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“To me, a great wine should be true to place and style, wildly complex, deeply contemplative, and thought-provoking.” - Erik Kramer, Winemaker
When Winemaker Erik Kramer arrived at WillaKenzie Estate in 2017, he set about laying the groundwork to create a wine that could demonstrate the Estate’s immense potential. How could he translate the property’s diverse elevations, slopes, soils, and microclimates through a wine? How could he create an experience that would stop the beholder in his or her tracks? Blend a wine so exceptional that the act of drinking it would transcend knowing which varietal it is? The answer to these questions was La Crête.
The Essence of La Crête
French for crest, La Crête is WillaKenzie Estate’s pinnacle expression of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. While many of the world’s top wines are barrel selections, La Crête is both a barrel and a vine selection. It begins with carefully choosing blocks in the vineyard, fermenting each individual lot, and then engaging in iterative blending over the course of a year to create the final wine. “To make a great wine,” Erik says, “it needs to come from a great place. Great wines should be grown and then very respectfully shepherded through the winemaking process with utmost respect for nature.” The first release of La Crête involved a Chardonnay from the 2019 vintage and a Pinot Noir from 2018.
Like vintage Champagne, La Crête is only produced in years that Erik feels the conditions are strong enough to produce a wine deserving of the La Crête label.
What Makes a Wine Worth Bottling as La Crête?
Though Erik admits the definition of greatness is subjective, he believes a great wine should have at least five qualities.
1) Transcendence
“For me,” he explains, “great wines seem to transcend variety…I’m not thinking about Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, or Nebbiolo anymore. The wine has simply caused me to stop and think about the sensory experience.”
2) Pause-Inducing Attributes
The wine must be complex and compelling enough to induce a moment of reflection, causing the person to ask ‘What’s in my glass?’
3) Elusiveness
Erik notes that while some great wines reveal themselves immediately, he prefers a wine with a more mysterious style: “Personally, I’m fascinated by wines that are elusive enough to draw me into the glass and say, ‘if you’re willing to give me some attention, I will reveal myself to you.’”
4) Texture and Balance
A great wine has intensity of flavor but is also beautifully refined and seamless. No rough edges exist, there is just an incredible and graceful sensory experience that takes you to a place where the wine was grown. As the wine evolves aromatically in the glass, the experience on the palate can play out like a textural symphony with a beginning, middle, and ending.
5) Length
“Very importantly,” Erik contends, “there should be length. The wine should finish with great persistence—just like a long note that plays out at the end of a great song. The dynamic flavors should linger on my palate long enough for me to remember the wine.”
The Vineyard Origins of La Crête
It bears repeating that La Crête is a vine selection. The potential components of our pinnacle wines are chosen even before they enter the cellar. Viewing himself foremost as a winegrower, Erik spends a great deal of time during the growing season observing the vines. Through these observations, he decides which blocks—and even which vine rows within them—could have potential to provide the fruit for that year’s La Crête.
“If I’m paying attention,” he explains, “either the landscape or the canopy (the above-ground part of the vines) might say something that’s worth listening to. What’s below the ground might influence the grapevine’s behavior, which will then influence the grapes and a wine’s character. So, looking for these relationships plays an important role in finding the best wine on the property.”
Additionally, by using precision viticulture methods, such as evaluating the nutrients in the plant’s tissue, Erik and Leti Catoira, the director of farming, can make slight but impactful adjustments to how the vines are farmed.
It was through careful observations like these that Erik was first able to lay the foundation for La Crête Chardonnay. Noticing clone 828 Pinot Noir was struggling to ripen in Clairière, the Estate's coldest parcel, he worked with the vineyard team to graft four acres to earlier-ripening Chardonnay clones. Similarly, the team has planted three acres of Chardonnay in the cool, fog-influenced Aliette parcel.
Owing to vintage variation, the selection of which vines supply the fruit for La Crête differs every year. “The blends certainly do not need to be the same every year,” Erik says, “nor should they be.”
