Bethel Heights Casteel Chardonnay 2017
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Robert
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James
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Casteel Chardonnay exemplifies this as much or more than any Chardonnay in their portfolio, providing both the tension their site provides so well but also the generosity of a warm vintage.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Casteel is scented of yellow peaches, quince paste, jasmine, spring honey and hazelnuts with hints of lime peel and crushed stone. Medium-bodied and silky, the palate is tensile and energetic, with tangy acidity to oppose the luscious texture and ripe fruits, finishing very long and layered. This is so classy—effortlessly traversing the tightrope of ripeness and precision. Yes!
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Wine Enthusiast
This barrel-fermented reserve has a spicy mix of aromas, with hints of mint and menthol, along with cedar plank notes from the barrels. It needs aggressive decanting if you plan to drink it soon, so that those barrel flavors are fully integrated. But when put all together with the lush mix of stone fruits and balancing acids, this is a deep, dense, splendid example of top-tier Oregon Chardonnay.
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James Suckling
There’s a wealth of complexity and impressive, concentrated fruit here. Aromas of pears and baked apples, as well as lime, lead to a palate with smooth and alluringly fleshy build and concentrated, melon and spiced-pear flavors. So smooth and impressively long. Drink over the next five years.
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Wine Spectator
Plush and vibrant with baked pear, lemon and stony mineral tones that gain richness on a long finish.
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United by our interest in wine, in 1977 Ted Casteel, Pat Dudley, Terry Casteel, and Marilyn Webb abandoned the academic life and, together with Pat’s sister Barbara Dudley, bought 75 promising-looking acres northwest of Salem, with 14 acres of newly planted cuttings in the ground. We moved to the vineyard in 1978 (except Barbara, who was in California working as a lawyer for farmworkers with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board) and started a new life. In 1979 we cleared and planted 36 more acres. In 1981 we harvested our first crop and started home winemaking in Terry’s basement. In 1984 we produced our first commercial vintage of 3000 cases: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Gewurztraminer, all Estate Grown.
For the first thirty years Ted was responsible for managing the vineyards and Terry made the wine. Pat and Marilyn shared responsibilities for marketing and business management. Over thirty years we grew our wine production to 10,000 cases, and made common cause with our fellow pioneers to establish the Willamette Valley as the home of New World Pinot Noir.
Meanwhile, five cousins grew up knowing the tidy rows and wild hidden places of Bethel Heights as their backyard playground, science lab and adventure park. Now they have taken their places as co-owners, co-workers, and stewards of this place.
In 2005 Ben Casteel (son of Terry and Marilyn) took over from his father as Winemaker at Bethel Heights. In 2007 Jon Casteel (second son of Terry and Marilyn) launched Casteel Custom Bottling, a mobile bottling company that serves wineries throughout Oregon, including Bethel Heights of course. Mimi Casteel (daughter of Ted and Pat) worked with the family at Bethel Heights until 2017 when she started farming her own vineyard at Hope Well, and launched her Hope Well Wine project. Jessie Casteel grew up among the vines at Bethel Heights, but now lives in Chicago. Jessie brings a creative outlier perspective to the direction of the family business, and serves as our ambassador in Chicago and points east.
Now there is a new generation of cousins – ten so far – who all come home to Bethel Heights for family occasions, to eat the blackberries and taste the grapes and pat the goats and walk through the ravine to Mr. Hatcher’s haunted house. This place is now for them too.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.