinot Gris was destemmed. After fermentation, the wine aged in neutral oak (both in 500L puncheon and barrel) for ~11 months before bottling unfined and unfiltered."