The Cellar Journey of La Crête
While great wine starts in the vineyard, the cellar must be equipped in a way that allows the winemaker to capture the nuances within the vineyard. The closest word to winemaker in French is chef de cave—which translates literally as head of cellar but which many also figuratively interpret as the head cook in the kitchen.
Just as a great chef uses specific pots to transform high-quality ingredients into different dishes, Erik spearheaded the redesign of WillaKenzie’s cellar to have unique fermentation vessels to capture the essence of each block of each parcel. The 2018-2019 cellar redesign added 40 new tanks to the fermentation space. These tanks allow Erik to isolate the differences he observes, such as different ripening rates, among and within the vineyard blocks.
A Harmony Greater Than Its Parts
After Erik and his team have fermented the fruit from the chosen parcels, they carefully watch the wines evolve in the winery. The blending is an iterative process that can take upwards of a year, testing different assemblages until they feel they have ultimately achieved the finest full expression of the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Two Varieties, One Vision
Now that you know the story behind La Crête, we invite you to taste it for yourself. Our current offerings include the 2021 La Crête Chardonnay and, very soon, the 2022 La Crête Chardonnay and the 2021 La Crête Pinot Noir, which will be released this April.
La Crête Chardonnay is currently sourced from a single parcel, Clairière. Hand-harvested grapes are whole cluster pressed to preserve their purity. The wine is fermented in a combination of new and neutral French oak to impart textural layers and depth.
La Crête Pinot Noir is sourced from multiple parcels that Erik selects based on their potential to create the deepest, most complex expression that vintage. Hand-harvested grapes from each block are fermented separately, spending about three weeks on the skins to extract flavor, tannins, and color. The wine then ages approximately 17 months in barrel prior to blending and bottling without fining or filtration.
Reflecting the best of Oregon Chardonnay and Oregon Pinot Noir, these two expressions are crafted with a single vision: To transcend variety, induce a moment of pause, and reveal themselves slowly. They have textural intrigue, beguiling balance, and a persistent finish. In short, they must reflect the ultimate potential of WillaKenzie Estate.
Please note that La Crête is produced in small quantities and not every year. Consider joining our allocation if you would like guaranteed access to any future release of La Crête. Membership includes exclusive invitations to our Evening with La Crête Soirée—a formal celebration of the newest vintage.
2021 La Crête Chardonnay
- Vineyard Sourcing: 100% Clairière
- Aromas: Exotic and dynamic notes of honey, graham cracker, jasmine, marzipan, and the slightest hint of sweet Thai basil.
- Palate: Powerful, rich, and structured offering beautiful salinity and a very lengthy finish.
- Acclaim
- 94 Points, Erin Brooks, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, July 2024
- 94 Points, Jim Gordon, JamesSuckling.com, March 2024
2022 La Crête Chardonnay
- Vineyard Sourcing: 100% Clairière
- Aromas: Honeysuckle, orange rind, chamomile and fresh orchard fruit.
- Palate: Beautifully balanced and ample palate with wonderful salinity and great length.
2021 La Crête Pinot Noir
- Vineyard Sourcing: 50% Triple Black Slopes, 45% Emery, 5% Aliette
- Aromas: Explosive notes of black raspberry, cocoa powder, rose petal, and hints of minerality.
- Palate: Powerful and structured, while still retaining balance and harmony. The fine and sumptuous tannins extend the length and provide tremendous aging potential.
- Acclaim
- 96 Points, Erin Brooks, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, July 2024
- 96 Points, Jim Gordon, JamesSuckling.com, March 2024
Experience La Crête: From Our Cellar to Yours
We hope knowing all the steps, care, and thought that go into producing a bottle of La Crête elevates your experience even more. We invite you to buy La Crête from our online wine store and join our La Crête allocation for guaranteed access to all future releases. A votre santé!
