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White wine style for red wine grape a rarity By Paula Bandy Dec 07, 2022 12:15 AM A A Hummingbird Estate sits on a hill outside of Jacksonville with a view of the Rogue Valley. At night, the city lights of Medford shimmer across the horizon. On an autumn night with the flames of warming fire pits, it feels like a kind of La La Land with dancing and light. Their in-house kitchen offers a menu of delicious soups, platters and an olive oil-drenched French bread that you didn’t know would change your life. They also make a rarity of a wine that you didn’t know you needed: white pinot noir. It’s a rarity not just in Oregon, but globally. Meghann Walk, general manager, says, “I’ve had people veer off the interstate because they realized they were passing Medford and remembered a year before having stayed with us and having the white pinot.” White pinot is golden. A deliciously rich, versatile wine, with zesty texture and notes of ginger and brioche, ripe apricot and pear. A white wine both delicate and complex. Much like the landscape of Hummingbird Estate, white pinot noir is rather beguiling and requires a bit of history. Built in the golden era of 1926 and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the 47-acre estate has gone from pear orchards to vineyards, offers a five-suite bed-and-breakfast and is a sister business to Hummingbird Farm in Neoga, Illinois. Intriguing to me is the farm in central Illinois, owned by Susan and Ed Walk, is less than an hour away from where I was born and raised in Paris, Illinois. This is their second vintage of making red pinot noir grapes in a white style. The palette has matured, deepened and grown in both aromatics and viscosity. The color is a lovely, translucent pale copper. The making of this white pinot is intentional and well-planned. Chris Graves, winemaker, explains, “For a white pinot, the grapes are picked earlier than for pinot noir. Less color-developed, bit toward the greener side, higher acidity, which gives the tang and bright acidity that we love. Lower sugar, lower alcohol and all the chemistry of a crisp white wine.” A while back, there was an article heralding making white pinot from smoke-tainted grapes. This may have some merit, as the smoke taint generally stays within the skins, so by removing the skins you theoretically remove the smoke residue. Yet this article cast white pinot as a “what to do if you can’t do anything else wine” which devalues the versatility and specialty of this highly palatable varietal. “I think that’s kinda sad,” says Graves. Hummingbird Estate sees this white wine through a non-smoked glass. “At Hummingbird, it is spare no expense,” says Graves. “We are really trying to make a special white pinot.” They’ve expanded their white pinot program from two clones to four to compare the different nuances of the grapes. Graves says he uses a combination of neutral French oak and steel. “We’re not looking for oak flavor or texture,” he continues, “Steel keeps it crisp and clean, but I like the richer, rounder mouthfeel from barrel fermentation. Then we blend together.” The plan is to have a clean, fresh wine. It’s in barrels five to six months, then quickly bottled to lock in freshness. Along with this freshness comes a kind of alchemy. “I use different yeast strains isolated from different parts of the world,” Graves explains. “They promote more aromatics, specifically, fruity, fresh, floral aromatics. So between the different clones and fermentation vessels, we also have the different yeasts in the mix, which give us more complexity and more interesting wine.” From a rare wine, to the elegant house and Rogue Valley view, Hummingbird Estate truly is a place like no other. Reach Paula Bandy at [email protected] and connect with her on Instagram at @pbthroughthegrapevine