2015 Lingua Franca
Dominique Lafon and Larry Stone Come Out Swinging!
It’s hard to avoid comparing Lingua Franca to Evening Land, so I’m not going to avoid it. After all, Larry Stone, well-known Master Sommelier and former GM of Evening Land is a lead in the project. And, Burgundian winemaker extraordinaire Dominique Lafon is now the executive winemaker – just like he was at Evening Land during their heady, early days of standing Oregon wine on its head (particularly with chardonnay). Thomas Savry is the boots-on-the-ground winemaker, fresh off his assistant stint at Evening Land. And the big, soaring, artfully minimalist winery and the not-yet-producing estate vineyard are located exactly next door to Evening Land’s Seven Springs Vineyard . . . from which Lingua Franca buys fruit.
There the comparison halts, however. Lafon and Savry have crafted some beautifully focused, taut and tension-filled pinot noirs that use tannins in a manner that few in Oregon achieve — and that are quite distinct from recent Evening Land products. Rather than softer, deeply extracted wines that glow from the toasted oak, these pinots display their relative elegance and fine
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Larry Stone |
structure as a badge of honor and distinction. The grapes are picked earlier than most, to preserve structure and to avoid excess alcohol. The very common procedure of a cold soak before fermentation – a technique to gain aqueous extraction of color and aroma elements from the skins – is stringently avoided. The wines are aged in French oak, of course, but never more than medium-plus toast – and on the palate, the structure of the wines absorbs that oak easily, resulting in wines that have a sense of purity.
As a group the wines respond well now to decanting, and to vigorous swirling
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Dominique Lafon |
in the glass, and to assertive oxygenation in the mouth, to bring out the aromatic compounds. They smell
as good as they taste, but you’ve got to work them a bit to develop the inner-mouth aromatics at this young stage. A couple of the bottlings are approachable now, while the more expensive offerings are poised to do well in the cellar – and in fact really need a bit of time.
The 2015 wines are all blended from 25 different lots purchased from notable vineyards – the Estate vineyard is not yet in commercial production. The product mix is weighted towards the affordable and approachable Avni label, which includes a pinot noir and a chardonnay. The upper tier pinots, which feature whimsical names that relate directly to people connected to the winery, are made in diminishingly small amounts. A notable upper tier chardonnay and a saliva-inducing rose round out the wine lineup, which totaled about 4,000 cases for the 2015 vintage.
This is a strong lineup of wines that display uncommon style and refinement, red and white. It’s an opening salvo that has already drawn critical favor. If this were the stock market, I would initiate coverage with a “strong buy” recommendation.
Get the 2015 Lingua Franca wines HERE
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The Wines of Lingua Franca
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