This Is It
The heart and soul of Château NoElle.
We have a deep passion for growing wine. Americans call grape-growing winemakers "Wine Growers” and Germans call us "Vine Dressers" while the French call us "Vignerons". Most of our winemaking friends just call us crazy!
Take a look at our progress so far.
In 2015…
The research, planning, soil testing and site preparations began for our “Trial” vineyard here in Snoqualmie. We’re at 800’ of elevation on the west slope of the Cascade foothills at the eastern limits of the Puget Sound AVA on the 47th parallel. Like many of the most renowned wine growing regions of the world, ours is a “cool” climate. As such, we chose Pinot Noir, Zweigelt and Rondo for our red varietals and Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Siegerrebe as the white varietals.
One-year-old dormant bare root vines were planted to wake up with the soil and on Easter Sunday, our “babies” woke up and experienced bud break. All are trained to a Vertical Shoot Positioned trellis to help us manage the canopy for maximum air flow and sun penetration to limit disease pressure and aid in ripening.
In 2017…
We planted our next vineyard block which is three clones of Pinot Noir (the “go to” Dijon clones 115, 667 and 777) along with Auxerrois (delicious cousin to Chardonnay) grown in the Alsace region of France and Iskorka a grape that hails from Russia with a beautiful bouquet and flavor profile similar to Pinot Gris.
We also took over the care of the Hollywood Hill vineyard in Woodinville which is approximately 1 acre planted in 2004. The vineyard has a western aspect with rows oriented north to south with 6’ row spacing and 3’ between vines. Two clones of Pinot Noir (Dijon 667 & 777) make up 2/3’s of the rows and Chardonnay (Dijon clone 76) makes up the balance. The 2017 wines from this vineyard have been well received (Chardonnay sold out) with the Pinot Noir set to make its debut and formally release at Taste Washington in of March 2019.
In 2018…
After two years of establishing the root systems and trunks, we allowed the vines to give us our first small crop. The “Trial” vineyard will yield a few cases of each variety to share in the future with our Connoisseur Club members.
In 2019…
Evaluation of performance of vines planted in 2017, and a small harvest from those vines that are ready to support fruit. With the onset of spring: site prep, trellising installation and another acre of vines added here in Snoqualmie. Approximately 2/3 of an acre will be planted to 4 clones of Pinot Noir: 113 (said to be the most aromatic/finessed of the Dijon clones)115 (to provide backbone & structure), 667 (for spice & pepper) and 777 (to infuse red & dark fruits). The remaining 1/3 of an acre will be planted to Chardonnay – Dijon clones 76 & 95. These clones are lower yielding but, consistently produce some of the most prized cool climate Chardonnay wines around the world.